A Runner to Remember

Victor Gras had the crowd on its feet for one final time.

A Belmont High School senior in the spring of 2004, Gras had amazed the masses at Holyoke High School with his raw speed and unrelenting endurance, his mental toughness and perseverance. Like any showman, he had saved his best for last, capturing his seventh individual state title in his last meet with a state-meet record time of  4 minutes, 5.14 seconds in the mile.

"I remember being so confident, so confident," Gras, now a 24-year-old graduate student at the University of Texas, said recently. "I remember waking up that day and not being worried at all. I just knew that I was going to get it done."

A few months before, he had bumped into the previous record holder, Andy Powell, on a recruiting trip to Stanford University and had one friendly message for the former Oliver Ames standout, "Watch out for your record in June."

Gras, considered to be one of the best athletes in school history, was formally inducted into the Belmont Athletic Hall of Fame in a ceremony at the Oakley Country Club in Watertown earlier in May. He joins six other inductees in the class of 2010, his first year of hall eligibility.

His record-setting time, which made him the second fastest high school miler in the nation that year, was just the final garnish on an exquisite campaign. It capped off a career locally that saw him capture every school record, indoors and outdoors, from the 600-meter to the 2-mile, where he ran a blistering 8:52.05. That previous winter, he had run the fifth fastest high school indoor 800-meter ever in 1:51.73 and the fastest high school 1,000-meter time of the year, 2:26.17.

In the following weeks, at open meets, the Parisian-born Gras set a personal best in the 800-meter, 1:50.78, and qualified to represent France at the World Junior Championships with a 3:45.19 1,500-meter, roughly the equivalent of a 4:03 mile. He also placed second in the mile at high school nationals, earning him his fourth All-America honors.

He had already accepted a full scholarship to run at the University of Michigan, which boasts one of the nation's top middle-distance programs. The coveted 4-minute mile seemed well within reach, the possibilities limitless, according to his high school coach Bill Brotchie.

"Usually runners get to a point where they plateau," said Brotchie, who still coaches Belmont track, "but the amazing thing about [Gras] was that every time he ran in a big race, he always shaved off a few more seconds. There was no real plateau."

However, Gras would soon find the flat on top of his remarkable ascent. The record-setting, state-meet mile remains the fastest of his career, his progression cut short by injuries and over-training.

"I went to Michigan thinking it would be awesome, it would be great," he recalled, "but then I got there and ran myself into the ground."

The carefree confidence he felt that June day as a high school senior had vanished.

"I never fully got back into that rhythm, ever again," he admitted.

***

My last memory of Gras is blurry, and somewhat painful.

When Gras was breaking records at Belmont, I was having a modicum of success running for Lexington High School in the same league.

Gras had an aura. He spoke with a thick-French accent and sometimes warmed up with a scarf. He never seemed nervous and would even engage in friendly conversations with competitors before races. In his senior year, Gras would actually collapse during the state cross-country championships due to an iron deficiency in the blood known as anemia but get up and take the title.

By the time Gras was a junior, my senior year, Newton North standout Chris Barnicle was the only runner in the state who had a chance at beating him. However, with Belmont coming to Lexington for one of my last home meets, I was somehow convinced that I could take him down in the 800-meter.

I went out fast from the gun and held the lead for the first lap. At the start of the second, and final lap, he took the lead, but I passed him right back. On the home straightaway, I was done. He passed me with the effortlessness of a gazelle, his maroon jersey fading ahead.

"He had such a great, smooth stride," Brotchie said. "It just looked like he could go on forever."

At the time, I assumed that Gras' greatness was the sole product of his natural ability, but I would later learn that it took seasons of sacrifice and a unique set of circumstances to cultivate.

***

The Gras family moved from Paris to Belmont when Victor, the oldest of four siblings, was in eighth grade. Gras attended a French-American school in Cambridge before matriculating to Belmont High School as a freshman. He barely spoke English then, the adjustment was tough.

"Running was really my only outlet," he said. "I used it to get accepted. It was my way of making friends and earning respect."

After a solid freshman year, Gras went to a summer running camp at Dartmouth College, where he first saw what it took to be great. "I came back that fall and told Brotchie, 'I really want to be good, let's get after it,'" Gras recalled, "and he said, 'You really want in? Let's do it.'"

Despite achieving vast individual success, Gras, a team captain, never separated himself from his teammates. In fact, if you ask him about his high school career, the first race he points to is a 4x400 meter relay at that record-setting state meet where his team did not even place but ran a solid time, together.

"I got to run with Jimmy Siracusa, Keith Ma and Bo Tao," he said, "who, along with Brandon Cunningham, ran with me all four years. When I was a freshman and I didn't know anything about high school, they taught me about America and helped me with my English on bus rides to cross-country meets."

At the collegiate level, Gras was in for a similar adjustment.

***

When Gras arrived on Michigan's Ann Arbor campus in the fall of 2004, he entered a hypercompetitive atmosphere where teammates hammered rest days and raced workouts, teammates with Olympic futures, like Kiwi Nick Willis and Canadians Nate Brannen and Kevin Sullivan. His low mileage, high intensity training was a thing of the past. He wanted to fit in, wanted to impress the coach.

Midway through his first cross-country season, he had to take a medical red-shirt with Achilles tendonitis, his first major injury. The following spring, he came back to run 3:46 in the 1,500-meter five times and qualify for the NCAA regional meet, but Gras, always a harsh self-critic, could not believe he was still slower, although more consistent, than he had been in high school. "Looking back on it now, it was very respectable," he said. "I was one of the best freshmen in the country, but no one was there to put that in perspective."

His sophomore year, he also showed promise. He was second on his cross-country team, which was runner-up at Big Ten championships. In indoor, he began winning races and ran a personal best 3-kilometer in 8:04, roughly the same as a low-8:40 two-mile. However, after qualifying for the mile final at conference championships, he finished fourth in the 3-kilometer but broke a bone in his foot during the race. His season was over.

"I was feeling good about myself, things were coming together and then, 'Bang!' I get hurt again," he said. "It was a slap in the face."

In his junior and senior seasons, he contributed to the team, running a personal best 14:17 5-kilometer, but never lived up to his own expectations. In all, he would have three top-five finishes at Big Ten track championships and two top-20 finishes in cross country.

"It was nothing spectacular," Gras said. "I didn't live up to the hype of my high school career. I just never broke through."

***

Gras, an Academic All American at Michigan, will graduate from the University of Texas with a master's in sports management on May 22.

In his final year of NCAA eligibility, last year, Gras ran personal bests in the 10-kilometer and 5-kilometer for the Longhorns and earned All-Big 12 honors twice. "At Michigan, I lost the fun aspect of running," he said, "but I found it again at Texas. I felt like I started to turn it around, but I just didn't have enough time."

He also helped coach Texas this season.

After graduation, Gras plans to travel to Europe for the summer and begin figuring out a career. As he's grown older, he said he's been able to put his past accomplishments in perspective and not dwell on missed opportunities.

As for that magic he felt in high school, well, he's in no rush to recapture it.

"I'm running for fun right now," he said. "If it comes back, it comes back."