Sports

What is Running? Bolton native Justin Jelaca will tell you

January 14, 2021   ·   0 Comments

Written By ROBERT BELARDI

When Justin Jelaca was just eight years old, he was fascinated with watching the cross-country team.

His father, John, was the head coach at Ellwood Memorial Public School.

Every day, the team would meet up in Mr. Jelaca’s classroom to eat lunch. Justin would follow.

In the classroom that day, Mr. Jelaca asked his son if he would like to become a runner. But Justin, full of innocence and curiosity, answered this question with a question of his own. 

“I just asked him, ‘what is running?’ And he just said, ‘you will be part of a team, like you are in soccer. You will train. You will run and race against other kids your age,’” Jelaca said. 

Both of his parents were runners growing up. He lived in the environment, surrounded by running shoes ready for long-distance extravaganzas. 

His twin sister, Taryn, had already been gearing herself up to follow in the footsteps of mom and dad. Jelaca wasn’t entirely sure if he really wanted to become a runner. Once his sister pricked through his barrier of doubts, she influenced him to become one – and he’s never looked back. 

Jelaca entered his first race at Albion Mills the same year. 

“I look back on it now, being the runner that I am, I laugh at myself,” Jelaca chuckled. 

Less than 100 metres to go, he let his teammate and friend pass him. Instead of finishing third he finished fourth. 

His mother came to him and offered a piece of constructive advice: don’t do that again. 

He never did. He joined 310 Running in the same year, and began piecing himself together as a runner. 

When he moved up to Allen Drive Middle School, he became better. He was faster and, in Grade 8, he understood the gap between running recreationally and pursuing this as an athlete.

“That’s really when the first sign of me really wanting to take this sport seriously started,” he said. 

“I started learning there’s running in the Olympics and running professionally.” 

He trained with the Humberview Secondary School team. He travelled to Senigallia, Italy with Team Canada to compete. Everything had slowly become surreal. 

In his first year of high school at Humberview, he qualified for the cross-country team and punched his ticket to OFSAA in November. He finished 12th in the third-largest, cross-country championship in North America. 

Jelaca knew the winner of the OFSAA competition. He was part of Toronto West Athletics. In the latter half of Grade Nine, Jelaca made the decision to move to the club. 

In the summer of Grade 10, he began organizing a list of schools he was interested in going to.

Sure, the big names were on the front page of his Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. Who doesn’t want to go to Purdue or Duke? 

He filled out questionnaires. Then his father asked him a question he holds dear to this day. 

“Do you want to be a big fish in a small pond or small fish in a big pond?” 

And that struck him. He continued to research and a school came into the picture he never would have expected: The University of North Dakota. They had been tracking Jelaca since Grade 11. 

Everything had been copacetic so far. So, why now, something to throw him off? He told himself it shouldn’t matter where the school is. It should matter if his tide will ebb out from the sea onto the shore; in other words, put him in a better position to take the next step. 

The program is led by Christine Engel and Cale Wallace, both with numerous track accolades of their own.

The program has fresh names such as Luke Labatte and Alec Nelson. It was the right fit. On November 26, 2020, Jelaca became a Fighting Hawk. 

He continues to improve. This past year, prior to COVID, he finished first in the 800m and 3000m competitions for Ontario U-20. He also finished first in the 1500m race at Hal Brown Memorial Track and Field Centre in Toronto.  

He’s worked on himself in areas that he wouldn’t have the chance to because of the virus. 

This past summer, in unofficial, inter-club races with Toronto West Athletics, he ran a staggering 3:57 in 1500m and 1:56 in 800m. 

He’s excited to experience freedom and dive into one of the best aviation programs in the country with an aspiration of one day becoming a pilot. He’ll take life into his own hands now. Something he’s always wanted. 

He remains motivated – by doubt. Jelaca says there are a lot of people who criticize running as a sport. They believe it’s easy, when, in reality, it’s a very mentally-driven competition. 

His father told him this game is 10 per cent physical and 90 per cent mental. But Jelaca has developed a 100 per cent ideology towards the mental side. He drew influences from a sports psychologist and he feels better than ever to head south of the border this summer to compete in Div. 1 in the NCAA. 

So, when asked what running is now, the 17-year-old Bolton native has found a very different response than his eight-year-old self. 

“Running is this broad sport that has very many different meanings to people. Many people do it for many reasons,” Jelaca began to explain. 

“And it draws in every kind of person. You have the Paralympics. The Olympics. You have the North Americans. The Europeans. It draws in everybody.”

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