Hello all !

My name is Justin Brinkley, and I'm a senior at Kingwood High School in Kingwood, Texas. For those who aren't sure, Kingwood is a suburb on the Northeast side of Houston. Anyway, I'm sure everyone is just as excited as I am that cross country and the fall is here! In fact, my first race is our home meet this Saturday, and I am anxiously anticipating lacing up the spikes for the first time since my track season came to a conclusion in June.

For those of you who don't know me well, I came from a basketball background. I am 6'5", so normally you can pick me out in a field to say the least. I was a big basketball guy up through the summer before my freshman year in high school. I had the opportunity coming into high school to play for one of the best high school basketball coaches in the state and nation at my school, and my experience with AAU and several select summer teams had me excited to develop in high school and hopefully become a D1 NCAA basketball player.

However, during seventh grade, I went out for track because through my elementary days I was typically up front in PE class whenever we would do any sort of running exercises. Surprisingly to myself and my parents, I ran 4:56 in the mile in 7th grade. The next year I was at Creekwood Middle School in Kingwood after my family made a move, and I was fortunate enough to win the Jr. High Invite at the Nike South Invitational, the Texas Jr. High "1600 State Title" at an invitational race that the folks at Brehnam high school put on for us, and run times of 2:04 in the 800, 4:36 in the 1600, and 10:24 for 2 miles. After a few talks with Coach Symons and Coach Gnatzig from the high school, I was convinced to train over the summer with the team and try cross country out, all with the plan to switch to basketball as soon as the season was over.

I did train well that summer, and was able to learn from a few great seniors about the sport, and I started the season off running a 16:06 unexpectedly. Unfortunately, I got sick with a horrible virus and it really took me out of my season. After the disappointment of cross country, I was faced with the option of switching to basketball, which had always been my sport, or training through the winter and trying to reach my goal of a sub-4:20 freshman mile. After Symons helped me understand that the aerobic system of a freshman wouldn't be ready to run that kind of time after no running for three months, I decided to make the permanent switch to running distance, and as many say, the rest is history.

I have completely fallen in love with the sport. I love my training, and I thrive on competition. I am fortunate enough to have a coach that wasn't afraid to throw me to the wolves as a freshman, and the racing techniques that I learned that year have aided me indubitably. Currently, my PR's are 50.2 for 400m, 1:52 for 800m, 4:09 for 1600, 4:06.3 for the full mile, 8:30 for 3000m, and 15:23 for 5000 in cross country. I'm looking to improve these times greatly this year and prepare for the collegiate running scene!

This past year had been a big struggle for me, as it seemed like I'd had many more downs than that of my running friends from around the state and the country. In cross country, I had a severe problem with getting my metabolism to slow down enough to leave me some energy for the long grass races. In most every race, I would hit the 1.5mile to 2 mile mark completely drained, only to be passed by tons of guys that I felt I should be competing well with. Then, towards the middle of my track season, I started feeling similar physical hang ups, with workouts that were traditionally easy becoming very laborious, and losing races that I felt I should be winning by a few seconds. As with all runners, there are many downs. But my parents, coaches and I started to feel like there was something wrong physiologically that was inhibiting my performances at that degree, especially after that dreadful last 200m of the State Meet 1600, in which I only managed a 19.8 last 100 and was passed by two runners.

So, we decided to have some blood work done, and we found out that I have Hypothyroidism, which carries a main symptom of extreme fatigue and lethargy. Since finding this out, I have met with an expert in Dr. Joseph Brown, who is an endocrinologist in Houston (luckily!) who works with several Nike sponsored athletes in the Nike Oregon Project, and who works with Steve Magness, our state record holder in the mile, and who I will be gunning to match and hopefully surpass in times this year! The medicine has me feeling like Justin again, and I'm very optimistic about what I can do this year now that I'm healthy!

Now that I think about it, that was a pretty lengthy background. I apologize! My mom is always on me about making things short, but if some of you are anything like me, and as meticulous as distance runners are about every aspect of their life, you want to know most every detail. But, sorry if it went on a bit too long! Haha

Just some quick info about recent events. I had a great summer starting with World Youth Trials where I got to hangout out with my future Nike Elite Camp friends Darren Fahy and Jacob Burcham, and concluding with our team trip to Red River, New Mexico and Nike Elite Camp itself, which was one of the greatest and most beneficial experiences I've ever had. Training has gone great since then, as I have upped the volume and intensity, and since starting workouts about 3 weeks ago, everything has gone great. I'm antsy to get out and test out my fitness in the approaching weeks, while still balancing the last year of high school and taking a full load of 5 college visits!

I hope everyone is enjoying the year so far, and that this year presents all of us with opportunities to develop the God-given talents we have!

God Bless!

Editor's Note- Justin will be keeping a blog for us this cross country season so be sure to follow him during the course of the season. 

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