After No. 5 All-Time Effort In 10,000, Locke Will End Season At Under Armour Track And Field Nationals And Nike Outdoor Nationals

By Ricky Quintana for DyeStat

Becky Holbrook Photo

Lining up for the 10,000 meters at The Ten at JSerra High School in San Juan Capistrano, Calif. on March 28, senior Ethan Locke (Valor Prep, Waco, Texas) had one thing on his mind: breaking Rudy Chapa’s 1976 10,000-meters high school record of 28:32.7. 

“After Nike Cross Nationals, I was talking with my coach (Jerry Snider), and we were working out meets to go to during spring track. He said that if I wanted to do a 10k, there would not be any in Texas, so we’d have to travel elsewhere,” Locke said. “After we decided on the 10,000, he said, ‘I think you can get close to the record, if not break the record.’”

This was heady stuff given Locke had never run a 10,000 meters race on the track before. He was not one to question his coach, so the plan was hatched: he would increase his mileage to 60-65 per week and make adjustments to his workouts to handle the 25-lap race.

“We started training for that in early December. The workouts were similar to what I was doing beforehand, except the volume was increased," Locke said. "So if it was 800s we were doing, I would just double what I would have done for training during cross country and the mile, and the 2-mile in track. There was a little less focus on the speed work and more focus on the mileage because it was going to be a really long and hard race and I needed that endurance.”

One workout he recalls was doing 12 800-meter repeats with “minimal” rest at 2:20 pace. This was an increase from the six repeats he was accustomed to.

“Most of the workouts I did were going to be at 70-second pace, so I would get that pace ingrained so I could run it even if I was tired,” he said. “I would walk 50 meters and jog 50 meters back to the start and start again. So it was just a lot of volume at that pace. "

Locke’s ambitious goal may have seemed far-fetched, but Locke has been running for most of his life and has become one of the best high school distance runners in the country. 

He began running when he was five or six, competing in a 5k road race that his family attended annually.

By the time he reached seventh grade, he was allowed to return to the team and was able to keep up with the varsity. It was after his freshman year of high school that he met Snider, who offered to help him get better.

That was the turning point for him.

“He introduced me to the fact that I should be running 60 miles-ish in preparation for cross country,” said Locke, who had been averaging about 20-30 miles per week. “He gave me a summer training plan with lots of mileage. I started with 20 miles a week and then worked up about five miles added on each week until I reached 60 miles per week. During the cross country season, I dropped it down to 50 miles per week.”

He went from running 17:52 for 5,000 meters cross country to 16:55 between his freshman and sophomore seasons. In track, he went from running 4:54.78 to 4:32.28 in the 1,600 meters and from 10:38.14 to 9:38.16 in the 3,200 meters, winning the TAPPS (Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools) state championship in both. Locke was convinced he was on the right track.

“I had an amazing season, "he said.

His junior cross country season saw another big improvement to 15:12.6, and then in track, he dropped a 4:18.82 and 8:55.99 to win the TAPPS again. Then last June at the Nike Outdoor Nationals, he shocked everyone with a second-place finish in 14:05.06.

“I had won TAPPS in 8:55, and I had a bad race at  RunningLane and ran 8:56. That was okay because I wanted to stay ready for Nike Outdoor Nationals 5,000," Locke said. "My coach told me that for that race, I only had to run three 8:55s, essentially. I was thinking to myself, ‘There is no way I am going to run 14:10. My best 5k in cross country was barely sub 15, and there was no way I was going to drop a minute.’ And (my coach) said, ‘Nope, you are going to do great. You’re going to be amazing.’ ”

Locke’s approach is singular when it comes to running. He doesn’t follow other runners on social media because he doesn’t have any social media, which is by choice. He had no idea who anyone was in the warm-up area before the NON 5,000 meters championship.

“I don’t really follow the high school track stuff, so I had absolutely no idea who was there. I didn’t really care who was there at the time because I was doing my own thing and worrying about my own problems to notice anyone. But looking back, I do remember seeing Corbin Coombs (the eventual champion and sub-four miler) and all those people and thinking, there’s another person.”

NXN champion Charlie Vause led the race with Coombs and others in tow, including Locke. Entering the final mile, the pace began to slow a tad, so Locke struck, taking the lead with three laps to go.

“I was just running the times I needed to run, and then with three laps to go, I’m like, I’m close to winning, and I think I can win," he said. "I tried to win, but ended up getting second by a half a second or something. It was just a really great experience. It was a great feeling to set a goal and then in a short period of time go out there and absolutely destroy the goal and run 14:05.”

Before he went to Oregon, Locke had been emailing college coaches without getting many responses. When he got home, he checked his e-mail.

“I’d been talking to a lot of colleges and trying to get their attention and let them know that I was interested in running in college, but I wasn’t getting much feedback. Before I left for Oregon, I let them know I was going to run Nike Outdoor Nationals 5k and that my goal was to run 14:10. I didn’t check my email until I got home. When I did, there were 15 emails from all the coaches I had emailed,” Locke said.

He committed and eventually signed with the University of Alabama. 

This past cross country season didn’t go as well as he would have liked. He had a great race at NXR. He was 34th at the 1k and worked his way to place third in 14:44.4 to advance to NXN in Portland. There, his slow start cost him. He was 99th at the first kilometer, moved up to 38th at 2k and finished 13th in 15:22.9. 

“At NXN, I thought I could be top five and maybe win if the conditions were right," he said. "From the start, it was not good. I got boxed in pretty quickly and then spent much of the rest of the race trying to fight my way through the packs of people. Obviously, it was muddy, so that didn’t help trying to navigate around people and things like that.”

At the Ten, the organizers set the pace lights to the high school record for Locke. He was ahead of the 70-second pace he had trained at and hit 3,200 meters in 9:08.66 and the 5,000 meters in approximately 14:19.6. Then the pace slipped above the 70-second mark, and he finished in 29:09.38 to move to No. 5 all-time, just ahead of Galen Rupp’s 29:09.56.

“The 70 (second) pace was a little slower than what I usually run for two miles, so it didn’t feel super hard. I knew that there were going to be guys around me to help pull me to a really good time, which was really helpful. The first two miles were pretty easy and weren’t too bad. After two miles, it started to get really hard, and I started to notice a decline," he said. "With about a mile to go, I really wasn’t feeling good and was not enjoying myself. At that point, I really was just staying with whoever I could stay with just to keep going.”

When he crossed the line, he was disappointed. By three miles, he knew he wasn’t on pace because the pacing lights were about 100 meters ahead of him. However, as word spread about the high schooler and the historical significance of his race, he began to feel better about his performance.

“I knew I wasn’t going to get the record crossing the line, so I was disappointed that I didn’t do what I set out to do. Then, as people were checking the time compared to the all-time list, I was glad to know that I was at least top five,” he said.

At his TAPPS 2A Championship over the weekend, he won the 800/1,600/3,200 triple to help his team finish fourth.

Next, Locke will compete in the 3,200 meters at the Under Armor Track and Field Nationals at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla. on May 31, before traveling to the Nike Outdoor Nationals to compete in the 2-mile on June 18.

Then he’ll turn his focus to competing for the Crimson Tide, where he will have training partners for the first time.

“I’m just looking forward to getting to meet and run with guys on the team who are of equal caliber, where I am not alone," Locke said. "They’ll do all the things like I do and understand the amount of work it takes to get where I am right now because not many people that I talk to understand.”