Amanda Boyd completed her ‘Baler career as the school record
holder in all major distance events.
She was torn. Sitting at home, she couldn’t make up her mind. Which would it be? Volleyball or cross country? Cross country or volleyball?
As Amanda Boyd pondered her athletic future in the fall of her junior year, she eventually resorted to the classic method of weighing one’s options – making a list of pros and cons.
After starting at right-side hitter on varsity for much of her sophomore year, Boyd yearned to continue playing volleyball with her teammates. But then there were those feelings she got when she was running. The freedom. The power. And the challenge.
Volleyball season was already underway, but she knew her heart was already somewhere else. Just like that, the decision was made.
And almost as quickly, a star was born.
THE RUNNER’S HIGH
A week after her San Benito High graduation, it’s nearly unfathomable to picture Amanda Boyd as anything but a dominant long-distance runner. Boyd, the 2005-2006 Free Lance Female Athlete of the Year, overwhelmed countless opponents with such regularity and blew past ‘Baler records with such ease that you would think she had been doing it forever. But it didn’t start out that way.
As a freshman, Boyd ran sprints. The 200-meter dash? The 100? Just appetizers for this four-year varsity track athlete.
Her sophomore year, Boyd again did some sprints and took up the 400 as well, serving as the versatile runner her coaches wanted. When they asked her run the 800 one day, she thought, ‘Why not?’
And once she crossed the finish line, a whole new world opened up to her.
If it was the pros-and-cons list that was the defining moment of Boyd’s path to unprecedented heights, it was her performance in the 800 the previous spring that convinced everyone, including herself, that she had a running future. With none of the technical training distance runners rely so heavily on to gain the mental and physical edge over their opponents, Boyd showed tremendous raw ability – read: speed – in rapidly blossoming to post a second-place finish in the Tri-County Athletic League Championships.
“I only had speed,” recalled Boyd, who is headed to Northern Arizona University to compete in both cross country and track. “I had no endurance. Everyone was telling me, ‘You did that on only speed. Can you imagine what you could do if you had endurance, too?'”
San Benito distance coach Jess Morales, who would later land Boyd on his cross country team, was one of those who saw the sophomore’s performance as only the tip of the iceberg.
“She just made that 800 look easy,” said Morales of Boyd, who would set the ‘Baler record at 2:18. “That’s when it got exciting. That’s what triggered everything. If you can do an 800, you can do a mile. If you can do a mile, you can do a two-mile.”
The sparkling end to her sophomore season was the catalyst to transforming Boyd into having the mindset of a runner. While volleyball was still in her plans for the fall, she admits to developing the “addiction.”
“When they say there’s a runner’s high, there is,” Boyd said with a smile.
PAIN WITH A PURPOSE
Her decision to forgo volleyball behind her, Boyd took the cross country course early junior year not knowing what to expect. She had landed in a foreign sport, an athletic competition in which she found herself alone in the hills for long stretches. Having never been a distance runner, she also found it a tough adjustment to pound away for miles at a time.
“At the beginning, I was totally in shock,” Boyd recalled. “I was like, ‘Why am I doing this?’ But you can’t bring yourself to tear yourself away from it, and that’s what’s so cool about it.”
The intense training and early runs at Park Hill posed a physical challenge like no other, a time Morales believed Boyd showed the type of competitor she is.
“Dedication. Hard work. That’s what it takes to do what she did,” Morales explained. “She didn’t know she had it until she did it and built her endurance.”
At meets, Boyd immediately took to the environment or “bubble” in which the runners have a mutual admiration and respect for each other. And on the course, Boyd was rapidly developing into a contender that belied her inexperience.
Not that it was all gravy.
“You have to tell yourself to keep going,” Boyd said of the struggle cross country runners face both on the course and off. “You’re your own worst enemy. When you see the hill, it’s tough to tell yourself to push up it.”
Nevertheless, as her junior season continued, Boyd found that she was hooked. Her decision was panning out better than she could have expected. And her times were dropping at a remarkable rate, leaving her on the cusp of greatness. And that determination was out in full force.
“Each time I got onto the course, yeah, I was in pain, yeah, I wanted to stop,” Boyd recalled, “but your mind is just on beating your times. If you’re hurting, you might as well hurt for something.”
By season’s end, Boyd’s meteoric rise resulted in a second-place finish at the TCAL Championships and then a runner-up showing at the Central Coast Section Championships. And with track season fast approaching, she would be back flourishing on foot before she knew it.
THE RELUCTANT BRIDESMAID
She’s done it again. Second place. Minutes after completing the 1600-meter race at the CCS Track & Field Championships in May, the senior stops on her way to the podium to reflect on her performance.
Bettering her No. 4 seeding in the event? ‘I knew I could do it.’ Getting close to the five-minute mark she so cherished? ‘Almost there, hopefully next week.’ Qualifying for the CIF State Championships in a different event than the 3200 she had advanced in as a junior? ‘Great! I’m stoked.’
As she cheerfully engages her interviewer in dialogue about the final weeks of her senior season, Boyd knows there’s another question coming her way.
So, Amanda, “What is it with these seconds?” she is asked.
“I know. I get second in everything!” Boyd retorts.
That race marked the fourth time Boyd finished as runner-up in the section. Cross country as a junior and as a senior. The 3200 as a junior. And now the 1600!
“I don’t know. It’s a curse,” Boyd related days after her graduation. “I’ve seriously gotten so many of them. It sucks because I’ve always wanted a championship, but I’ve just got to think of all the schools in the section and, more important, all the runners in the section.
“Second, it’s not first, but it’s so close.”
Nevertheless, four trips to State is a pretty good consolation for San Benito’s distance queen. And tack on 2006 TCAL champion in three individual events – the 800, 1600 and 3200 – as well as a slot on the first-place 4×400-meter relay team.
Ask Boyd what she’s most proud of and she relates it all back to forging new ground in distance running and cross country in particular.
“I was able to make a statement on the athletic department in a somewhat unusual sport,” said Boyd, who holds all of San Benito’s major distance records, “a sport that doesn’t get as much publicity … recognition, as much as volleyball, football, basketball, all that stuff.”
CONQUERING CHALLENGES
Just as many elite athletes, Boyd lines up the challenges in her mind. And then sets out to meet them.
A new event? Bring it on. A whole different sport? I can do it. All those doubters out there? Let’s prove ’em wrong.
Reflecting on her long-distance days as a ‘Baler, Boyd said she learned more than she ever thought she would – about herself as an athlete and, even more significantly, as a person.
“I just got lost in it almost,” she said of the running. “I never thought I’d do it, but I’m glad I did. It’s a whole ‘nother level.”
“I stepped out on my own and took on challenges on my own,” Boyd continued. “I think that was something that I’m proud of. And I stuck it out, even in the highs and lows.”
Set to tackle a new workout regimen and ready to test her competitive juices at the collegiate level, Boyd’s mind was working overdrive when exploring what her future may hold and how it’s connected to her past as a ‘Baler.
“I’m nervous,” she said. “I mean, Northern Arizona? It’s top distance in the country. Having faced the challenges of everything here, stepping out and going with cross country, going off and trying something on my own … I figure I can do that. I’ll have enough heart and determination and everything to keep going there.”
“I’m just ready for a whole new challenge,” Boyd concluded. “I can’t wait.”
