Photo: Kyle O'Brien runs Detroit's Thanksgiving Turkey Trot.

A year ago, things had gone way off track for Kyle O'Brien. He'd put law school on hold and moved from Danville, Ill., to the Detroit area in August 2003 to pursue the dream of becoming a professional runner with the Hansons-Brooks Development Project.

But he wasn't running, thanks to stress fractures in both tibias that hobbled him from that November till this past March. The transition from college to pros had been tougher than he'd imagined, physically and emotionally. He had broken down, in part from jumping from 90 miles a week in school to 120, in part from trying to engage in the competitive hammering during many workouts that is inevitable when some of the nation's fastest, toughest, most-dedicated runners gather at 7:50 each morning at the duck pond near Paint Creek Trail in downtown Rochester to go for a run.

That was the physical part. The emotional part was being so far from friends and family, from adjusting to new coaches and the hands-on, structured routine that goes with the Hansons system.

Keith and Kevin Hanson pay the freight for what has emerged as one of best running teams in North America, and their style is to map out workouts, set up short- and long-term goals, and demand the very best you have.

"When I moved up here, I went through a struggle with my training. It was frustrating, which is common when you change environments and coaches," O'Brien says.

He also had to adjust from being his team's big stud to a guy having trouble keeping up.

At Danville Community College, O'Brien had been a four-time All- American in cross-country and track. At Division I Eastern Illinois University, he had run in 10 Ohio Valley Conference championship races and won nine of them. He was OVC Athlete of the Year in cross- country, indoor and outdoor track in his senior year.

Amazingly, he was named the league's 2002-03 All-Sport Athlete of the Year, an honor almost always reserved for higher-profile stars in football or basketball.

Then O'Brien joined the Hansons, where he was no longer king of the hill, he was the guy falling off the back of the pack trying to keep up during workouts. And then he was the injured guy.

O'Brien says the Hansons' system "isn't for everyone." He could have been forgiven - back in those days when he wasn't running, when his bones ached just getting up off the couch - for wondering if it wasn't for him, either.

He's wondering no more. Based on his successes at Michigan road races this past year, O'Brien has been named Michigan Runner Male Runner of the Year.

He won the Grosse Ile Memorial Day 8K in 24:49, was fourth at the Northville Solstice 5K in 14:55, finished 19th in a field loaded with Kenyans at the Crim 10-mile in 51:51, and was a hard-charging third (and top American) at the Detroit Free Press/Flagstar Bank Marathon, running 2:20:21 in his 26.2-mile debut.

O'Brien first came across the Hansons in the spring of 2002, when taking a redshirt season off from collegiate running. He ran unattached in an outdoor meet at Hillsdale College, doing 10,000 meters in a then- PR 29:50. He finished well behind Hansons stars Brian Sell and Richie Brinker, who went sub-29, but attracted the interest of Kevin Hanson. Hanson introduced himself, then phoned O'Brien's coach the next day to chat.

"That stuck with me," says O'Brien. "I obviously wasn't one of the best runners in the nation, but they saw something in me."

The Hansons and O'Brien kept in contact, by phone or e-mail. In May 2003, he visited the Hansons in Rochester. "I loved what they had to say and the area," says O'Brien. "What surprised me most was how ideal it was for training - all the dirt roads and parks and trails."

The dirt roads and trails would provide needed cushioning during the 130-mile weeks O'Brien put in building up to this year's Free Press Marathon. He had hoped to run 2:18, but on a warmish, windy day, he was more than happy with his 2:20:21 third-place finish.

Teammate Ben Rosario, who had planned to run Detroit, too, until an injury set him back, paced O'Brien the first 11 miles. Then he and Nick Stanko, a former University of Michigan runner also making his marathon debut, agreed to pace each other, trading off the lead every mile.

At 20, Stanko made a move to catch the leaders. O'Brien decided to play it cautious, just about the time he hit a bad patch. He struggled to mile 23, began feeling better, and, at mile 24, "I was feeling great." He moved from sixth to fifth to fourth, then passed Stanko in the tunnel leading to Ford Field.

O'Brien took a couple weeks off, then began gearing up again. He and his teammates ran Detroit's Thanksgiving Turkey Trot as sort of a time trial for the USATF Club Cross Country nationals in Portland Dec. 4, where the Hansons hoped to defend their team title. Do well at Turkey Trot and you'd go to Portland. Do poorly, you might not.

O'Brien ran so-so, finishing sixth on the team and eighth overall in 31:03 - not bad coming off a marathon, not great going into nationals. The team planned a big workout the next Sunday. If he did well there, he might go to Portland ...

Such is life in the bigs. You do an interview for the MR Runner of the Year story Saturday. Sunday, you learn if you make your own club's first team.

It can be humbling - as well as encouraging - to lace them up every day with the likes of Trent Briney, fourth at last winter's U.S. Olympic Marathon trials; Clint Verran, fifth at the trials; or Brian Sell, who led the trials much of the way before fading late, then came back to place fourth at Crim, the first top-five performance by an American there since 1991.

When O'Brien arrived in Rochester, he figured he'd give his dream of professional running at least two years. Now into his second year, he is in no hurry to apply to law school. He is in a hurry to be in a hurry, on the roads and track.

The Hansons' approach "may not be for everyone," says O'Brien. "But look at Brian, Clint and Trent. It works for a lot of people.

"I've done things I never imagined," says O'Brien, who has notched a slew of PRs since joining the team - 3:53 for 1,500 meters, 8:22 for 3,000, 14:18 for 5,000, 29:36 for 10,000, and his near sub-2:20 marathon in Detroit.

"I'm doing times in training I never dreamed of in college. It's exciting. There's a lot still to do and I'm very excited about it."

Editor's Note: The Hansons-Brooks Distance Project team finished a close second to Nike's Farm Team at the Dec. 4 Club Nationals, with 67 points to the Farm Team's 62. O'Brien placed 67th out of 258 team finishers, plowing through a muddy course in 35:04.67. MR