Their names already strike fear into runners across the state, but Township twins Craig and Brad Miller plan to finish their stellar careers with a flourish.
By Jeffrey Reinhart
Published Apr 03, 2006 14:31
They are best friends.
They are teammates.
And they are rivals — but not by choice.
Just the mention of their names strikes fear in practically every distance runner across the county, the district and the state.
They are Manheim Township seniors Brad and Craig Miller, and when it comes to running long distances — be it cross country or on the track — not many high school kids do that better than the Blue Streaks’ brotherly duo.
And now they want to go out on top.
They have the beefed-up offseason training regimen to prove it.
“We both got really serious about off-season training in the last year,” said Brad, who earned an athletic scholarship to Syracuse, where he’ll run cross country, indoor and outdoor track and study business.
“I was running 45-to-50 miles a week, and that’s more than I ever did in the off-season before. We both knew we had to do it. All the best runners do high mileage, and we’d never really done that before.
“So we both started running a lot more, and it’s worked out great. I’m faster now than I’ve been at the start of any season.”
Brad is coming off a season in which he won the silver in the 1,600 in the District 3 Meet, and earned a medal in the same event in the State Meet, where he finished fifth overall after winning his preliminary heat.
“I only ran once a week the last two winters,” said Craig, who earned an athletic scholarship to Wisconsin, where he’ll run cross country, plus indoor and outdoor track.
“This winter I ran every day,” said Craig, who is two and a half hours older than Brad. “I got up to 60 miles a week.”
He also survived a major scare.
Last November, just a couple of weeks after Craig capped an awesome cross country season — winning his fourth Lancaster-Lebanon League title, his second District 3 title in a row and his third state title in a row — he suffered a collapsed lung and missed the Northeast Regionals — which meant he couldn’t qualify for the national cross country meet.
Craig suffered the collapsed lung while he was running — but not competing.
A collapsed lung — or pneumothorax — occurs when air gets trapped in the area between your lung and your chest wall.
When that happens, your lung can’t fill up with air.
A collapsed lung quite often happens to healthy people — like Craig, who regularly runs long distances.
“It did hurt a little bit,” Craig said. “I had some trouble breathing.”
He didn’t run for a month and a half while his lung healed.
“It was nice to take a break, actually,” Craig said. “And it motivated me to come back strong for track.”
So look out.
Craig is a guy who re-writes the record books practically every time he runs a race.
He had one of the finest seasons in the history of local track runners last spring:
In the L-L League Meet, he won the 1,600 and the 3,200 — setting league records in both victories.
In the District 3 Meet, he pulled off the distance trifecta — he won the 800, the 1,600 and the 3,200.
And in the State Meet, he won the 1,600, the track event that made him famous.
He also won the state 1,600 and 800 as a sophomore, and he holds the State Meet record in the 1,600 — a 4:09.33
Craig also holds District 3 records in the 1,600 (4:10.78) and 800 (1:53.95).
“I’m not really worried about the past — I’m looking forward,” Craig said. “That stuff is great, but I have some more things I want to do.”
Like being invited to Nationals in June. And breaking his own State Meet 1,600 record, which he missed by two seconds last spring.
He said he might cut back on some events this spring to concentrate on winning that event — and in record time.
So what makes these guys tick?
All distance runners are special athletes, but these guys are a different breed.
“We have a desire to be really good at this … a desire to be the best at it,” Brad said. “I know I don’t like to lose, and I know that if I don’t work hard, I’m going to lose.
“I know a lot of people around here strive to beat us, and I don’t want that to happen.”
“I run to win,” Craig said. “If you run not to lose, you probably will lose. If you run to win, you have that confidence knowing you’re the best out there.
“That’s what drives me, because I don’t want to get beat by someone I know I’m faster than.”
When it comes to distance events, not many kids in these parts are faster than the Miller twins.
And they would like nothing better than to prove that in the coming weeks.
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Questions, comments or story ideas for All in the Family? Please e-mail Jeffrey Reinhart at jreinhart@lnpnews.com
