Halfway through the 2008 track season, Jarrin Solomon contracted pneumonia and severely pulled his hamstring, ending his hopes for competing at the national level and going to the Olympics.
Halfway through this season, the senior has broken his school record three times, defeated former Olympians and became an All-American en route to the best finish ever by a Lobo sprinter at the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships.
"It was a long road to where I was at this point last year and where I came," Solomon said. "It was a good feeling to know that my hard work paid off and that I was back on track after what happened."
But his run back to success hasn't been in the fast lane.
Lessons learned
In April 2008, Solomon had barely overcome a month-long training setback from pneumonia when he pulled his hamstring at practice. With only a month until the college championships and two months until the Olympic Trials, he knew it would be hard to clock the fast times he needed.
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Still pursuing his Olympic dream on the off-chance he may run a good race, Solomon traveled to Trinidad and Tobago in July to compete in the country's Olympic Trials. Solomon is a dual citizen of Trinidad and ran for its IAAF World Championship team in June 2007.
He made it to the semifinals of the trials, but after being months behind in training, he wasn't fast enough to make the Olympic team. When he came home, he said he had some changes to make.
"It was a wake-up call," he said. "I planned too much. I said I was going to win this, do this, go to the Olympics, make this money and do all that. I planned too much ahead. This all taught me to live in the moment, go every day and work hard, but just go with the flow of everything."
In addition to a mentality change, Solomon made a training change, too. In early July, he hit the weights again and started building his endurance and strength. When the time came around to train with the team, Solomon and the UNM coaches mutually decided it was best if he practiced alone.
"We just evaluated my goals," Solomon said. "The way I was training before the new staff got there was what my body was used to. So we went with that."
Michael Solomon - Jarrin's father, who held the 400-meter UNM record for 30 years before his son broke it in 2007 - took over the coaching role. Michael coached Jarrin at high school tracks and parks around the city. Jarrin could no longer count on inter-squad competitiveness to motivate him during training. So he had to look inside.
"I didn't have anyone else there to push me, so I used last year as my motivation for this year," Solomon said. "I had to get two years of performance into one, so I had to keep thinking, 'The guys you're going to be running against are training just as hard as you,' so I had to train harder than they do and push myself to the limit."
Redemption
After months of uncertainty about how he would bounce back from a disappointing year, Solomon erased all doubt in his 400-meter debut Jan. 24. He smashed his previous school record with a NCAA provisional qualifying time of 46.84.
Four weeks later, Solomon cruised to the Mountain West Conference crown, and a week later, he lowered his school record to 46.33.
Solomon earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships as the No. 8 seed. A Lobo sprinter hadn't been invited to the championships since his father 30 years ago.
"It was like a family heirloom," Jarrin said. "He made it back in the '70s, and for me to be the next one to make it - it was very exciting."
On the first day of nationals, Solomon clocked the sixth fastest qualifying times in prelims to advance to the finals. Then, running in the outer-most lane, Solomon finished in fifth place with a time of 46.55 and earned his first All-America honors.
Teammate Anthony Fairbanks said Solomon's rebound to success inspired the team.
"He went through a lot," Fairbanks said. "And to come out on top of the conference, on top of every race - that's the way you want to see an athlete overcome."
The next race
Outdoor season opens for Solomon in two weeks, and although he's proud of what he accomplished during indoor season, he said it was only a tune-up for outdoor.
"Indoor season is not the focus as much training-wise as outdoor season," Solomon said. "To get fifth place in the nation without putting too much emphasis on it was a really good feeling, but I've got a lot more stuff to deal with when outdoor starts."
Solomon aims to repeat his conference championship and being invited to nationals, but he said he doesn't want to repeat a fifth-place finish; he wants to win.
Outdoor national champion or not, Solomon is clocking fast enough times to get back on Trinidad's World Championship team and possibly receive a professional contract. But after the hardships he endured last year, he's taking things one meet at a time.
"I'm leaving last year in the past because all of that happened for a reason," Solomon said. "Now, I'm going to stay healthy and let it go how it's going to go."
Vanessa Strobbe is a member of the UNM track and field team.
