There are days when running, it seems, is all Santiago Hardy has.

Water doesn’t run at Hardy’s home, and the 18 year old helps support the only other family member he lives with, his father. Santiago’s daily struggles are heart-wrenching. But there’s also an inspirational side to Santiago’s story.

He’s overcoming a lot to become the top Arizona high school boys distance runner this year. Running taught the Chinle High senior not to run away from his problems.

Hardy might lack basic needs, but he is rich in determination.

With every race he wins, Hardy’s fan base continues to grow as well on the Navajo Reservation, where running holds a special place in the hearts of Navajos.

Some of Hardy’s young fans and Chinle High School’s running community will attend Saturday’s cross country championships in Phoenix to cheer for him in his quest to duplicate last year’s feat as the Division III champ. There’s talk about him breaking the meet record (15:04) of the 3.1 mile state course at Cave Creek Golf Course.

But when he’s not training, competing or going after records, Hardy runs errands near a mesa and hilly terrain he lives by to earn money for him and his unemployed father, Neilton.

“Santiago is dealing with a lot of social ills that are present on the Rez. Broken homes. Low income. Alcoholism. Domestic violence. Long distances from schools,” said Chinle athletic director and well-respected cross country coach Shaun Martin.  “Most kids would roll over and give up and have a fear of going home. But Santiago turned his hardships into his advantage. It motivates him.”

Martin’s teams won 12 state titles and 19 individual state championships, and 49 of his runners received scholarships.

“Santiago is the best guy who’s come out of Chinle in the last 15 years,” Martin said. “Whether he admits or not, he is also a role model here and a celebrity.”

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Hardy almost quit running after his sophomore year.

Shin splints and the throbbing pain that followed almost took the then rail-thin Hardy out. As a freshman and sophomore, Hardy never broke the top-5 of Chinle High’s cross country team.

His first love was actually baseball, which Hardy planned on just pursuing during his junior year. But that summer between his sophomore and junior season, a summer job unexpectedly jumpstarted the second phase of his high school cross country career.

Hardy didn’t run that summer, but the physical labor he did while restoring trails and helping preserve national Native American monuments with the Student Conservation Association strengthened his body.

The time off from running also healed his shin splints, which may have been caused by improper or worn- out footwear.   

“It (summer work) helped balance out his body, coupled with his pure determination, he started running impressive times,” Martin said.  

When his junior season started, Hardy decided to give cross country another try.

There was something about the pain he felt after a race that drew him to cross country instead of baseball.

“I like the pain in my body after a race,” Hardy said. “It really felt good to work hard. It kept me going. I’ll get cramps and it felt good for some reason. It brought my spirits up.”

After his first meet his junior season, add shock to the things he’s felt after a race.

Hardy never finished in the top-10 during his freshman and sophomore seasons. But in his first meet as a junior, and after taking the summer off, Hardy finished sixth.

“I was scared,” he said about where he placed. “I thought, ‘Was I really trying? Did everybody just get lazy all of a sudden.’”

Nope. Hardy was just improving rapidly. 

Plus, he fully dedicated himself to the sport. 

“He’s living the lifestyle of a runner now,” Martin said.

Eat right. Train. Recover. Sleep. Repeat.

Hardy won his first meet, the Window Rock Invite, running in his Under Armour Micro G trainers, which he had used since his freshman season, instead of racing flats. Hardy sometimes ran in shoes his parents could afford.

When he was in sixth grade, he competed in his first race in a pair of old-school Converse Chuck Taylor All-Stars basketball shoes.

                              (Santiago Hardy competed in his first meet in his Converse Chuck Taylor All-Stars basketball shoes. Photo courtesy of Hardy.) 

 

Hardy eventually moved up to flats and started flattening the competition. He progressed so quickly that he won the D-III individual title last year, beating the next closest competitor by 29 seconds.

“It felt really good,” he said about the state title. “I wasn’t surprised anymore by winning.”

Transitioning from cross country to track is the next step in a runner’s high school career, but Hardy didn’t run track during his first three seasons.

He said that he wasn’t aware that Chinle High had a track and field team. Native American runners prefer to run on different terrains instead of running circles on a track, Martin said.

He didn’t run track, but Hardy studied like he competes — all out. His reports cards are now filled with A’s and B’s.

But aside from grades, college coaches also ask for track times when they are recruiting. Hardy has received some college offers, but he still needs to add to his resume.

The state cross country and the Nike regional and probably the Nike national meets can help Hardy land a bigger offer. Hardy said he will also run track during this school year.

The senior probably also bypassed track last year because his parents separated in January. Hardy’s biggest cheerleader is his mom, Raylene Robertson, a cross country coach at Rough Rock High School in Chinle.

But when Raylene and Neilton separated, Hardy decided to stay with his father to help look after him, he said. 

Neilton doesn’t work for unspecified reasons. Hardy and his father live next door to Neilton’s parents.

That’s where Hardy takes his showers. 

When Hardy runs out of money to buy wood for the wood stove that keeps his house warm or propane for the stove range, he’ll call his mom, whose been there through “thick and thin,” to help out.

“We’ve applied for food stamps, but it’s a long wait for it to come in,” Hardy said.

How Hardy manages to train properly and succeed in spite of his adversities is amazing.

“Running,” Hardy said, “that’s all I think about.”

Hardy doesn’t have to go far to train and break away from the conflicts in his life.

Near his home is the hilly terrain he trains at.  

All of his hard work paid off again this year when, out of 111 runners, he finished fifth in the sweepstakes, 5,000-meters race at the Nike Desert Twilight, one of the premier cross country races in the nation. He was the first Arizona runner to cross the finish line and did so with a personal record (15:16.0).

“I’m really proud of what he’s done for himself,” Robertson said.

From his PR as a freshman to his PR as a senior, Hardy has shaved off 3:07.5.

“He (Hardy) is a product of hard work and God given talent,” said multi-state championship coach Dr. Jeff Messer of Desert Vista. “It’s extremely impressive how much he’s improved since his freshman year.”

Hardy’s style of running fits Chinle's mold. 

He’s exhausted after a race and in pain because he goes all out from beginning to end.

“They (Chinle) have a very gritty race style,” said Rio Rico coach Stephen Schadler, a former runner at Stanford. “There was a time when I thought Santiago went out too hard, but that’s the way he runs.”

Hardy won’t talk about his expectations for Saturday or the chasing the state record. 

He’d rather keep that to himself. 

But if he does break a record, or even if he improves his state meet time by just one second, you can bet he’ll he’ll pay honor to his family, culture, community and then, at the end, self, Martin said. 

Neilton has never seen Hardy compete in high school. He tends to stay away from crowds but still fully supports his son’s running, Hardy said.

Hardy would like to see his father attend Saturday’s race, where regardless of the time he gets or who shows up, he’ll also be thankful for what cross country has given him.

“Cross country made me the person I am today,” he said. “The sport really changed me.”