GARDEN GROVE – Running was a bit of an afterthought for Jacob Bourgeois during his freshman year at Pacifica High. He joined cross country as a way to get exercise, make friends and challenge himself physically.
Then Bourgeois watched the London 2012 Summer Olympics and everything changed. He was awestruck by the graceful strides of athletes who devoted their lives to becoming better runners.
That summer, he decided to do the same.
He watched videos, read articles about training schedules and nutrition and learned to cook healthful recipes. He began to concentrate everything in his life around one purpose.
“I just decided that I wanted to take my potential and turn it into success,” Bourgeois said. “I looked at professional runners – the Kenyans – and I would look at their form and try to emulate them. And I just started putting in as much effort as I could.”
He changed his running stride so that he no longer landed on his heel but instead struck the ground with his forefoot, as many of the great Kenyan runners do. The transition took about a month but showed dramatic results by the season’s end.
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Bourgeois was raised by a single mother as the youngest of six children in Garden Grove. He had a handful of interests as a kid – gymnastics and violin, to name a few – but nothing grabbed him like running did three years ago.
“Of all the things he’s done, this has definitely been the one where he has taken it to the next level, where he has become very interested and self-motivated,” said his mother, Linda Bourgeois.
His freshman season times were mostly above 18 minutes. Bourgeois has whittled minutes off that.
By the end of the following season, Bourgeois had knocked his time down to 16:39, good for 14th at CIF-SS Cross Country Prelim and a personal record by more than 30 seconds.
He earned All-Empire League cross country honors as a junior and qualified for the California Indoor State Track and Field Championships in the 1- and 2-mile races that winter.
During the spring track season, he did whatever he could to win points for Pacifica, often competing in the maximum four events per meet – including the 1,600-meter and 800-meter races, the 300-meter hurdles and the 4×400 relay.
“He’s a natural-born athlete,” said Michael Canas, Pacifica‘s cross country and track coach. “Basically, he’s going to do well at whatever he applies himself to, but if you’re talking about just sheer core strength, steeplechase is where I see him in college.”
Bourgeois’ cross country times are just below the 16-minute mark. He wants – and expects – to get faster.
“The first goal is to set the school record for the three mile,” he said. “It’s 15:05 right now. I want to put it in the 14s and at least get to CIF-SS finals, if not as an individual then with my team. The final goal is state, though.”
Bourgeois continues to approach running with careful calculation. He sets time aside for stretching, icing and recovery; he still cooks most of his own meals so he can control his rigid nutrition needs.
Last December, in preparation for track season, he started doing two workouts a day, waking up at 4:30 a.m. to run and training with the team after school. He’d meet with Canas regularly to make sure that his own running schedule would complement the coach’s practice plan.
This summer, Bourgeois ran an average 60-70 miles a week. He plans to get to 80-90 miles a week in the winter before track season.
“He understands the synergy of running,” Canas said. “He knows that getting enough sleep is just as important as getting your splits. He understands how if you eat properly you’ll recover quickly. His favorite class, I think, is chemistry, so when he cooks he understands how the proteins heat up at a certain point and retain their traditional value and all this stuff. That’s the level he’s at.”
Bourgeois’ college plans are unclear right now. He’ll likely attend and run at Orange Coast College until he figures out what he wants to study.
As for his final high school season, Bourgeois had to sit out what should have been his first race this fall to rest a sore Achilles tendon. He expects to be back to full strength next week.
For Bourgeois, the hardest part is waiting to race again.
“Sometimes I’ll just be sitting at home thinking about it and I’ll think about finishing, crossing the line, coming in first,” Bourgeois said. “And that gets my heart racing. I think about that and it makes me want to do the work to succeed.”
Contact the writer: 714-704-3796 or mhanlon@ocregister.com
