Petty Making Serious Strides
By Jack Danilewicz
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King Intermediate distance runner Cedric Petty Jr. doesn’t wait until race day to get himself into the right mind-set to perform. He enjoys the entire process - even if it means running 11 miles in a typical week.
“The preparation and the race are both fun,“said Petty, who is an eighth grader at King. “I feel like I’m putting my best effort into everything I do, but the race is more fun. The thing I enjoy most is the competition.”
With that in mind,last week the stakes were higher for Petty and his Cobra teammates as they hosted the Intermediate School Cross Country Championships Thursday, drawing more than 400 runners from throughout the Island. Petty finished second at the event with a time of 12:17. He had entered having already posted four top 10 finishes this fall in races hosted by Campbell High School (second),Kaiser (ninth),Iolani (sixth) and Punahou (sixth).
While his work ethic clearly drives him, Petty’s gift for concentrating on a race may be tied to his ability to not overthink the race.
“Normally, I’ll stay away from people before a race,“said Petty, an honor student whose artwork was among pieces by King students displayed at a Chinatown gallery last spring. “Other times, I might talk to my friends about other subjects. Sometimes during a race I think about how I can move up, but at other times I’m thinking about what I’ll do after a race.”
Petty credits his father Cedric with some of his love of running.
For his part, Petty Sr. has seen his son’s natural instincts for running take over.
“I think it came easy to him,” he said. “I used to run, although not as much as before. We’d do a little training on our own for 30 to 35 minutes on weekends at Castle High, which is only five minutes from our home.He’s been taking weight training and body conditioning, which helps him, too. I would give him tips from my own knowledge, and we’d watch it on TV so he could see how they do things.He also picked up some tips from Bryan Clay, whose clinics he attended a couple times.”
Clay is, of course, a role model who is literally from close to home. He ran track at Castle during his prep days before moving on to become one of the world’s top competitors in the sport.
“I look up to him as a leader at what he does,“Petty said of Clay.“I spent a little time with him, and he seems like a really nice guy. He’s serious about what he does.“Much like Petty, who also expects to enroll at Castle next fall.
“When it’s time (to run a race),he takes it seriously,‘“said the dad.
Clay’s efforts at Castle enabled him to get a college scholarship to Azusa Pacific. While Petty is four-and-a-half years from high school graduation, a college scholarship already seems a more-than-realistic goal.
“If I keep doing what I’m doing, I’ll get better and I’ll want to stick with it,“he said. “I’ve always been serious about running. It’s made me work harder to get where I am.”
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