Seconds away from the crack of the starter’s pistol, nerves kick in and there’s no time to shake them off.
On your mark-get set-GO!
Off the starting block, David Cardona tripped and fell to the ground, but without a moment of hesitation, he was back on his feet and in the race again.
Despite that stumble, he managed to break a 28-year-old EC record in the 5,000-meter on March 3 during the Ben Brown Invitational.
Cardona’s 14 minutes and 21.27 seconds trumped 14:28.36, a record set by Rick Dodson in 1983.
“You can coach a person to be fit, you can coach a person to be in shape, but you can’t coach them to dig in that little extra bit,” coach Dean Lofgren said.
Cardona, 19, sociology major, started his running career in junior year of high school where he joined cross-country at North Torrance High School.
“Running is relaxing and is something that doesn’t take too much effort for me,” Cardona said. “It’s an escape from all the drama in life where I get to forget about everything and say it’s a nice day.”
Growing up he, looked up to basketball superstar Kobe Bryant; however, he later idolized the late great running legend Steve Prefontaine.
“In high school, I’d be more of a sit and kick kind of person, where at the last 200 meters I’d go all out,” Cardona said. “Now I run more like (prefontaine) and go guts out the whole race.”
With Cardona imitating his running to Prefonatine, he has always been running all out on the track. while also going through a lot of adversity.
“One of the unique things about David is that he can reach in and give you more than you actually expected from him or knew he was capable of, “ Lofgren said.
Cardona was accepted to Cal Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo in February where many EC runners have previously transferred.
“I still want to run after college, no matter if it goes all the way to the Olympics or if it’s just recreational,” Cardona said.
Cardona works part-time at an athletic store called Village Runner and runs with a club affiliated with them.
“He’s pretty smart about running, knows what pace to go, but he’s also a really outgoing and funny person,” Jose Lezama, track and field teammate, said. “He’s a guy I could talk to about anything.”
He is humble, mild mannered, has a good personality and has a good sense of humor, Lofgren said.
“Last year, when coaches would walk up to me and ask: ‘Hey, which one’s Cardona?’ and they’d point to five of our guys,” Lofgren said. “And I would say not them. Him.”
“They’d say- ‘That guy?’ because they expected someone that was walking around with a big ego, thumping their chest, sticking their number one finger in the air. That’s just not the way he is,” he said.
