Even though he has a sense of humor about it, Rory Fraser doesn’t like to talk about what happened in his first-ever relay.
“I came in dead last,” said Fraser, who was 12 years old at the time. “I ran pretty much in soccer gear, with soccer cleats.”
Fraser has come a long way from those early running struggles, and with hard work, he has made a name for himself with the UNM cross country and track and field squads.
Head coach Joe Franklin said Fraser can’t be replaced on the Lobo team.
“He’s one of the best distance runners in the University of New Mexico’s history,” he said.
By no means did Fraser expect to be a great runner. He said he had a normal childhood growing up outside of London, England.
“I didn’t spend much time in young juvenile prison or anything like that,” he said. “Nothing exciting, unfortunately.”
Now in graduate school and a lifeguard at the UNM pool, Fraser is a long way from home. He moved to Leicester, England, when he was 10 years old and played many sports — from badminton to cricket to soccer. He said he wasn’t good at any of them, so he stuck with running. He did it well enough, and in college he competed for the Great Britain junior national team.
After graduating from Leeds Metropolitan University in Leicester, Fraser wanted to continue his running career. He said he sent out more than 50 résumés to schools across America and heard back from six of them, including UNM.
Franklin said he liked what he saw from Fraser.
“If you’re running OK there, you’re going to be pretty good in our system,” he said. “And he was running pretty well there.”
At New Mexico, Fraser has done better than just pretty well.
This season, Fraser helped the men’s cross country team win its first conference championship since 1988. He also became a track and field indoor All-American in the 5,000 meters last season. Though he jokes about the honor, his journey for another All-American nod begins this weekend at the Washington Husky Classic in Seattle, WA.
“It’s kind of strange, because obviously I’m English,” he said. “So being an ‘All-American’ is kind of strange.”
Fraser said running is one of the simplest sports to succeed at.
“If you put in the hard work, you will receive rewards,” he said. “It’s not a skill-based sport; it’s just a hard-working sport. And if you’re willing to put the time and effort into it, you’ll succeed in it.”
Between running, school and being a lifeguard, Fraser said he’s always busy, and it keeps him out of trouble.
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“I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to come to America,” he said. “So I would probably be working as a plumber or electrician back home, with five kids and halfway through paying off my mortgage.”
