The last runner to break Pima College's 5,000-meter record went on to be a six-time All-American and a two-time Olympian, a world traveler who is sponsored by Nike and lives in one of Tucson's exclusive gated communities.
At a track meet in Tempe a few weeks ago, Abdi Abdirahman, PCC Class of '97, introduced himself to Craig Curley, Class of '08.
"You can break my record," the gracious Abdirahman said. "I want you to do it."
Two weeks later at the San Diego Triton Invitational, Curley was midway through a 5,000-meter race against some of the most-skilled competition he had ever faced. PCC coach Greg Wenneborg was clocking each of the 12 laps and he didn't like what he saw.
"Craig was running each lap in about 71 seconds," Wenneborg remembers. "With eight laps to go, I yelled to him that he was going to miss the record by about two seconds. I was almost holding my breath; it was pretty tense."
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Curley ran the next lap in 68 seconds. And the next. And the next. He passed everybody and won the 3.1-mile race in 14 minutes 23.2 seconds, snapping Abdirahman's decade-old record by two seconds.
Wenneborg, who has been an elite-class distance runner for almost 20 years, went from nervous to overjoyed.
"Somehow, Craig found it within himself to dig down and find a gear that few distance runners can find. He got faster instead of slower, as is usually the case. I was almost speechless."
Tuesday afternoon, while preparing for a workout on PCC's new track surface, Curley, 19, was wearing a green Oregon Ducks cap. He nodded when asked if he knew of Oregon's history as America's top distance-running school. He smiled when asked if wanted to run for the Ducks.
"It is my dream school," he said, quietly. "It once seemed impossible for me to run for Oregon."
Run 5,000 meters in 14:23.2 and barriers tumble. Wenneborg has since spoken with the Oregon coaching staff. He knows it is unlikely because the Ducks hand-pick their distance-running recruits and, in fact, turn away high school All-Americans.
"They told me they can't pass up a kid who runs 14:23," Wenneborg says. "They told me he would even score for them this year. I wasn't surprised. I can see Craig running 13:55 or so next year."
Curley, who is a sophomore from the community of Ganado on the Navajo Reservation, will board a bus this morning and take a 12-hour trip with his PCC teammates to South Plains College, near Lubbock, Texas. On Saturday night, he will attempt to win the National Junior College Athletic Association 5,000 meters championship.
Only one runner, Fred Samoei of host-school South Plains, has run a faster time (14:15) among all junior college runners this year.
This scenario is about as unexpected as that of Abdirahman, who did not run competitively while at Tucson High School and has since become America's leading 10,000-meter runner.
Curley is unassuming physically. He can't possibly weigh more than 115 pounds, if that, and he did not attract scholarship offers after leaving St. Michael high school in 2006. He was the Class 1A state cross country champion for the Hornets, but few outside the Navajo community noticed.
He arrived at Pima only when his sisters, PCC students Valerie and Sherlyn Curley, asked Wenneborg if their kid brother could try out for the Aztec track team.
Wenneborg's savvy response: "Have him call me."
"Craig is a little shy, but it's not a surprise to me to see what he's doing at Pima," says Bill McLaughlin, athletic director at St. Michael. "Running is his passion; that's his deal. He always pushed himself. He always wanted to make his family proud of him."
Ganado is a rural community — "mostly dirt," Curley says with a laugh, "but I love the peace and quiet" — in the northeast corner of the state. It is 87 percent Native American with a population estimated at 1,500. His family has horses and sheep. He grew up working the farm.
He is now working for a Division I scholarship. Oregon has yet to make an offer, and Arizona distance running coach James Li has been in touch. But after Saturday's NJCAA finals, Curley is likely to have a wide choice of top running schools.
Pima has a worthy tradition of distance-running success that dates 30 years. Sunnyside High School's Art Menchaca was second in the NJCAA steeplechase and 5,000 meters in 1977. Curley is the latest of an impressive group.
"Whatever happens Saturday won't make any difference," says Wenneborg. "Craig feels that second place would be a failure, but we know that anything in the top five will be great. In reality, he's just scratching the surface of what he can do."
Up next
• What: Pima College at NJCAA track championships
• Who: 19 Pima athletes
• Where: South Plains College, Levelland, Texas
• When: Today-Saturday
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