In the summer of 2014, Yerrit Long told Gavin Handler (12) that he weighed too much to improve his mile times. This was all the motivation that Handler needed to step up his game.
Handler is a four-year varsity runner for the White Station track and field team and a three-year varsity cross country runner. This year, as captain, Handler has flourished, dropping his times in the 1500 meter (1 mile) race by about thirty seconds. Shattering his glass ceiling, he finally ran an under five minute mile this season, and on April 11, he achieved a personal record of a 4:50 minute mile at the Houston Track Classic.
“I would say I go beyond the extra limit. Every day I want to run harder than I did the day before. I want to go out there and make a name for myself and get recognized,” Handler said.
Handler knows exactly the workouts he needs to do, what he needs to eat and the exact times that he needs to reach this season. He even goes as far as memorizing other runners’ times and analyzing running videos on his phone in his free time. Put simply, Handler is a track fanatic.
However, let’s go back to a time when the young Handler was just getting started. As the lone seventh grader in his first race for White Station Middle School, Handler remembers it perfectly.
“I ran the 4 by 800 meter relay with three other eighth graders, and we won it. The first feeling of ever winning something was pretty great. It set the standards pretty high,” Handler said. “I didn’t want to know what it was like to lose.”
Handler joined the track team when he entered high school. But after his ninth grade track season, he was burned out. He refused to run cross country that summer.
Handler quit what he knew best.
Two weeks passed before Handler realized that he could not simply quit his passion. His father and track coach Stewart Hudsmith convinced Handler that he was wasting a talent that most people don’t have.
“I think he wasn’t doing that great, and people were doing better than him. He lost the urge to fight and then he got the urge to fight again,” Alan Handler, Gavin’s father, said.
When the younger Handler dropped forty seconds after returning, he knew he could never quit again. This was what he had to do; this was his calling.
However, over the course of his sophomore and junior campaigns, Handler’s various injuries combined with occasional laziness still continued to be setbacks for the runner. Being out for long periods of time was very difficult for Handler, but he thinks that it helped shape him into the runner that he is today.
The turning point in Handler’s track career, though, was joining an AAU track team during the summer of 2014. His coach Yerrit Long was key in helping to drop Handler’s times with intense strength workouts, and Handler never looked back.
When Long told Handler that he needed to lose some weight to run at his full potential, Handler knew he had to change something. He rigorously paid attention to his eating habits, honed in on his workout schedule and by the end of the summer lost 25 pounds.
His times this season show the impact of combining Long’s strength workouts with Hudsmith’s speed workouts.
Now, he says it’s the little things that mean the most in the sport: stretching for an hour every night, taking ice baths, not walking during practice despite his fatigue and teaching the younger runners to do the same. He never wants to be injured again.
While his college plans are unsure as of right now, Handler is considering attending the University of Tennessee but is undecided on his future with track. But if his running times keep dropping the way they are, an offer from UT or another team may be possible in the near future. As his track career is winding down, one thing is certain: Handler has left his legacy on the track team as a man that the younger runners admire.
“My favorite part about running is when you’re in the final sprint of a race, your legs are on fire and you have nothing left in the tank, you get to find out how much heart you have and leave it all out on the track,” Handler said.