Death of distance runner hits home
Mon, Nov 5, 2007BY NATE THOMPSON
nthompson@grandhaventribune.com
As flashes of college football scores and other sports headlines from the day flashed across the television screen late Saturday, I caught a brief glimpse of breaking news that a distance runner had collapsed and died at the United States Olympic Marathon Trials in New York City.
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Curious, I waited for the blurb to flash across ESPN again. Once in did, my heart sank when I saw the athlete's name.
"Ryan Shay. Ryan Shay. Oh my God, I know that name," I thought to myself.
In the small town of Central Lake, about a 35-minute drive from Traverse City, you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone familiar with prep sports who didn't know his name. Aside from Bellaire's Roger Mason, a former Major League Baseball pitcher in the 1980s, Shay was often considered one of the most accomplished athletes ever produced in the picturesque, hilly, snow-belt Antrim County — which includes the small towns of Bellaire, Central Lake, Alba and Mancelona.
Shay was a three-time Class D state cross country champion for the Central Lake Trojans in high school, and won eight other state championships in high school track. He went on to an illustrious career at Notre Dame, culminating with an NCAA title in the 10,000 meters in 2001, becoming the school's first-ever individual track champion.
"People really rally around people like Ryan," Central Lake athletic director and former Reeths-Puffer hoops standout Quinn Barry told the Associated Press. "We're deeply saddened. I always admired the way Ryan did things as an athlete. He did the things the right way for the right reasons."
Shay's post-collegiate career was equally impressive, as he became a five-time road racing champion.
Shay, 28, ran under the watchful eye of his father, Joe, the longtime cross country and track coach at Central Lake. His mother, Susan, held the same title with the Central Lake girls.
Not surprisingly, the Shay family is often associated with one thing — dominance in running. Each of Joe and Susan's seven children excelled in running — with Ryan's youngest brother, Stephen, currently a distance runner on the Michigan State University track squad.
While dedicated and driven are two words that first come to mind when describing their family, gracious and kind are close behind.
I had to opportunity to speak with Ryan, Stephen, Joe and Susan on several occasions while working as a reporter at a small newspaper in the region. Not once did I come away with any type of negative impression, or a sense of an inflated ego that sometimes comes along with prep standouts.
It was always a newsworthy event when Ryan Shay made his way home for a weekend from grueling training sessions in the thin air of Colorado, because you never knew — maybe, just maybe, a future Olympic athlete was running down our road.
Ryan was gracious enough to share a good half-hour of his time with me one afternoon to talk about his disappointment of falling short during the 2004 Olympic Marathon trials in Birmingham, Ala. As much recognition he'd gained in the sport over the years, Shay had a admirable amount of humility, realizing the immense toll distance runners endure.
"(The injury) couldn't have come at a worst time," Shay told me, noting that at the 18-mile point at the trials he was in the top 10, but his right hamstring basically shut down after that point. "It just makes you start thinking, 'Why am I doing this? Why did I sacrifice so much?'"
It takes a lot of heart to transform yourself into an Olympic-level distance runner. It took heart for Shay to finish that marathon with a bum hamstring, crossing the finish line 23rd and knowing that his dream had to be put on hold.
But it was Shay's heart that likely also caused his death.
He collapsed only 5 1/2 miles into Saturday's Olympic trials for the 2008 Beijing games, hitting the ground near the Central Park Boathouse, a popular tourist spot in Manhattan. Although his autopsy was inconclusive, Joe Shay told the Associated Press on Saturday that his son was diagnosed with an enlarged heart when he was 14, but was cleared by doctors to run.
"The thing that made him such a great runner may have killed him," Joe Shay said, pointing out the extra endurance his son likely had due to his condition.
Still, maybe the wear-and-tear over the years finally caught up with Shay. Training partners noted Shay's intensity, highlighting a time when he once passed out from exhaustion while training on the treadmill. I'm sure his body reached a breaking point on more than one occasion.
But that's what we admire about athletes in any sport — their ability to push their bodies to the extreme to excel in the sport they love. Ryan Shay did that, and he was a champion because of it.
But more than anything, I'm saddened that he'll never get his chance to perform on the grandest stage of all — the Olympics — and make a small town proud.
Actually, prouder than they already were.