My most absurd memory of Shane Sullivan, the golden star of the Emory Cross Country team, was when he came off months of injury and cross training to place fourth in the 5000 meters and second in the 3000 meters at our indoor conference meet.

Going in, no one expected much of Shane – after all he had been injured for months and had barely logged any miles going into the meet. But after, he was one of our most valuable performers, and he looked effortless doing it.

“Injury has defined my career so far as it has tested the depths of my motivation and passion for the sport,” Shane said. “Days of injury are some of my darkest days.”

Throughout his career in college, Shane has missed large portions if not entire portions of seasons due to different injuries. But despite that, he ran personal records of 14:43 in the 5000 meters and 8:33 in the 3000 meters after his freshman year.

But what’s more astounding about Shane’s performance is his ability to turn in spectacular races and workouts, immediately after injuries.

What bewilders me and the rest of us, is how effortlessly he is able to run. One look at Shane when he’s running at speeds faster than he’s ever run before makes you question:

“Is this an easy jog or a race?”

He has mastered the art of running relaxed as much as any elite runner. It is common knowledge to us as his teammates that his form is perfect – he expends no unnecessary energy and, until the final lap, looks like he’s jogging the entire time.

“Shane looks effortless when he runs,” Tyler Breeden said. “Whenever he laps me during races and workouts, my girlfriend thinks much less of me.”

It was somewhat of a tragedy when Shane got injured at the beginning of Cross Country during his junior year. He was having terrific workouts and seeming like he would finally make his breakthrough, but was again deterred by a hip injury.

However, despite being injured yet again, he again showed the ability to turn in great breakthroughs despite not being 100% healthy.

During the Division III National Championships, Shane turned in an over 20 second PR in the 8000 meter run to place third on our team and run 25:31. Emory Cross Country placed 24th on the national stage in that meet, better than it had in several years.

Before then, however, Shane had never had a season in which he was 100% unhealthy – leading our coach, Lance Harden, and the rest of us to still believe he had not reached his full potential. As he ran a superb 14:43 5000 meter run as a freshman, the sky was the limit for Shane.

And everyone was right – he would run a personal best of 8:22 in the 3000 meter run in his indoor campaign. He would be the conference champion in the 5000 meter run and third in the 3000 meter run, breaking his own school record numerous times in the 3000 meters.

But Shane was not satisfied. Although his time was good enough to make the National Championships for Division III Indoor Track, it was converted to a much slower time since he ran it on a curved track. When he tried to run a faster time to qualify, he would run 8:27, and would lay in his bed at the disappointment, despondent for days.

“I never dwell on breakthroughs but for an instant – a moment of satisfaction and affirmation – before looking toward the next meet, workout, and opportunity.”

And this mindset would repeat itself later in the outdoor season – Shane would run 14:24 in the 5000 meters, breaking a school record that had been set for over 20 years. This would be enough to qualify him for the Outdoor National Championships.

However, due to a combination of heat and fatigue from a long season, Shane would not perform up to his expectations at Nationals, falling off the lead pack early in the race.

He would finish with a time of 15:00 at Nationals, well below his standards. As a result of the bad ending, Shane has a somewhat pessimistic view of his most recent season.

“To have a breakthrough season obviously feels great,” he said. ”But to end on a sour note made the whole season feel like a bit of a failure.”

Anyone who knows Shane knows he’s an extremely laid back person. One piece of advice he gave me my freshman year embodies that mindset – he told me not to dwell. A bad race or workout is just a bad workout, but a good one is also just a good one.

There’s nothing I can do to control the outcome to a race after it finished, so he advised me to just think about my next opportunity and how I should best prepare for that.

He maintains a laid back mindset when asked about his goals this season.

“I just want to stay healthy and compete,” he said. “Anything that may flow from that is icing on the cake as far as I am concerned.”

Shane, like any runner who has been sidelined for an extremely long time, is someone who simply enjoys and has fun running. Severe injuries have taught him that every run in itself is a gift. He’s often the funny guy of practice, because even when he’s injured, Shane is often the first guy to crack jokes at practice, and being so good, he can make fun of our coach with no repercussions.

Sometimes, I used to cross train next to him on the elliptical, and part of loving running is simply an aversion to the boredom and sheer pain of having to cross train. However, I don’t think Shane has ever gone so hard on the elliptical that he has made the machine smoke, so I have one accomplishment over him.

But when he is healthy – this last season proved one thing – he has no limits. He could become an All-American in Cross Country very easily – a goal that has eluded the Emory Men’s Cross Country team for a very long time. He could break our school record in the 8000 meters – we all know he’s capable.

Shane needs to proceed extremely carefully as a runner, more than most. He has to pay more attention to his body than most other runners, or tragedy could strike yet again.

But despite the restraints his injury-prone body places on him, they have still affected his life in positive ways.

“Injuries forced me into other realms of life,” he said. “They allowed me to move towards a more balance life outside of running.”

Last year, he had to miss practice twice a week as an employee at the Federal Defender program in Atlanta, helping provide legal service to defendants without the means to hire lawyers. Despite this commitment, he still was an integral member to our team and made huge breakthroughs individually.

He’s unsure of his career at the moment, but he had this hope for it:

“If all goes perfectly, my career and running will coincide,”

But Shane as an individual would probably not have stayed with the sport – and would not have enjoyed it as a college athlete if not for the teammates that supported him along the way.

His fondest memory of the weekend he broke the long-standing school record in the 5000 meter run was not breaking the record, but instead hanging out with alumnus Lukas Mees (who I also wrote an article about), who travelled with him from Atlanta to Raleigh.

Another of the greatest memories Shane has in college was a spring break training trip he took with Lukas, and other teammates, Jordan Flowers and Josh Traynelis, where the group spent the whole break camping and running in the woods, and cooking food by throwing random vegetables in the stew.

“Every meet, every chance I get to hang out with the dudes and run at the same time,” he said. “That is a fond memory I will look back upon.”

One memory that Shane takes pride in, that most people won’t know, is his mind-boggling time in the “double bondarenko,” a 2-mile interval workout in which we alternate consistently between race pace and marathon pace.

Shane ran a time of 9:39 for that pre-race workout, a better 2-mile time than almost half of our team that he ran at the end of an easy run. This proved two thing: one, the rest of us had a hell of a lot of catching up to do, and two, Shane is on a whole other level.

With health finally seeming to be on his side and him being a leader of a young team – he will have to take on a greater role in addition to his performances as a runner. Shane has always led by example, but few people on our team have the sheer natural talent he does. Few of us will accomplish what he already has.

“As Shane has become the fastest runner on the team he has also found himself in the leadership position that comes with his position,” said teammate Phil Edwards. “Alongside his improvement as a runner, I think he has also grown into his role as a leader on the team.”

I’m interested to see how his narrative plays out this year, and see how Shane evolves as both a runner and person. For the last three years, some of Shane’s best friends on the team had been a year above him, and for many younger athletes he was “too cool.”

Now, they are gone, and we have as many freshmen entering our program as we do returners. Now, for Shane, it’s a fresh start.