Colby Burcham

Our Athlete of the Week is Colby Burcham!

Colby started running when he was really little. He did road 5k’s with no training, followed by track for his middle school team. In 8^th grade, he joined cross-country for Deep Run and loved it! He also did indoor track for them but had to come back to middle school level for Outdoor track season.

After searching for that competitive edge, Colby decided to join Endorphin Fitness and has been with us for about 2 years. Colby says his coach, Ryan Middleton, has always pushed him to do his very best on whatever it is he is doing. Even if he thinks he has nothing left, Ryan has taught Colby that he always has something more.

Colby’s race distances include the 5k, 3200m, 1600m, 1000m, 800m, and the 400m. Colby is very much a distance person, so he would say that the 5k is his favorite. He also likes the 3200m and 1600m, but there is just something special about the 5k.

So far, this season has been great for Colby. He has state qualified 4 times and even qualified for nationals in the 4x800m. He has PR’d in nearly every event Coach Ryan put him in so far, so pretty amazing for Colby. This season, Colby would like to break 2:40 in the 1000m and also break 9:35 in the 3200m.

Colby’s favorite race was outdoor during his freshman year, when he was in the 3200m. One of his soon to be rivals was in it too. Colby seeded 1^st and his rival seeded 2^nd. No one in the race had ever broken 10 minutes. Colby had always come close, but this seemed like his golden opportunity. Colby and his rival were going back and forth the whole race, but in the end, he out kicked him and won, breaking 10 minutes.

Colby’s least favorite race was also during his freshman outdoor season. He was at UVA’s track and was in the DMR, which is a very unique event that Colby had never run. He was running the 1200m leg and went out faster than he should have. Colby says, “I ended up dying at the end and go this by someone’s spike on my leg and it was a disaster.”

When we asked Colby for advice to beginners, he says, “My best advice to anyone who wants to start running is to know how to put it all out there for a workout but also know how to take the easy days easy. You have to trust the process and it’ll take you anywhere you want to go.”