Elby Omohundro started running last school year and nobody has been able to catch him since. He’s logged over 100 miles in a year of Wednesdays as part of the running club that meets at Robious Elementary School every week before school and he’s also put up five 8K and 5K road race wins in that time. This summer he took things to a whole new level with state and national competition – remarkable feats for any beginning runner. Elby is 8 years old, and running is in his blood.

Elby started running on the track club at Robious Elementary School this past year. The club meets on Wednesday mornings at the school track and kids can run as much or as little as they want. Elby quickly jumped out to 5 ½ to 6 miles at a time.

“Elby was a little extreme,” his dad Buddy Omohundro said. “He just went out there and ran and ran, but you know it is kind of about goal setting and sticking with something. I kind of wondered at first whether he would dread going out to [run] but … he just kind of seemed to latch onto it.”

Elby continued running even after the school year ended and entered his first major competitions starting in early June with the Virginia AAU State Meet at Darlington Stadium in Hampton. He competed in the 400-meter dash where he took second in his preliminary heat and third overall with a time of 1:17.78 and the 800-meter run where he took third with a time of 3:01.31.

June 14 and 15, Elby was on the track again, this time at Matoaca High School in Ettrick for the Virginia U.S.A. Track and Field State Meet where he improved his 400-meter dash time to 1:15.36 to finish second, just .18 seconds away from the winning time of 1:15.18. He took third in the 800-meter run.

“He actually got tripped at the beginning of the race and fell. He’s got a pretty good scar on his shoulder,” Buddy said. “He went down and they had to stop the race … and he got right back on the starting line and ran that race … It’s hard to run when you’re already upset before the race starts.”

Elby also competed in the long jump at the USATF state meet and finished first with a leap of 10 feet and two inches – a full four and a half inches higher than his closest competition.

“Not really,” he said when asked if he does the jumping to complement the running. “You can’t get over the board so it’s hard not to get a scratch. I try not to scratch but it’s hard.”

Elby credits his dad for help with running and jumping. Buddy was a standout track competitor at Clover Hill High School and helped the team to a state title in 1986. His Dominion District Indoor Track record in the 55-meter hurdles still stands and he was the 1986 AAU National Champion and record holder in the Decathlon, so it’s easy to see where Elby got his taste for running and jumping. Buddy also played football on scholarship at the University of Virginia from 1988-92, a sport that Elby has also taken an interest in.

For Elby the track season culminated in the 2008 AAU Club Championships held July 2 and 3 at Disney’s Wide World of Sports in Orlando, Fl., where he competed in all three of his track events. He finished sixth in the long jump at 10-2.75 and eighth in the 400-meter dash with a time of 1:18.46. Though he finished a respectable 10th in the 800-meter run, his bad luck in the event carried over from the state meet.

“It was very hard,” Elby said. “I was in second the whole thing and then on the second lap, I felt sick and I started to throw up on the starting line and then on the home stretch I was crazy throwing up. I was running right on my lane throwing up but I just had to finish the race.”

According to Buddy, the problem was first-place finisher Jamir Ferguson, who set an impossible pace. Elby tried to stay with him but it proved a bit too much. Ferguson set a national record at 2:37.84. Elby, though, says he wasn’t giving up.

“Because I didn’t want to stop and I wanted to finish the race,” he said quietly.

That was the first day of competition. Elby still had a second day and two events to get through at that point.

“I kind of worried after the first day that mentally was he able to come back?” Buddy said. “It really shows that he has a lot of heart and toughness to come back the next day and do so well … He just puts so much of himself into it … That was pretty impressive.”

Though Elby says he will continue running, he is getting ready now for the upcoming football season and he also plays basketball and soccer. For the young sports enthusiast there’s never been any pressure to compete though.

“It just makes me proud and it’s hard sometimes as a Dad not to want them to do what you did and he does other different things. I was never a basketball or soccer player,” Buddy said. “It makes it nice for me as a dad to kind of share some things that I have knowledge in and that he takes and interest in. He’s able to have fun with it and still get focused … The world is not always an easy place and you know sometimes you’ve got to struggle through adversity and he’s actually already shown he can handle some of that, so I think if he continues to enjoy doing [track], he’ll have a lot of success at it.”

In addition to the track competitions, Elby finished first this year in his age group in the Sweetheart 8K, the Youngblood 5K, the Resurrection Run 5K and the Whistlestart 5K where he also came in first as a father/son team with his dad. Last year he took third in the Blue Talon 5K in his age group. With such a long list of accomplishments already, Elby had a lot of people to thank.

“I just want to thank my mom (Tracie Omohundro), Miss Sonja, my dad and my brother (Henry Omohundro, who is 3). He gives me a lot of strength with how he plays soccer,” Elby said.
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- Republished from MidlothianExchange.com