Thursday’s Class 4A 3,200-meter run was the culmination of what has been a major change in the last 365 days for Marshalltown distance running.
James Johnson and Preston Johnson represented the Bobcats in the event at the Iowa Co-Ed State Track and Field Championships at Drake Stadium in Des Moines.
Running together for most of the race, they picked off a few stragglers and James finished 19th in 9:45.94, Preston 20th in 9:46.90.
From the outside looking in, the final results don’t jump off the page.
But especially for James, a senior, it reflected a major change in his life that started with the summer running program leading up to the fall cross country season.
“It was like a switch flipped,” James said, “and I knew this is what I wanted to do. I never even wanted to run at college until this cross country season.”
Later that fall, he joined Preston and John Moellers as individual qualifiers for Marshalltown at the state meet in Fort Dodge.
Winter training similarly drove the distance runners into this spring, where both were able to represent the Bobcat jersey once again on a big stage on Thursday.
With that, of course, came nerves.
“There’s been some important races like districts, but this is just a different level of nerve-wracking,” Preston said. “It was definitely nice to have a teammate to run with instead of going out alone in a big pack of people.”
The duo was in the back of the pack for a good chunk of the first few laps, but kicked in for the final 400 with almost matching 1:10 splits to get out of the caboose.
James added about his finish, half-jokingly: “It’s definitely very motivating — I never want to let my teammates beat me, so it gives me a little extra motivation to run faster. But it also makes this experience a lot better having a guy here running with me.”
James has committed to run at Simpson College.
“I was a late bloomer, started my junior year,” James said. “But it’s been a great experience, and I love it here, I love my coaches and all my teammates.”
Marshalltown’s Gatleel Joar will be the third and last Bobcat on the track this week when he runs the 400-meter hurdles final at 6:10 p.m. on Friday.