By Katie McGregor, Aberdeen High School Intern
If you say the name Kyle Hurd anywhere around the local running world, the first thing that comes to mind is speed. But if you focus on how fast Kyle can run (and he runs very, very fast), you would be missing most of who he is.
I have known Kyle for a long time, so I am sort of used to him. Not that that makes him less impressive, it’s just that time takes a bit of the edge off of amazing.
I’ll get to the running, but first let’s get a few of the basics out of the way. If I had to choose one word to describe Kyle, that word would be “focused.” Very focused. And for those of you who don’t know him yet, Kyle is smart. Straight A smart. But more importantly, Kyle has a love of music and is a very talented musician.
Many people who know Kyle for his running don’t realize that he’s just as talented of a musician as he is a runner, especially on the guitar. And the French horn. And the drums. And recently now the mandolin. Not only has he been playing the guitar since third grade, but he also played the trumpet in fifth grade, later switching to the French horn. He currently plays the French horn in the Aberdeen High School (AHS) Wind Ensemble, the guitar in the AHS Jazz Band, and the tenor drums in the AHS Marching Band. Outside of school Kyle has been known for playing in the orchestral pit of local musicals. He was the guitarist for AHS’s production of “Annie,” and, more recently, he played both the guitar and mandolin for the Bishop Center’s production of “The Light in the Piazza.”
The fact that Kyle does not sing all that well can be oddly comforting. Sometimes after a run with the Harbor Harriers someone will crank up the tunes and some of the boys will sing along. One of their favorites to sing is Bob Seger’s “Like a Rock.” Sorry, Kyle. Not really your thing.
I first saw Kyle run as a sixth grader, and I remember everyone watching the track meet being astounded by how much faster he was than everyone else. You could tell that there were kids on the other team that were fast, but Kyle was in a league of his own and blew everyone away.
Kyle’s running career developed over the years and by eighth grade people knew who Kyle Hurd was. It was Kyle’s eighth grade year that he, along with Jeran Paris, Braden Castleberry-Taylor and Gordon Shaw, broke the national record for the eighth grade boys 800-meter medley. The amazing thing is they didn’t break the record once, they broke it twice. The team first broke the record by accident while they were in the process of attempting to break the district record. After the race, much to their surprise, the boys found out that they had actually broken the national record. Unfortunately, their newly set record was broken within 24 hours. They had one last chance to reclaim the national record at their last track meet.
On May 22, 2013, the relay ran faster than ever and succeed in reclaiming the national title. Kyle was the anchor for the team and ran the 400-meter in an astounding 54 seconds. The team’s final record time was 1:46.18. Besides having set a national record, throughout his eighth grade year Kyle was ranked nationally in both the 400-meter and 1,600-meter races. Can you imagine, nationally ranked?
My father actually coached cross country and track at Miller Junior High for a couple of years when Kyle was running there. After practice one day my dad came home and said, “Man, that Kyle kid is really fast.” My dad had to come up with one workout for the team and a separate workout for Kyle. The standard was not challenging enough for him.
My dad also hosts the Grays Harbor Harriers running club. I remember the day he told the men in the club that he was going to invite a seventh grader from his junior high team to run with them. Most of the comments were something like, “You invite him, you run with him. We’re not going to slow down for some 13-year-old kid.” After a short time, it was more a question of how long before the adults would not be able to keep up with Kyle.
I don’t know if Kyle even knows this, but if you go to a meet to watch him run, part of the fun is walking around listening to the other kids and coaches talk. You hear things like, “Is that him? Is that Kyle?” Or, “I’ve heard of that guy. He’s really fast!” And, “My goal is to keep up with him for one lap, just so I can say I did it.”
When my dad was coaching him, he said that Kyle had a natural sense for his ability. Even as a junior high school runner, he had an innate strategy for his pace, for the race. Kyle is usually in the top five or six runners in a race for the first lap, but he is seldom in the lead. And he is comfortable in that position. Those that have seen him run before know what is coming and the sense of anticipation builds to an almost fever pitch. When he decides the time is right, Kyle puts on the afterburners and you can hear cries of, “There he goes, there he goes!” At this point it’s as if there are two separate races happening at the same time. One for Kyle and one for everyone else.
Now, as a sophomore, Kyle still participates in both cross country and track. When I asked him what his opinions on each were he said, “Both sports equally have benefits. In track, competition is more time-driven and pacing is vital. A 95-second lap pace to a 90-second is a 20-second difference for a mile, so miscalculating a pace in a race is almost always detrimental. In cross country, every course is different, which is more exciting. Instead of focusing on a specific pace, you have to instead focus on the elevation of the land, narrow paths in a course, tight corners, etc. For me, I don’t focus on time like in track, I always judge my pace off of my competitors, which means my strategy can change many times throughout a race.”
Kyle is training hard to get faster still. He’s so fast that even if you’ve seen him run before you’ll marvel at his speed. He’s been the number one runner on Aberdeen High School’s track and cross country teams as both a freshman and a sophomore and both years he was the only team member to go to state for the sports (though we still have yet to see how his track season goes this year).
If it’s been awhile since you’ve been to a high school track meet, I would encourage you to take the time to come out to watch. Look for him in the 3,200-meter, 1,600-meter, the 400-meter and possibly the 4×400 meter relay.
And, while Kyle is hesitant to talk about his future aspirations, someday you just might be able to say, “I saw him run when he was in high school.”
