Who: Will Leer
High School: Minnetonka High School, Minnetonka, Minn., Class of 2003
HS Personal Bests:
400m: 50.8
800m: 1:54.6
1600m: 4:16.4
Current Personal Bests:
1500m: 3:35.27
Mile: 3:56.39
3,000m: 7:39.38
5,000m: 13:21.55
“One-fifty-four-point … umm … six. Yeah, one-fifty-four-point-six for 800,” Will Leer says, remembering his high school PBs down to the tenth of a second. Even if it takes a little racking of the brain.
It’s easier to remember his PBs now. They’re all pretty fresh in his mind. They happened in the last six months. Leer is a graduate of Pomona College in Claremont, Calif., who now runs for Nike and trains by himself most of the year. He’s living in Southern California but also doing stints at altitude in places like Flagstaff, Ariz. It seems to be working, because he set PBs in the 1500m, 3,000m, and 5,000m in 2013. It really was, as a recent Running Times article declared, “The Year of Leer,” awesome mustache and all.
Leer spoke with us on Tuesday to remember his high school running days, even though soccer kept him from being too serious in cross country.
Most Memorable Race(s): Qualifying the 4 x 800 team for states his senior year was a big deal to Leer, who gave up his shot to make the 1600 individually so he, two other seniors, and a junior could make the trip to states. “Accomplishing things in regards to the team aspect of track and field has always been really important to me,” says Leer. “When we made it as a team, it was just awesome.”
Leer didn’t run much cross country (he ran races when his soccer schedule allowed), but he remembers the state qualifying race from his senior year. Leer’s coach told him to make state he’d need run 16:30 over a hilly 5K course. He says, “I ran 16:25 and was first man to not make it to states.” He says even though his coach ended up being wrong about a sub-16:30 being good enough to make states, Leer wasn’t that upset he didn’t make it. He was a soccer player.
Favorite Workout: Leer specifically remembers one workout because he says, “I thought it was like the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life.” They started out with a mile at threshold pace, 5:30 for the mile, and then rested for a minute before running a 200 in 28 seconds. They would jog around for a bit and then do it again two more times, so the entire workout was 3 x 1 mile and 3 x 200m. Each mile got a little faster. “Running a mile was a gargantuan feat,” says Leer, who considered himself more of a sprinter. “The last mile, no one was listening to threshold,” Leer says, “and we would just race.”
Nostalgia For Team: Leer misses competing with his team. “There is nothing else like it in track and field,” he says. “I'm not sure what it is, but in college track it’s a different experience. That's probably because athletes have so many different things going on. And as a pro, competing becomes a very individual pursuit. We had so much fun competing together in high school. My teammates then are still some of the guys I keep in closest contact with now.”
Other Activities: In addition to playing soccer with his high school team, he played for a club squad as well. This meant hours upon hours of practice, especially when you threw track into the mix during the spring. He also was an alpine skier, which leer says qualified as explosive training, because it was slalom skiing, and aerobic work. “We didn’t take the ski lift, we walked back up the hills,” Leer says. He also was in NHS and student government and he wonders now, “How did I find time for that in a day?” He was completely exhausted when he was in high school and says it was “amazing.”
Favorite Day In The Cafeteria: “I was very spoiled in that I had home lunch pretty much every single day,” says Leer. Except for Tuesdays. That was pizza day. They’d get delivered Dominoes pizza, which, Leer says, “now sounds horrible.” He was also a fan of the mozzarella sticks when looking to eat on the unhealthy side.
Favorite HS Dance Song: Night At The Roxbury came out right as he entered high school. “The Prevalence of Haddaway’s “What is Love?” was always a huge hit,” says Leer. He and his high school friends still remember dancing and bouncing around the cafeteria like Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan.
Advice to High School Runners: Enjoy yourself and have fun. Leer also advises trying out different things to find out what you like to do. “One of the advantages of being in high school is being able to experience as many things as possible,” he says. “Because, when you’re gone, you’re gone. You’re never going to get a chance again. If what you do is play soccer but you think that running track would be fun, then give it a chance. Or if you what you do is run track and cross country, but you think that another sport in the winter is fun, then do it. It’s not going to be a detriment to one of the other sports. It doesn’t have to be like that.”
You may not recognize the babyfaced runner in the above picture. This may help:
You can follow Leer on Twitter (@william_leer). Thanks to him and his dad for the picture. Make sure to follow us for Throwback Thursday and more on Twitter (@RunningTimesHS) and Instagram (@RunningTimes)
