Caption: Landon Peacock qualified for Footlocker Nationals by finishing second (15:01) in the Footlocker Midwest Regional, Kenosha, Wisconsin, November 26, 2005.
The coach asked who wanted to run the 3200 in the next middle school track meet. No takers. Perhaps he asked again. History doesn't record whether he begged, threatened, encouraged or cajoled.

Someone had to run. It would look bad if no one from the team did.

Finally, a hand went up. It belonged to a seventh-grader named Landon Peacock. Two miles, he figured. "I jumped in."

Not a big deal, and Peacock certainly ran that way. He lapped all the other runners. He doesn't even remember how fast he ran. The real point is, a distance runner was born.

Five years later, Landon Peacock is Michigan Runner's High School Runner of the Year. He did well in his time here, and he's not done yet.

Statewide, running fans started taking a good look at Peacock when he started running at the high school level. As a freshman he placed 60th for Morley-Stanwood in the Division 3 cross country finals, running 17:04.6. A year later he improved to 15:45.8 and third place. In track as a sophomore, he clocked 9:33.86 for 3200.

The next year he moved in with his grandparents in nearby Cedar Springs, to help them around the house. It was a family decision that he had to make a sacrifice for: he gave up his junior season in cross country because of high school athletic association rules on transfers.

Like everything else in his life, though, it fed his hunger for running. "I've always been really competitive. I like to race people who are better than me," he says. "I want to test my limits. It's the hard workout days I look forward to."

The next spring, running for Cedar Springs and coach Ted Sabinas, he clocked 9:18.06 for 3200 at the D2 state finals, finishing more than 10 seconds behind Lex Williams of Dexter. Some started calling him the top distance runner in the state going into his senior year. Peacock was determined not to disappoint.

Over the summer he hit 60-65 miles a week. Says Sabinas, "Those were fast miles. Even his warm-ups were fast. He wasn't doing what I'd call junk miles."

Peacock didn't concentrate on being the best in the state. He concentrated on being the best. He cruised through the cross country season, winning the D2 state title in 15:09.5, a time faster than any other division winner that day. He looked strong and dominating, which is all the more amazing since he was training through the meet.

What amazed his coach was that Peacock "never had a bad race. He met every challenge. He was undefeated in Michigan." He also won the prestigious Mid-East Championships for the top high school seniors in a six-state area, running unchallenged to a 15:23 win.

"At first my focus all season was making it to the Foot Locker nationals," Peacock admits. The Foot Locker meet (Dec. 10 in San Diego) brings together the 40 best harriers in the country, making it a smorgasbord for college recruiters. "Once I made the team, I just kept training. I wanted to win. I wouldn't care if I was racing Dathan Ritzenhein. I would go in to win."

Peacock went for it, hanging back from the leaders who went through the first mile at a brutal pace, then using a mid-race surge to move to third at the two-mile mark. He held on for fifth, clocking 15:15 to help his Midwest squad to second in the team standings. Only a handful of Michigan runners have ever done better, led by two-time winner Ritzenhein.

Peacock was helped along by his competitive instinct: "When someone's there, I think about how I can break their concentration, how I can get into their head. After I won state in cross country I found that some runners got intimidated by me."

Along the way, Peacock heard about the USA Championships in cross country. Held every February, the meet selects the U.S. team for the World Cross Country Championships, which this year was held in Japan. The Junior race is open to athletes who do not turn 20 during that calendar year, which means that to make the team (top six), Peacock would have to beat a number of college runners.

This year the USA Championships were held in New York's fabled Van Cortlandt Park, and the race distance was 8K, nearly five miles. Peacock ran aggressively, clocking an impressive 24:19. That left him one out of the money, as he placed seventh. Only two high schoolers had beaten him; the rest were collegians. Behind him was A.J. Acosta, the much- hyped Foot Locker national champion; Peacock had finished five seconds ahead of him.

Peacock was selected for the United States team to compete in the NACAC Championships in Florida March 11. This meet brought together many of the best cross country runners in the Western Hemisphere. Running 6K, Peacock captured the bronze medal in 19:30 as the first U.S. finisher, leading the U.S. squad to the win over Canada.

"That was the highlight of my career so far," Peacock says. "It was the first time I represented the United States. And I beat guys who had beaten me in New York. I beat A.J. Acosta."

That gave him time for a luxurious two-day rest before track season started. Peacock has no regrets about skipping the indoor season. ("I don't really care for indoor track.") One senses that he would he quite happy in a world where cross country was the only sport.

During the track season, Peacock produced incredible times in unlooked-for places. In one March dual meet he clocked 9:13.1 for 3200. At his own school's Red Hawk Invitational, he won the 1600 in a PR 4:17.5 and came back with a 9:16.0. He says, "Sometimes I tried to do a hard double to see what I could do at the state meet. I ended up just deciding on the 3200. In track that's my passion."

Of his effect on the Cedar Springs team, Peacock led by example, says Sabinas. "I took some strange criticism for saying I learned more from him than him from me," says the science teacher, "But I truly believe that a day that goes by without you learning something is a wasted day.

"Nothing phases Landon in terms of degree of difficulty or challenge. No matter how big the race was, he was still Landon."

At Forest Hills, Peacock won the D2 3200 title with a personal best of 9:01.66. The previous year he had taken the race out hard. This time was different. "Dan Jackson (of Dexter) went out, and I took it easy on the first lap. He's leading thinking, 'Where is he?' I stayed back for three laps, then I took off hard, and had a 20-meter lead in a lap. That broke his concentration."

While the win felt great, the competitor in him wondered whether he could have won the earlier 1600 against Coldwater's Jay Bilsborrow (4:14.59). A week later Bilsborrow would clock 4:10.40 at the Midwest Meet. Says Peacock, "I think I could have gone 4:10 or so."

For his next challenge, Peacock decided to go long. The USA Junior Championships in Indianapolis would select the U.S. team for the World Juniors later in the summer in China. Peacock, who had run a 31:20 on the road, decided to go for the track 10,000, all 25 laps of it. What he didn't count on was the 90-degree heat and high humidity.

"When I heard 2:35 (at 800 meters) I thought, 'what am I doing running this slowly?'" He took the lead and tried to drive a hard pace, but his biggest enemy was the heat. "I disappointed myself. I really regret not relaxing early in the race."

He ended up third, in 32:06.02, the third-fastest performance ever by a Michigan prep. However, only the top two earned the trip to China.

Of his prep career, Peacock says, "I'm really happy with where I ended up, but I fell short of a lot of my goals. I wanted to break 15 in cross country, and I ran 15:01. I wanted to run sub-9:00 in track, and I ran 9:01. I wanted to make the World Junior cross country team; they took the top six, and I was seventh. I wanted to make the World Junior Championships in China. The top two made it; I was third.

"I was always just one off. It's just the way it happened. This makes me hungry for the future.

"I'm putting in more mileage right now," says Peacock, who is gradually raising his totals to 80 miles per week. "When I increase mileage, I like to do it very gradually. I have a long career ahead of me and I don't want to injure myself."

Of his pupil's potential, Sabinas has much to say: "I think he's still in the baby stages of his career. He has lofty expectations. I have learned never to sell him short, because as soon as you do that, he goes out and does better than anyone thought possible."

Peacock's future will take him to Madison, and a career with the University of Wisconsin, last year's NCAA champions. "Once I found out they wanted me, it wasn't a tough decision ... They've got a lot of really good guys. For many years they'll be pushing me. They're all as pumped up about running as I am. I love that kind of atmosphere.

"I prefer to be a small fish in a big pond. That's how you get better."

Jeff Hollobaugh, THE authority on Michigan high school track, has resurrected his 1997-2004 Web site www.michtrack.org, the definitive source for prep records in the state. The former managing editor of Track and Field News continues to write for sports publications in between teaching English at Pinckney High School and taking care of a family, dog and big yard to mow. MR