Reaping the Rewards -- Darren Dinneen '00 is finally healthy and ready to run

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December 16, 1999

SEARCH THE GAZETTE

HARVARD GAZETTE ARCHIVES

By Jamie Weir
Sports Media Relations

From adversity comes strength and determination.

Despite a collegiate career filled with injuries and setbacks, senior middle distance runner Darren Dinneen is primed and ready for the current season. Hampered by various maladies that have never allowed him to train properly or compete a full season, Dinneen is now as healthy as he's ever been in his time at Harvard. He is driven by dreams and visions of bigger and better things; he has seen what lies out there for the taking, and he wants to capture it, and call it his own. Ivy titles. IC4A crowns. NCAA Championships. He has the ability to make a run at all of them, should his body decide to cooperate and stay injury-free.

Dinneen was born in Blarney, Ireland, literally right next door to the Blarney Stone. His youth was spent participating in traditional Irish sports, and he was a voracious soccer player.

Upon enrolling at Phillips Andover, he joined the track team in addition to the soccer squad. He was experiencing some success in races, but the coaches saw potential for much more. With an outstanding track program and its coaches enticing him, Dinneen made the switch to year-round runner.

The coaches were right: Dinneen's potential, combined with the year-round training regimen, was a recipe for great things. He was the 1995 Irish National Junior Champion in the 800 meters, graduated from Andover as the No. 2 runner in the United States in the same event, and garnered All-America kudos. He enrolled at Harvard in the fall of 1996 with high expectations, ready to become the next great Crimson runner.

Two days into his freshman cross country season, his ambitions abruptly fell to earth. Dinneen was diagnosed with a stress fracture in his right tibia, which sidelined him for most of the fall. The required rest put him helplessly behind in his base training, which allows a runner to have both speed and the stamina to sustain them over the course of a season. Despite another stress fracture, this one in his left tibia, Dinneen took a chance and competed in the Indoor Heptagonal Meet that February, and finished second in the 1,000 meters. "I had invested a lot already in the season and I was willing to risk aggravating the stress fracture because I knew I had a shot at winning," recalls Dinneen.

The long-term price paid for the short-term reward of an All-Ivy performance was that he did indeed miss the outdoor season his freshman year. The subsequent summer, Dinneen embarked on a trip to Kenya for altitude training. In the best shape of his life and trying to take his running to the next level, a knee injury delivered another setback. Dinneen received a cortisone injection, which helped, or so he thought. Upon his return to Cambridge, he began experiencing pain in his knee, and an exam revealed that the injection had torn the plica, the tissue surrounding the patella. Surgical removal of the torn tissue was his only recourse.

Undaunted, he returned to training as soon as he could, but missed the indoor season. He did compete in some spring meets, including the outdoor Heps, where he finished fourth overall in the 800 meters and was a member of the 4x400 relay team. He appeared to be on his way back.

To prepare for his junior season, Dinneen made the decision to refrain from competing with the cross country team, deciding to train on his own. In his first two seasons, injuries had forced him into a late start for training for his middle distance events in track. He hoped to reduce his chances of further injury and be able to compete in both the indoor and outdoor seasons.

Fate does not always cooperate with reason: a pulled hamstring from late in his sophomore season kept being re-aggravated throughout his junior campaign. Dinneen was in a familiar place: watching from the sidelines.

But once again Dinneen fought his way back. In the outdoor season last spring, he managed a second-place finish in the 800 meters in the Heps at Columbia. His times had improved over the spring, but he was still just a hair away from a qualifying time to make the field at the NCAA Championships. Head track and field coach Frank Haggerty '68 included him on a trip to a meet at St. John's in an effort to get Dinneen the qualifying time he needed. At first, meet officials did not want to include Dinneen in the first heat, maintaining that his times over the course of the season were not good enough. After some consideration, officials agreed to let him run.

Dinneen ran a personal best and won not only the heat, but went on to win the entire race. A week later at the IC4A meet, he ran two-tenths of a second faster than the previous week, a time which qualified him to advance to the NCAA Championships at Boise State.

His time of 1:51.05 on the track in Boise was more than three seconds from that personal best, and it did not qualify him for the final race. But he did earn the title of All-American, and it gives him something to strive for in his senior season. He admits he didn't run particularly well. He also knows he can do better.

The coach is quick to sing the praises of his pupil.

"It has really been a testament to his willpower, given what he has been through," notes Haggerty. "Lesser folk would have given up the ship. He has shown great fortitude, and is just starting to reap the rewards he deserves."