Where it all began

Making a splash? Mark Valentino is literally in over his head in his first steeplechase race as a HS soph ...

Tonight, as Mark Valentino and I were having a nice pre-meet dinner at Olive Garden in Bloomington, we got to talking about Mark's start in the sport. A former soccer player, Mark started running in earnest as a sophomore in high school. His first-ever steeplechase race was at Port Jefferson in the Port Jeff Steeple Fest in 2009. The photo above is from that race. Tino is the punky sophomore taking a bath in the water pit.

Mark ran 11:14.36 in that first-ever steeplechase race. Interesting trivia: The winner of the 2009 Port Jeff Steeple Fest race? None other than Tino's teammate at Marist, Kenny Walshak -- who at the time was a junior at St. Anthony's.

And so, on the eve of yet another steeplechase race for Mark -- this time at a national meet -- it was kind of cool for him to remember back where it all begins with his steeple roots.