I’m impressed with recent Lake Catholic graduate Matt Borcas who competed in the Columbus half marathon.
The freshman at Ohio State University got up every morning throughout the summer and prior to class this fall to train for the race.
How impressive is that?
He placed 24th overall out of 3,736 males in 1 hour, 12 minutes, 49 seconds. Overall, he placed 24th out of 9,9931 competitors with an average pace of 5:34 per mile.
“I knew that I wanted to continue running whether or not I was still competing in cross country and track, and thought the Columbus Half-Marathon came at an opportune time,” Borcas said in a recent e-mail.
Borcas gained confidence to run the half marathon after finishing 56:45 at the Perfect 10 Miler in Lyndhurst in August.
“I knew the Columbus Half-Marathon would attract a deep, talented field of athletes that would provide me with the chance to spend much of the race in a pack, something that a smaller-scale road race would not offer,” he said.
This 18-year-old is going to go far in life.
He’s already setting goals and achieving them one at a time.
He credited Coach Erik Schroeder for helping him develop a love of running while at Lake Catholic.
“Early on in my cross country/track career, I would frequently get nervous about the workouts or long runs we had planned,” he said. “Eventually I realized I could hold my own on the team, and started to look forward to these practices because I knew they were instrumental in the improvement process.
"As a result, I am always excited to tackle a new workout or distance.”
This was Borcas’ third half-marathon. In 2009 and 2010, he ran the Cleveland half marathons with times of 1:24 and 1:17, respectively.
This year, he thought he may have gone out too hard running a 16:37 through his 5K and 34:00 through his 10K, so he told himself to focus on “racing the mile at hand and not to worry about the subsequent ones.”
Isn’t that how day-to-day life is?
We tackle problems as they come. We can either take a positive attitude toward our problems or be negative. It's up to us.
We can either finish the day strong or weak, it's up to us.
In Borcas’ case, he’s already learned how to live each day to the fullest.
A handful of half marathons is just the beginning.

-Theresa Neuhoff Audia