Runners I Know: Brian Harris

A conversation with the fastest runner I've ever known.

I first met Brian Harris in 1980 when we were first graders at Spruce Run Elementary. It wasn’t until we got to sixth grade when we ran cross country that I realized that Harris was fast. Like, really fast. 

As kids, Brian was my measuring stick. If I could kind of keep up with him then I was doing alright. By the time we got to high school, he was a blur. If memory serves, it took him exactly one practice to establish himself as a varsity member in good standing on one of the best cross country teams in the state of New Jersey. 

Everybody knew Harris was fast by that point, and he continued his career at the University of Virginia. We lost touch for a while, but at some point after our sophomore years, word got around that Brian had cancer. What? And that he had two toes on his right foot amputated. WHAT?!! 

He was back running within six months, which seemed impossible, but he’s always been a freak. I say that with kindness, love, and respect. I’ve always been fascinated watching Brian run. One of his arms would slap against the side of his body like a screen door blowing in the breeze, yet he moved like a ghost. You didn’t hear him coming, he’d just appear, and then you’d feel this whooooooosh as he blew past. 

It must have been around 2008 when I was invited to team up with a bunch of friends for a relay race across the state of New Jersey. Invited may be too strong a word. The boys needed one more runner, someone remembered that I used to run a little, and they figured maybe I wouldn’t slow them down too much. 

They were all still fast, but Harris was just a cut above everyone else. Knowing what he had been through, I got tears in my eyes watching him run that first year. Here was someone I’d known forever who possessed this amazing talent. How did he do it? Where did it come from? Self-deprecating to a fault, and always quick to downplay his accomplishments, Harris would just shrug. “I don’t know,” he’d say. “I’ve just always been fast.” 

I get it -- how does one really explain their own talent? -- but I wanted to know more. We had a chance to catch up this week, and I finally got a chance to ask him all the questions I’ve always wanted to ask about his running.  

How and when did you start running? 

I would say full time in high school. We did grade school cross country and that was only only a few months a year. Even then it was sporadic. I’d run a little here and there, but nothing consistent until high school. 

I could kind of keep up with you, but I couldn’t really keep up with you back then. You had another gear that we just didn’t have. 

You know what it was? I was intense. For whatever reason, and I think it was probably too much pressure, I would get worked up about gym class runs and have butterflies. For me, I always loved sports, but that was the first time I found a sport where I was better than average. 

That’s not putting myself down or waiting for somebody to say, ‘Oh no, you were better than that.’ You remember in eighth grade, the only reason I made the basketball team was because they threw me a bone. Not only was I on the B team, but I absolutely rode the bench more than anyone else on the B team. 

I think I picked the team that year because we didn’t have a coach. 

(Laughs). I wanted to be on the basketball team so bad! I’ll be completely honest, that was what I loved. I loved basketball. I liked running, but I think I liked it more because I was good at it. 

It was clear that by freshman year of high school that you were on another level. 

This is part of the intensity thing. I knew from when we were little kids how good the tradition was at North Hunterdon. 

When did it click for you? 

I made a huge jump after sophomore year going into junior year. I think that jump was in lockstep from when Brendan (Heffernan) got good, and I was trying to keep up with him. It had a lot to do with him. 

(Ed note: Brendan won the cross country national championship race the year after we graduated in 1997.) 

What was your big high school highlight? 

My best race ever happened in high school. It was the Penn Relays distance medley. There was so much buildup to that race because we knew we had a strong team. That race I led off. I like to start slow. It’s kind of my thing. I have a lot of confidence in my closing speed. 

The last lap I went from the middle of the pack and handed off for the lead. I think I ran a 3:05 (in the three-quarter mile,) which is respectable for high school. Because it was on that stage, and I handed off for the lead, that was the best race of my life. 

What was your college running experience like? 

It was good, but there was a lot of frustration. In college, you do so much more volume and intensity. It’s funny. I always tell people who are casual runners who say, ‘Oh you’re fast.’ They don’t understand. The difference between me and a casual runner is just as great as the difference between me and the people who are going to be competing for the Olympic team. Those people are on another level. You get to college and this big hand comes down and it’s like, Whack!

I was just trying not to drown my freshman year. Then my sophomore year I was doing pretty well. I was getting relatively good. I think I was 25th or 26th in the ACC in cross country, which was good. Just as a footnote, that’s when the ACC was nine schools because they had just let in Florida State. 

Dude, we’re old. 

We’re so old! That was a strong conference. In outdoor track I want to say I was sixth in the steeplechase. Right after that is when I found out I had cancer in my foot. And that was a blow. 

We’ve never really talked about it. 

Not much. This was totally someone young being young because I knew there was something going on with my foot. There was a growth in there that got to be the size of a large marble. It developed over the course of two years. It was my right foot, the second and third toes. 

I can’t believe I hid it from my parents for that long. By the time I finally did something about it, it was after my sophomore year. They took it out, biopsied it, and that’s when we got the call. I’ll never forget it. The doctor called and said we have to go to the hospital right now. We went down and they said you have synovial sarcoma.

The next day we went down to the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia and that’s when they told us what they recommended, which was taking out the second and third toe of that foot. You know ... gosh. To this day, that was one of my worst moments because my mother passed out. I just felt like a terrible kid. 

Here’s the irony of the whole story. I ran well that sophomore year. My coach called me up and said we’re doubling your scholarship. I called my coach a couple of weeks later and said hey, I’m getting my toes removed. To their credit, they did not pull that money. 

What was the rehab like? 

At first, I couldn’t put any weight on for at least a month and a half. Then it was in a pool. That kind of stuff. If I remember correctly and I think I do, it was July 5, 1994 when I had the surgery. By late October, I went to the training room and said, ‘I’m going to go running today.’ 

The physical therapist was like, alright, let me see you stand on that right foot and do 25 toe lifts. I don’t think I could do five. He’s like, ‘You’re not running today.’ He wanted to see me do four sets of 25 before I run. 

I want to say I was running again by December. I was just happy to run. 

What was that like? 

It should have been more emotional, but in the back of my head I always thought that I would. If you’re going to take anything off your body, what are you going to take? A couple of toes. From day one they told me my big toe was huge. That would have been a different story. The second I was able to run again, it was like, Ok, let’s see if I can get it back.

You had a pretty strong comeback. 

I did alright. Yeah, I did alright. I mean, it didn’t seem like it at the time. I remember guys that were my year, when we were seniors they were up there at the top. I don’t think I ever placed in the conference again. 

When I went to get my certification to teach, I had a year of eligibility left. It was at Kutztown in Pennsylvania, Division II. I qualified for the national indoor meet in the 5,000 meters. I ran 14:40 at BU. That’s a fast track, by the way.  

You ran 14:40? 

(Sighs) Honestly, I wish I could have that race back. It was decent. I mean, it is and it isn’t. I don’t know. You know what? The last mile of that race I was so happy that things were going well that I could have been five seconds faster. That’s still my fastest 5K ever. 

I was going to ask, what’s it like to be fast? 

Laughs

It’s a serious question. I can still run a 6-minute mile and that’s kind of fast. 

Hell yeah. 

But, I was never that fast. I mean, legitimately fast to where going into a race, and I’ve heard you say this to people: ‘I’m going to beat you, and I’m going to beat you, and I’m going to win.’ 

It is fun. 

Yeah, what it’s like. 

It’s pretty cool. You feel like you’re sort of special. But it’s like anything else in life. If you’re really into it, you always want to be faster. You know there’s all these people who are ahead. As much as it was cool, I still remember looking at the other runners who were so much faster. 

There was a guy at Georgia Tech named David Krummenacker*, and I remember watching him and thinking, that guy is on another level. You always wanted more. 

(*Ed note: Krummenacker won three straight U.S. outdoor championships in the 800 meters from 2001-03.)

But yeah, to win races, it is fun. You feel like everyone’s eyes are on you. I’m an extrovert, right? So I like the attention. I think I enjoyed it. 

I’ll tell you though, as we get older, it cuts both ways, man. I specifically don’t want to race as much because I can’t run nearly what I used to, and you feel like people are still looking at you going, ‘Wasn’t he once fast?’ 

For the record, Harris has always been fast.

This may sound like a strange question, but do you like running? 

Yeah, I do. That’s the funny thing. When we were younger, I don’t know that I did so much. I just liked being good at it. Who doesn’t really like being good at something? When I was younger, it was more about being good at something, but as I get older, I really do appreciate running for running. 

When I’m out on runs, especially this time of the year, oh God, it’s awesome. You know where we grew up, it’s beautiful around here. There’s a few things I enjoy about it. I enjoy just staying in shape. I enjoy getting out with my friends because I still run with a bunch of guys in the area, Gary (Rosenberg) and Dom (Grillo.) The funny thing is, Paul, they kick my ass now.

Let’s be honest, from my late 30s until basically now I was slacking so much. I give Gary a lot of credit. I wasn’t running at all and he was like, just come with me once a week. That got me back into it. I don’t want to get that out of shape again, you know? I really don’t. 

How would you describe your running style?

I kind of lope, like a fast shuffle. I kind of hunch over. I wouldn’t say it’s lazy, but I kind of lope. It’s definitely very focused. 

It’s not textbook. 

Uh-uh. But I would say it’s smooth, like a smooth loping lazy stride. When I’m into it, when I’m focused, I’m lockstep into what I’m doing. 

Henry (Abbott) talked about our relay team in an earlier interview. That team was huge for me because it got me back into running. Talk about slacking, I didn’t want to embarrass myself. 

The only thing I cared about on that day was that everyone gave it their all, that you put it out there. God, every year, I miss that so much. It’s been like seven or eight years, right? 

We kept doing that race and that was when I was becoming more and more of a slacker. That was really the decline of my running. You would have thought that would have been the motivation to get me going, but I love that day because it was people I enjoyed hanging out with, and they were giving it their all. It was a lot of fun. I miss that so much. 

That last year we did it, everyone ran so hard, and we did so well. It was a good ending for it to be an ending, but I wasn’t ready for it to be an ending. It was so satisfying because everyone ran their guts out. That’s a day I will never forget. 

Speaking of good days. You ran, what was it, 2:27 at Boston? 

No, no, no, no. It wasn’t that good. It was 2:32.29

Oh sorry (laughs), I was off by five minutes. 

It was 2007 and a nor’easter blew through. The winner ran 2:14 that year. I got either 60th or 61st, I feel like somebody got DQ’d or something, I don’t know. That’s the other race I would put up there with the Penn Relays, because it’s Boston.

I’ve done three road marathons and I never ran one that I thought was remotely good. Did you feel like you got it right that day? 

Yeah. (Long sigh.) 

There’s part of me that’s still somewhat upset, because if that was a decent weather day, I was ready, man. I was so ready. I remember I started kind of slow and just mowed people down all day. That was awesome. 

I’ll never forget it, but eh, I wish it was a faster time. I guess I shouldn’t complain. To be top 100 at Boston is pretty cool. My perspective afterward was everyone ahead of me does this for a living.  

What do you get out of running now? 

A lot of it’s social, and it’s also satisfaction with yourself. The last month and a half I’ve been going 40 miles each week and a couple of weeks I was close to 50 miles. It feels good to have done that. It’s nice to have done that. You’re not doing it for anyone else but you at this point, and it's nice to do it for you.  

Runs that you don't feel good generally suck. I had one the other day where my heart rate was going crazy and it was just tough. But when you’re having a run, and you feel pretty good and you’re out there, I think every runner feels this, you’re free. 

I hate working out indoors. That’s part of the appeal. Getting outside, you know your routes. For you it’s probably even better because you’re doing trails. I love getting outdoors and being alive. That’s a big part of it. 

How much of that is for you, is it similar? 

I like being in shape, I like being able to eat what I want to eat. 

Yes. 

I like being 46 years old and still being able to kick ass. 

I think a lot of getting older is you’re trying to hold on to what you once were. That’s the big part of staying in shape. Yeah, I can’t do what I once did, but I haven’t gone completely in the other direction. You’re at least a semblance of what you once were. 

To your other point, I’m going on a long run tomorrow. I can’t wait to get out there and be free for three whole hours. I probably won’t sleep much tonight because I’m so excited. 

That’s awesome. Especially if you’re a competitive person, just the challenge of, ‘Can I still do this?’ That’s part of it too. Gary’s doing a marathon. We’ve been doing 13-mile runs on the weekend and he wanted to go further. So we did a 16-mile run and we ran a pretty good pace. We averaged like 6:56 for the whole 16 miles. To be able to say, ‘Ok, I averaged under 7-minute miles for 16 miles,’ I got off on that. 

Again, I mean, we’re not young. I think people are lying if they say that’s not at least part of it. 

I really don’t care where I finish in a race anymore. All I really care about is that moment in a race where it can go either way. Either you go in the tank or you say, this is my reality and I’m going to take it. That’s all I’m after, that moment of truth. 

It’s very satisfying. Think about it. Realistically, how many things can we really be that competitive with at our age? That’s a big part of it. You can still push the limits. I’m not going to lie to you, there’s a part of me that would like to do more consistent training. I just run now. There’s no workouts involved. I would like to do some workouts and eventually once COVID’s over, do some races. 

I want to do Boston again. I’ve never done New York. I really do want to do New York, New York’s cool, but Boston’s just different. For people in New York it’s still about the spectacle, but people in Boston actually get it. They understand what times are, they understand the race. 

Something that still gives me goosebumps. I ran Boston again (in 2014) when we turned 40, that happened to be the year after the attack. I’ll never forget the flyover, people were shaking, all the emotion. And I ran awful that day. I fell apart in the second half. (Laughs.) 

I used to run because I was fast, but now I just do it because it makes me feel good. I’m just grateful that the sport I gravitated toward is a lifetime sport. 

We’re going running again this summer. 

Yes we are.