En route to becoming a high school state track champion, patience was something Derek Holdsworth admittedly — and perhaps strategically — did not possess on the racetrack.
“I hate seeing people in front of me when I’m racing,” said Holdsworth, a recent graduate of Lafayette High School.
That aggressive approach is a big reason Holdsworth, who this year won state titles in the indoor 500-meter and outdoor 800-meter races in addition to helping the Rams’ cross-country team capture its first state championship, has burst onto the national track scene and emerged as one of the fastest 800-meter runners in the country.
In the spring, Holdsworth announced he would attend South Plains Junior College in Texas, but his recent success on the national stage has garnered him more attention and provided new potential avenues for continuing his track career. And now that he is competing against some of the top athletes in the world, he is learning patience really is a virtue.
At the New Balance Outdoor Nationals on June 13 in Greensboro, N.C., Holdsworth — true to form — could not bear allowing any of his competitors to pull out in front of him. So he jumped out to an early lead and exerted so much energy to lead most of the race before the other runners caught up during the final 300 meters.
He finished the race in fourth place, but it was still one of the most remarkable performances of his career. Not only did he clock a personal-best time of 1:49.36, but he ran the race with a respiratory infection. He was even on over-the-counter medication he said made him “a little drowsy.”
Fast-forward a week.
Holdsworth was invited to a prestigious invite-only meet in Seattle, the Brooks Invitational, which is where he learned that following, rather than putting everyone else in his rear view from the opening gun, is an effective strategy when competing alongside elite runners.
Instead of taking the early lead like he normally would in high-school races, Holdsworth stayed back and examined how others were pacing themselves. With a late kick, he darted to the front of the pack before crossing the finish line first in 1 minute, 49.98 seconds– nearly two seconds ahead of the next fastest runner.
“He just stuck to plan,” said Drew Mearns, Holdsworth’s trainer and assistant coach at Lafayette.
Mearns is a distance-running expert whose influence in the sport spans worldwide. A national AAU champion in the 3,000-meter, he has more than 50 years of experience in the sport competing. With his law degree from the University of Virginia, he has trained and represented world-famous athletes, including Sebastian Coe, Alberto Salazar and Bill Rogers. He was UVA’s first women’s cross-country coach where he trained All-Americans and also trained his son, Colin, who went on to run at UVA and become a national champion in the mile.
A few years ago Mearns launched the Growing Runners Track Club, which uses a system that focuses on the mental aspect of running.
Holdsworth is a product of that system and credits much of his success on the track, and in life as well, to Mearns’ training.
The patience Mearns has taught him has been most vital. It has helped him succeed on the biggest of stages, but also deal with a future that remains up in the air.
“I thank him all the time,” Holdsworth said of Mearns, who traveled with him to Seattle and will be with him this weekend in Oregon when he competes at the Junior National Outdoor Track and Field Championships. “He’s changed my perspective running and just in life. I’m not sure what I’ll be doing in a couple months – running in college or maybe even professionally – but I’m not worried about it. I’m taking it one race at a time.”
Holdsworth said at this point attending a four-year college is “probably” out of the question, but that junior college may be a destination. Or, if he performs well at the Junior Nationals scheduled for July 5 and 6 in Eugene, Ore., it could open an avenue to run professionally. Training full time for a year is another possibility.
If Holdsworth finishes first or second in this weekend’s race, he qualifies to compete in the World Junior Championships two weeks later, which Mearns says is the ultimate goal.
With the country’s fastest 800-meter runners lined up next to him, Holdsworth said he is going to run the race the same way he did the Brooks PR Invitational in Seattle — patiently.
The way he has been shaving times this year, Holdsworth is fully confident entering this weekend. He’s already begun researching some of his competitors and thinks he may have the quickest foot speed, but knows it will take much more than that to get the results he wants.
“I really think I have the ability to go lower than 1:49, maybe 1:47 or 1:48,” Holdsworth said. “But the goal isn’t to get a low time, it’s to place and that’s where Coach Mearns’ training has really helped.”
Mearns says Holdsworth may need a little more time to mature as both a runner and an individual before exploring a professional career, but he believes whole-heartedly the sky is the limit for a kid as versatile as any he has ever coached.
“He got kind of a late start with competitive running and came in relatively fresh, but has shown steady improvement since day one,” Mearns said. “He’s blessed with sprinter’s speed, he loves to train and hates to lose. He has the potential to go very far.”
