Following in his footsteps

make adjustments. After that, I just wanna race.”

While this season started well for Angel, the summer was challenging as he tried to balance his offseason training with his summer job as a lifeguard at Fort Marcy Complex. He regularly trained in the morning with his teammates, but couldn’t in the evening because his work hours extended into the evening.

Angel supplemented his workouts with swimming in the pool and riding his bicycle about 15 miles a day as he trekked from home to work. If anything, that was almost as good as running 60 to 70 miles per week. Almost, though. “Cross training is always great, but there’s only so much of it you can do,” Angel said. “There’s nothing that supplements running like running. … There were some days, I was putting in overall miles — biking, running and swimming — maybe like 50 miles.”

Gurule concurred with Angel’s assessment, and he didn’t take it easy with Angel when the preseason began in August. Gurule said the first few weeks were brutal for Angel as he adapted to running a greater volume than he did during the summer.

“I don’t think he realized how much time he spent doing other things than just running,” Gurule said with a chuckle. “Once the [preseason] began, he was hurting a little bit, trying to stay up with Eli. I didn’t waver from the schedule that I had put forth in the preseason, so I made him jump into it.”

If anything, Seward has been the best running complement for Angel, who seems to prefer the speed element of his training than the distance part. Seward is the exact opposite. Gurule pointed that out on Wednesday, as the team had an extended workout that lasted about 50 minutes.

“Eli’s going to be loving it, while Justin is not going to like it so much,” Gurule said. “The shorter stuff, it flips around the other way. So it’s a great combo.”

That might be the case, but Angel’s perseverance can’t be understated. That was evident at Española, when he threw up at the 2-mile mark but kept on running after that.

“I just drank water too soon [before the start of the race],” Angel said. “it wasn’t that bad, but felt the throw-up, and I knew that I had to get it out before I really put on the hurt. That way I could finish strong after that.”

It’s just another part of the learning curve every elite runner experiences.

But Angel showed he is a quick learner, and he showed this weekend what it takes to be the leader of the pack.