Shiprock’s Antonio Yazzie: Cowboy turned runner

SHIPROCK

While many of his classmates are still warm in their beds, Antonio Yazzie makes his way to the Shiprock Northwest High School track just before the sun rises.

He works on his conditioning alone and finishes off his morning workout with an 8-mile run.

“It’s more quiet and I can focus more,” he said. “I tell myself I need to wake up because I know the guy that I’m going to race in state will be already in shape so I need to put myself together. Every morning I get up at 4 o’clock just to run, do my sprints.”

After two full season of competitive high school running, getting up to run is still a concept Yazzie struggles with.

It is not easy for the 18-year-old cowboy-turned cross-country runner, who is looking for a shot at his first state cross-country title.

“Everyday I have to run, sometimes I don’t want to, but the hardest thing is probably just staying with it; running,” he said.

But he does it because running challenges him.

Yazzie, now a senior, dabbled in the sport when he was in junior high but began to take it seriously as a sophomore in high school. He said a friend encouraged him to give it a try so he did.

“It was tough,” he said. “I was not really in shape and I was kind of getting mad at myself because I was not on the top where I should be. That was my goal; to become top 10 or just being up there with the top guys.”

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