After sprinting as fast as possible and reaching the finish line, he finally breaks the record he’s been working towards all his career. On Sept. 16, Junior Adam Divinity, varsity cross-country runner, broke the three mile record for RUHS at the Woodbridge Cross Country Classic. Previously held by Aaron Thomas at 14 minutes, 38 seconds and 6 milliseconds, Divinity broke the record by less than an eighth of a second, setting a new record of 14 minutes, 38 seconds and 4 milliseconds.
After starting to run in the summer between fifth and sixth grade, Divinity ran his first meet, “All Comers,” at West Torrance with his older sister. Having her run at the same meet inspired him to push himself where his efforts caught the eye of his father. Seeing his son’s potential and ability, his father played a major role in getting Divinity into running and pushing him to be his best.
“He is by far my biggest supporter and ring man, along with being my coach outside of coach Bob. At the start, I was always an athletic kid and my dad wanted me to do something big with sports. He told me after my first race that it was something I could be good at and it could help me out in the future, like getting to college or a professional career,” Divinity said. “I really do love running but this is definitely what got me motivated– the fact that it could be something to lean towards in the future.”
His father not only trained him physically for his running career but also mentally in terms of how to prepare and have the skills to run.
“He would have me wake up at 5 in the morning to run, then when I got home, I would do my push-ups and sit-ups. It was all him building discipline and tolerance in my head. Without him, I honestly don’t think I’d be as good as I am today because he always had me working,” Divinity said.
As he entered into high school, Divinity and his father continuously became more competitive as his physical and mental abilities grew. His teammate and co-captain, senior Kyle Nguyen, saw this growth throughout their two years of knowing each other.
“Running-wise, he’s always been pretty good and it has been really fun to see him go crazy and improve insanely dramatically. As a person, I think he’s improved a lot too. He has gotten a lot more mature and has really stepped up to a leadership position of being a captain,” Nguyen said.
Nguyen has stayed by Divinity’s side as they compete with each other and have stuck through each other’s hardest moments. Nguyen has played a huge role for Divinity in guiding and supporting him as he has flourished.
“We’ve been working hard together all summer, specifically, he was running well above 60 miles per week, sometimes over 70. [I’ve also seen] his confidence go up and down, but as the school record race approached, his confidence was pretty high and he was locked in. He kept his head down, didn’t make excuses or complain and he was ready to perform,” Nguyen said.
With the support of Divinity’s father, coach and teammates, Divinity was motivated to work to grow both his physical and mental abilities during the months leading up to his record-breaking race and in the race itself.
“For the first mile, I got out with a 4-minute and 40-second mile and mentally during the whole race, I was just tugging myself through. I felt horrible physically but at little checkpoints, my coach was telling me to mentally lock in and focus which really helped. But my mentality then was ‘[I am] here for a reason, get it done and run for your boys,’” Divinity said. “Honestly during the last mile, I was just thinking I really [didn’t] want Kyle to beat me. He had beat me the week prior, so I just didn’t want Kyle to pass me and told myself ‘I had to break the school record.’”
Despite the loss against Divinity, Nguyen and his relationship is all about pushing each other to be better along with an admiration they have towards the other.
“I’m really proud of how consistent he is. I really think that’s one of his strongest attributes along with how much he cares and how he puts his running first. He does have his moments of self-doubt where he tries to make excuses for himself but in the future, I’d like to see him really trust in himself. He’s been doing good in terms of being a team player and it has been really cool to see him do that,” Nguyen said.
In the future, Divinity wants a full-time career in running, but is currently motivated by his relationships and perseverance to continue to improve and make accomplishments to grow confidence in himself.
“I’m really happy I got [the record] my junior year because my coach thought I would get it my senior year. I didn’t realize how much it would mean until everyone came up to me the next day congratulating me and it made me feel really awesome,” Divinity said. “To think that I’m the fastest guy to have run three miles in Redondo, it’s crazy that I was the one to break the previous record and I’m the one that’s gonna hold the record for however long. Records are meant to be broken, but it’s nice to know that I was one of the people that was able to do it.”
