Humble Beginnings

Anyone remember when Hong Cho was running above 2 minutes in the 800? Yeah I didn't think so. In December of 2009 at the Burdette Invitational, Hong Cho outkicked a kid by the name of Jarrett Felix to take 3rd and 4th in the open 800m somewhere in the 2:03 range. But that was 2009. That was back when Jarrett Felix was one of the few people who knew how fast Hong Cho was.

Its hard to say exactly when someone breaks out onto the next level. I watched Mike Palmisano for three years but I don't know if I can point to one specific race where I said, wow this kid is good.

For Hong, you could see something was developing indoors his Junior campaign. The extremely underrated Wissahickon 4x8 finished an impressive 3rd behind only CB West and Abington at Indoor States. Hong split under 2 minutes, but not by much. There was no clear sign he would be anything more than a 1:57 guy outdoors.

Until the first meet of outdoors. Starting the season off splitting 1:56. That's when you knew. That's when I started talking about 1:54 and a state medal. Of course he still wasn't on everybody's radar. The spotlight was stolen by another guy from 5 miles up the road at Upper Dublin High School, Sam Ellison.

Hong's never been a flashy guy. He never went out of his way to reach for the spotlight. If anything, at times he just seemed like a big fan of the sport, in awe at all the fast times around. He started his freshman campaign watching Nick Crits unleash a furious kick for the state championship, then followed the path of rival Upper Dublin's 7:40 4x8, then the rise of future stars Sam Ellison and Drew Magaha. All the while, Hong Cho was not the name on people's lips when they went to the big meets. Even Hong himself didn't talk about himself.

But he was confident. He's always had a certain quiet confidence in his abilities. With big names like Ellison, Mallon, Lefebure, DiFlorio and others grabbing all the headlines, Hong Cho stepped into the district finals as a Junior who a season ago had a PR of 2 flat. He had just ran a brilliant anchor leg on Wissahickon's 4x8 and was feeling the effects of a busy weekend.

So when he outkicked my boy Ellison and qualified for states in 1:55 flat on a rainy, miserable afternoon it was hard not to sit up and take notice.

But Hong was looking for an encore. A 1:53.8 800 PR at the state championships snaging a 7th place state medal. The #2 returner for the 800 in 2011.

In 2009, Hong Cho was no where to be seen in Shippensburg, no where to be seen on penntrack, no where to be seen on etrain's blog. Well I guess I didn't have a blog in 2009, but that's besides the point.

Now Hong Cho was on the radar. A name to watch. But could he still run fast with a target on his back? Or would the weight of expectation be too much to carry around the track for 2 laps?