Just because he was wobbling around every turn, just because he had pain shooting up his right side with every step, just because his dreams of making the Olympic marathon team had been shattered miles earlier, just because he was one of the favorites to win the Trials and here he was getting passed by every Tom, Dick and Harry in a singlet ... didn't meant Ryan Shay was about to drop out of the Trials Feb. 7 in Birmingham, Ala.

One way or another, falling back into the pack, no matter how far off his intended pace, the East Jordan, Mich., resident was going to finish.

Here's a turn. Wobble around it. Step. Pain. Step. Pain. Shay would finish. Why? Just because. Just because of who and what he is.

Make no mistake: Shay, 24, didn't come to Alabama to get beat. He didn't come to watch the backs of other guys disappear in the distance. He didn't come to be praised for just persevering.

In the days leading up to the Trials, Shay's coach, the legendary Joe Vigil, had told the press: "Ryan's had the best training year he's ever had. And when you want something as badly as he wants it, there's no telling how far you can go.

"It's about emotional control," Vigil added. "Don't run somebody else's race, run your own. There's a confidence factor for Ryan. He knows the course, and he knows what he can do there."

Shay, who won the 2003 U.S. marathon championship in Birmingham, left no doubt he would go for the Trials win one year later. If the hamstring was a concern going in, he didn't let on.

"I don't want to make the mistake that a lot of people do - especially if they're young - saying, 'Well, there's always next time,'" he said. "I'm approaching this like it's my one-and-only shot."

Afterwards, Shay questioned the wisdom of pushing on when it was clear that his one-and-only shot had misfired. "It was a loop course. I had one more loop to go and was asking myself, 'Is it worth running the last five and a half miles?'" he said weeks later, his recovery about complete.

He pushed on through the last loop to place 23rd of 86 finishers, managing a sub-2:20 by 40 seconds despite the pain. He was nearly eight minutes behind winner Alan Culpepper, who he'd matched stride-for-stride for the first 15 miles as a big pack watched Brian Sell of Team Hansons set off on a courageous pace, content to let him go and hoping they'd be able to reel him in.

Some did. Shay would have, too, but for the right hamstring, hurt two weeks before the Trials during what was scheduled to be his last hard tempo run. With 600 meters to go in a 10K workout, he first felt a strain in his hamstring, then, "it tightened up into a ball. I grabbed it, took a couple more strides, then walked on in."

Shay was training with Vigil's Nike-sponsored Team USA California. Teammates included Meb Keflizighi, who would finish second at the men's Marathon Trials and Deena Kastor, who would finish second at the women's Marathon Trials in St. Louis April 3.

Shay flew back to Michigan to visit his chiropractor in Holland, Dr. Louis Boven. Boven had worked miracles with him in the past, including adjustments he made before the 2003 Fifth Third River Bank 25K Run, where Shay finished fourth after having to drop out of a track meet the previous weekend.

Shay might have been forgiven, before the Trials, for thinking the hamstring was a good omen. Last year, he hurt his Achilles tendon less than a month before the U.S. marathon championship race in Birmingham.

Shay, a nine-time All-American at Notre Dame University and the only male runner in Michigan high school history to win four state cross-country titles, for Central Lake, had gone on to win the national title. He followed that breakthrough win with a U.S. half-marathon title in June, and went on to be crowned champion of the USA Running Circuit 2003 Grand Prix.

There would be no miracles in Birmingham this year, though.

With Sell running his own race, Shay seemed to keep up easily with the chase pack, which included Culpepper and Keflezighi. Shay went through five miles in 25:58, 10 miles in 51:19, and 15 miles in 1:16:37, stride for stride with those who would eventually make the team.

At about 16 miles, the hamstring started to go. "I could feel its strength becoming less and less, and my other leg muscles overcompensating. Soon, the other muscles started shutting down," Shay explained.

Finally, "the stabilizer muscles were shot. I was wobbling around every turn. I was having trouble keeping my balance."

Shay said pre-Trials that he would run the race as if it were his one-and-only shot. But afterwards, he began reloading for shot No. 2. He was a heck of a 10,000-meter runner in college - NCAA champ in 2002, in fact. So he's taking aim at getting a qualifying time for the U.S. Track and Field 10,000-meter Trials in July.

Ryan, one of eight children in a family of distance runners, and his father, Joe, long-time Central Lake coach, drove to Ann Arbor in March to watch the last of the Shays, Stephan, win the state 3,200-meter title at the Michigan Indoor Track Series season finale.

Stephan, a Central Lake senior, followed in the footsteps of Ryan, who won the MITS 3,200 in 1997. Each of the brothers ran the same time, 9:26. The meet featured prep runners representing regional clubs, not their high schools. The younger Shay ran for the Northern Michigan Track Club.

Stephan, Division 4 cross-country champ last autumn for Central Lake, may have followed in Ryan's footsteps at MITS, but he won't be doing so at Notre Dame. He made a recruiting trip to Arizona State and is also considering Michigan State, Tennessee and Georgia.

Their older brother, Casey Shay, now a teacher in South Korea, was also a state high school cross-country champ at Central Lake, and was 1996 NAIA steeplechase champion for Lubbock Christian in Texas. Casey ran his first marathon last year, finishing in a credible 2:36.

A few days after watching Stephan, Ryan discussed his new plans for making the trip to this summer's Olympic Games in Athens. They included running the 8K national championship road race March 27 in New York's Central Park. But a virus forced him to scrub that effort.

"I am now 100-percent healthy and the hamstring is no longer an issue," said Shay in early April. His road map to Athens, at that point, included the Papa John's U.S. 10-mile championship April 10, a track 10,000 at the Cardinal Invitational at Stanford April 30, and the Fifth Third River Bank Run in Grand Rapids May 8.

"Assuming I obtain the 10K qualifying standard at Stanford, I will race the 10K at the Olympic Trials in July," Shay declared.

The A standard for the 10,000 is 28:15. Hitting that time ensures a spot in the trials. The B standard is 28:50, which gives you a spot only if more runners are needed to fill out heats. Shay's 10K PR on the track was a 28:26, set in college. His only 10K on the roads was a 29:05, run last fall.

"I don't want to push the issue of hitting a time for the Trials," said Shay. "If I hit it, fine. But the main issue is to get healthy. My main goal is a fall marathon, either Chicago or New York. I don't want to set that back by getting hurt."

Joe Shay shared a story with the Detroit Free Press that gives insight into his son's makeup, hinting that Ryan may push the issue of hitting a 10,000 time for the Trials more than he lets on.

Central Lake, northeast of Traverse City, is in the swath of land that gets belted by lake-effect snow blowing off Lake Michigan. Joe said he has vivid memories of Ryan heading out to run on days when the snow blew sideways and nothing else moved outside except snowplows.

"I remember Ryan going out when it was 20 or 30 degrees below zero, because he didn't want to miss a training day," Joe Shay said. "I would argue with him after he'd come in coated in snow and icicles, looking like the Abominable Snowman.

"People would call and say, 'Do you know your son is out there running in this?' I'd say it's called dedication