Long established as one of Ontario’s top distance runners, Sudbury native Jamie Black would ditch the preferred steady and consistent pace approach in several of the more than one thousand races that he has run in his life.

Take it out fast and hope your competitors don’t realize that you’re not quite that fast until it’s too late.

Purposely take it out slower on the instructions of coach Terry McKinty, just to see what kind of a kick you have when you’re not particularly known for your kick.

Heck, his very first race triumph would come at a high-school cross-country gathering in which the 57 year-old resident of Waterloo would spot the entire field a lead of some 800 metres or so.

The irony, with all of the above, is that while many a long-time runner can look back on a career that is filled with ebbs and flows, the valleys and peaks that stand as a testament to good health or good fortune, Black has remained remarkably true to form at virtually every stage of his progression, whether it be on the trails, on the track, or on the roads.

And much of that he credits to his time at Lockerby Composite and a situation that could not have been any better. “I stepped into the best possible surroundings you could have,” said Black, the eldest of two boys in the family.

As grade nine commenced, the incoming freshman was wooed by childhood friend Bruce Hoppe, one year his elder and straight off a very successful midget campaign in his first year as a Viking. “Bruce convinced me that you join cross-country, get out of school a few times to run some races, and then get an OFSAA medal in the end,” said Black with a laugh.

Though equipped with a natural build for running, the man who would go on to cover a 10km course in a personal best time of 30:48 had little sense of perspective in the sport. “It’s very easy, at that age, to be kind of clueless and not really know what’s going on,” said Black.

“All of my buddies were bigger and stronger, much better at hockey and all of the other sports - so I never thought of myself as being good at sports.” Once at Lockerby, however, he didn’t have to think that. Others could see the potential.

“I had people telling me that I was going to win city cross-country in grade nine after training for two weeks. I had never won anything in my life.” He had also never entered an environment which boasted the likes of Ray Paulins and Veronica Poryckyj as role models, nor a coach who so influenced a generation of young athletes.

“Terry (McKinty) had left and was over at Lasalle, but his legacy was still there,” said Black. “Lockerby still had very much a Terry imprint on the program, plus I was going out to the Northland (NAC) workouts which Terry coached. He was legendary for taking runners that were OK and maxing out their potential.”

Jamie Black was more than just OK. In his five years of SDSSAA competition, he would capture the cross-country championship four times (Hoppe beat him in grade 10), adding many a victory in the 1500m and 3000m on the track to his resume. While some might struggle dealing with this level of success, Black enjoyed a support system that helped to keep him grounded.

“I was always just focused on beating those guys who were ahead of me, not really focused on how many guys were behind me,” he said. “For as much as Terry was a great coach in preparing the workouts and such, he was even better at the mental preparation. Psychologically, he was a guru - and I was so lucky to have that.”

Before leaving Lockerby, Black would establish a record in the senior boys 1500m race (4:01.60) that stood for roughly twenty years before Ross Proudfoot eclipsed it. Through four years at York University, the local product was consistently a top 15-20 place OUA competitor, all while befriending a solid core of future Olympians at the well-known indoor facility just off Steeles Avenue.

And while his greatest university accomplishment was a second team OUA all-star nod in 1994 after returning to complete his masters at Western, Black understood that there was a balance that was important in his life. “I didn’t really plow the time into training at a level where I could take a run at making the Olympics,” he said.

“I knew what the guys at the top were doing to get to the Olympics. They were doing a lot, they were living running - twice-a-days, that type of stuff.”

Rather, Black would become one of the most recognizable faces on the Toronto distance running scene, connecting with groups that included Marathon Dynamics and XSNRG, all while spending some twenty years under the tutelage of coach Don Mills. Well into his forties, Black would not only continue to compete, but compete well.

“I worked in Toronto and was still doing pretty decent workouts, running cross country and road races and doing a bit of track,” he said. “By the time I was getting into my mid-thirties, I knew what worked for me. I had learned that you can do quality training over quantity, that you don’t have to go and blow your brains out.”

“I knew a lot more about racing smart.”

Perhaps based solely on the numbers of races which he has entered, Jamie Black can share race tales with the best of them: stories of races he’s won because leaders took a wrong turn, or the mirror image, twice losing the lead in two separate OTFA cross-country races in the same day because he got lost.

His network of friends extends across the continent. From the gents back home in Sudbury that he will join for a leisurely Sunday run while visiting his parents, to former NAC teammate and Lasalle graduate Johnny Jain, now a leading fertility specialist in Los Angeles.

Now a father to both an 11 and 13 year old, Black moves comfortably from conversations of running to friendships with the likes of two-time Olympian Graham Hood (he stood in his wedding) and 2004 Toronto Waterfront Marathon champion Danny Kassap (with whom he travelled for many a race).

“The way I looked at it was that September 1st is the beginning of the cross-country season; then you do a little bit of indoor track and get through the winter; then you’ve got your road races,” said Black.

“I never really thought that much ahead. I just kind of followed the seasons.”