Gloucester Alumni

By Matt Jenkins , Staff Writer
Gloucester Daily Times

Tristan Colangelo has been through some changes since graduating from Princeton University in 2004.

Colangelo, a former cross country state champion and track standout at Gloucester High, moved back home and became an elementary school teacher in town. He limited his training and gained weight. He even spied a few grays hiding out in a full head of dark brown hair.

Although it was becoming clear to Colangelo that the aging process was in full stride, he decided it was too early to start thinking about retirement from the track.

After a year spent teaching fifth grade at Veterans Memorial Elementary School in town, Colangelo headed south and resumed training in hopes of qualifying for the 2008 Summer Olympics in the steeplechase.

"It became obvious that I wasn't quite as done as I thought I had been," the 25-year-old Colangelo said.

"Certainly if I was going to make a run at it, I wasn't just going to move and quit my job just to run the same PRs I had before. If I was going to do it, I really wanted to devote myself to it and set lofty goals. The Olympic Trials are a good place to start."

Colangelo made calls and sent out e-mails to college track coaches, looking for an opportunity to help coach in a warm climate. Randy Bungard of the University of Virginia responded, and Colangelo joined the Cavaliers as a volunteer assistant this year.

"It's a lifestyle"

In addition to coaching experience, Colangelo gained a large group of training partners and top-notch facilities. He's lost the carefree lifestyle he enjoyed after his competitive collegiate career was over.

"Yeah, I've lost some weight. I gained a lot after college, then lost a lot (when I started training)," Colangelo said. "It's a lifestyle. You have to watch what you eat and when you go to sleep. When you don't run, you don't care a lot about that. It's a lot of fun not to do that, but you have to really clamp down in your lifestyle. It's not something you do for a couple of days; it's years at a time. You have to enjoy doing it to go ahead and do it for a long period of time."

Colangelo was turned on to the steeplechase when he was a sophomore at Princeton. He's always figured it was his best shot to continue his track career beyond college.

The steeplechase is an odd-looking event to outsiders, where athletes compete in a 3,000-meter race that includes 28 barriers or hurdles, as well as seven water jumps with a pit of water that is 12 feet long and slopes upward.

The distance of the race is a perfect fit for Colangelo, who has always excelled in distance events. But learning to hurdle was initially a process.

"There's really not that much difference in training. Even in college I was training mostly with 5 and 10K guys anyway," Colangelo, a Gloucester High School Hall of Famer, said. "I would tweak the workouts a little and do stuff over hurdles. At the end of the day I might do some water pit jumps just to refresh. It might take a year to get used to hurdling and get the technique. You need to be in good shape."

No subjectivity

Colangelo's lofty goals don't surprise the people who have known him since he was a child.

"I would have been surprised if he hadn't (aimed for the Olympic Trials)," Jim Munn, Colangelo's former track coach at Gloucester High, said. "He's young and he chose a difficult institution for higher learning, so you know he's more than willing to accept the greatest challenges out there.

"Tristan still relates to running and he's still young and in position. I commend him for doing it. It's been in his mind since graduation - and he didn't want to hang up the spikes. You can't blame him."

Colangelo feels he's making progress in his training, but he still has a long way to go before the trials next June.

"The greatest part with track is that there is no subjectivity. Either you run the time or you don't," Colangelo said. "The Olympic Trial A standard is 8:32 and I ask myself, 'How am I going to get there?' I've run 8:47 so that's 15 seconds I need to chop off. It will come without injuries, some good, hard training and a little luck.

"I've been running for so long I know what the training is going to be like. But it's a matter of things falling into place and doing the right thing."

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