Passion fuels Briarwood Christian senior Zack Howard’s every stride

Zack Howard identifies with the words of Steve Prefontaine. As the iconic distance runner once said, “To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.”

This motivational motto explains why Howard, a Briarwood Christian School senior, pushes himself to run through, not to, the finish line during taxing workouts that challenge both mind and body. In late July, for instance, he clicked off three, 1-mile repeats at a pace close to 5 minutes, 15 seconds per rep, cruising until full completion on each. 

“Summer training has been really good,” said Howard, his hat turned backward as he prepared to set out on an evening run in August. “I’ve been putting in a lot of miles.”

The motivational motto also explains why Howard, who began running in eighth grade after getting cut from the middle school basketball team, allocates time each day to practice multiple methods of recovery. He endures muscle-numbing ice baths, engages in frequent tussles with a foam roller and ensures he accumulates the perfect amount of shut-eye. 

Sleep sustains.  

"A little more than eight hours, or sometimes even nine hours” every night,  he said. 

All of this — the motto, the drive, the meticulousness —  explains why Howard enters the 2017 cross-country season as a bona fide candidate to become his school's first individual state champion in nearly two decades. The Lions’ Ben Whitaker last won a cross-country crown in 1999, when Briarwood competed in the 1A-3A classification. 

“I know that Zack has the potential to be right up there at the very, very top, with the top two or three,” said Briarwood cross-country coach Aaron Margene. “I know he’s gunning for that.”

Why wouldn’t he? 

Howard enjoyed a breakout junior year in both cross-country and track, catapulting up the state rankings. Last fall he lowered his 5K personal-best by more than 40 seconds, to 16:37, and posted a fifth-place finish at the state meet. In the spring, Howard ran 4:38 in the 1,600 meters and 10:11 in the 3,200 meters. His progress culminated in a pair of top-five showings at the state track and field meet in Gulf Shores. 

“I think the key that really helped me was that I was pushing really hard during the season and during the hard workouts,” he said, “and I’m going to keep doing that.”

But Howard, in a similar vein, will also be taking his easy days as easy as he takes his hard days hard. Last year he discovered the necessity of counterbalance. 

The “art” of the easy run, as he terms it, enables his tired muscles to recuperate actively and effectively. 

Holding back didn’t come naturally at first, but it never has for Howard. Margene remembers first witnessing his motor as a freshman, when his natural inclination for running — and running fast — pulled him ahead of his teammates during practice. 

As far as passion goes, Margene said he hasn’t coached an athlete with a level tantamount to Howard’s in the last 10 years. 

“He loves cross-country, and he lives to run,” said Margene, a Briarwood cross-country alum who joined the coaching staff 16 years ago. “He eats, sleeps, breathes running. That’s what he does, and you start to see it in some of the other kids. They enjoy running more.”

Howard has channeled his passion into swift results, and he’s hoping to shave even more ticks off his times this school year. 

Already, he’s charted the October race when he’ll aim to take down Briarwood’s long-standing 5K school record. McGavock Dunbar, the 1998 state champion, ran 16:05. 

Months in advance, Howard also has plotted varying strategies for attacking the state meet, which isn’t until mid-November. 

He’ll have hills to crest and competition to conquer. But when chasing a title, maximizing the gift means leaving little to chance. 

“Either way it comes out, I know I’m going to be giving it my all,” Howard said.