Story By Joe Nuss
Photos by Kristen Boness
The 2009 Chicago Marathon was Victor Ornelas’ second marathon. With a time of 2:26, Victor finished 59th overall in a field of well over 35,000 runners. To some, it would appear that such success in only his second marathon would be indicative of natural ability. But, the marathon isn’t so much a race as it is a story and the miles run are the words runners use to write it. Victor’s success in that race wasn’t written on the streets of Chicago but on hard-packed trails, cinder tracks, and city streets years earlier.
Growing up in Fort Bragg, CA, the son of first generation Americans, Victor started running with a friend so they could become better soccer players. Eventually, Victor was encouraged to join the cross country team where he began to realize the relationship between consistent hard work and success. The values and ideals Victor was learning on the cross country team soon transferred to his class work, as well. Once a 1.5 GPA student, Victor’s hard work earned him not only a 4.0 GPA, but a $10,000 Starr Scholarship from Fort Bragg High School. Later, through academics, Victor earned another $10,000 scholarship, the Presidential Scholarship from Santa Barbara City College, which enabled Victor to continue his education towards a four-year degree at UNC Chapel Hill.
Those scholarships, while based on his work in the classroom, also enabled Victor to continue to develop as a runner outside of the classroom. “If it wasn’t for those scholarships, I would have had to work my way through school and wouldn’t have had time to run,” he added. According to Victor, it was the overall structure of consistent, hard work and dedication that running requires which helped him most. “Running taught me that hard work yields results,” added Victor. “So, everything outside of running, I’ve always approached with the same mindset.”
While Victor continued to excel in school, he earned a spot on the cross country team at UNC Chapel Hill and had moderate success as a runner. But according to Victor, he lacked that same natural ability many of the other runners had. “Some guys can run really fast times on only a few miles a week but I didn’t have those gifts,” he said. Even as Victor ramped up his mileage he was not doing as well as he wanted. In addition, high mileage weeks of 70 or 80 miles eventually caused anemia in Victor.
But, like always, Victor applied the principles of consistent hard work to overcome his anemia and underperformance as a runner. By his senior year, with modifications to his diet and workout, Victor found “his formula” and was soon beating guys who dominated him only a year earlier. While he was excited to see what he could do with another season, Victor was ready to graduate academically and says it just didn’t make sense to stay.
Already working part time for Bobby and Rona Biles, the former owners of Fleet Feet Carrboro, Victor came in contact with Joan Nesbit Mabe who was coaching for the Carrboro Athletic Track Club at the time. With Joan’s help, Victor soon realized what to do with all of the mileage he had stored under his belt at UNC – it was time to tackle the marathon.
After finishing third in his first marathon at the Outer Banks, Victor returned to the distance at Chicago. Consistent hard work, for certain, helped Victor prepare for the race but, even athletes of his caliber have to fight inner demons on race day. As the race wore on, Victor started cramping badly in his legs.
“My calf pains were getting really bad,” said Victor. “But, I just thought about all the people back home who knew I was the first in my family to go to college. I thought about the scholarships I received to make my education and running possible. I thought about all those that have played a huge part in my success: my family, my friends, Fleet Feet Carrboro, the Carrboro Athletic Track Club, Balance Movement Physical Therapy, my college teammates and coaches and especially Saucony for sponsoring me. I knew I couldn’t all those people down just as I knew I couldn’t let myself down. I’ve never let myself down and I never will. This was all running through my head as I was overcoming those cramps. It was gritty, it was painful and it was emotional,” said Victor, “but, that’s what I like about the marathon – you have no choice but to just grit your teeth and go. It’s just like life sometimes.”
