Whiz Kid: Connor Gralton Off and Running

Connor Gralton, a 13-year-old seventh-grader from Gales Ferry, competed in cross-country at the 2010 USA Track & Field National Championship in December. The honor student placed 15^th overall and earned All-American honors in the competition, which was held in Hoover, Ala.

In the qualifying All-New England regional event for the USATF championship, Connor came in first place. “Last year I came in 15th,” he said. He knew he could do better this year, although earning the top spot was a surprise.  “I thought I’d be in the top four,” he said.

Connor has traveled throughout New England and to Washington D.C. for races. His farthest trip was the 2009 USATF championships in Reno, Nev. After the cross-country trip, which included sleeping on an airport floor after missing a connecting flight, Connor ran the course, and placed in the top half of the pack of some 300 runners.

“It was hilly, and there was the high altitude,” he remembered. “I couldn’t breathe. After the first 200 meters, I was gone. I couldn’t catch my breath,” he said.

Did we mention the eight inches of snow on the ground?

“I guess we bring the snow with us,” said his mom, Tina, who noted that there were also flurries in Hoover, Ala., before and after December’s race. “People always say ‘this never happens.’”

Connor said the terrain at the 2010 championships was a big improvement. “It was a very nice course,” he said. “It guess it was used a lot for cross-country, and the course went around a pond, and under a bridge, and there were little hills built in to the track.”

Connor said he runs every day when the weather’s good – either with the cross-country team at St. Bernard or on his own – usually completing some three to five miles. When he’s running an easy course he knows well, Connor said his mind is often elsewhere and his body follows the course almost on its own. On unfamiliar terrain, or in competition, though, he’s always focused on his surroundings, gauging the course and figuring out what the other runners are doing.

Connor’s father Bob runs marathons, and Connor first started running when his mom took up the sport. “I only got into it because my mom started running, but she quit!” he said with a laugh.

Besides running, Connor enjoys playing lacrosse, a sport he started playing in town and continues at St. Bernard. His goals for the future include “doing some marathons.” With his father, perhaps?

“Well,” Connor said, not missing a beat, “faster than him.”