Tunnel vision

Hunter Harwell and Charlie Slaughter ran in synch as they dashed down a pine-straw covered slope at Veterans Park in October. Simultaneously, their feet dribbled off the gravel and their arms churned forward, leaving deviation undetectable. 

Equally concealed were signs of the tandem’s recent injuries. 

Earlier this year, Harwell and Slaughter both experienced their share of the most dreaded repercussion of distance running. Harwell sustained a stress fracture in his right foot, and Slaughter tore the labrum in his right hip. 

“It was very upsetting,” said Slaughter, a senior. “A lot of tears were shed.”

But dedication to rehab and recovery has now returned Mountain Brook High School’s All-State cross-country runners to the top of their game — just in time. 

The Class 7A, Section 3 meet will take place Nov. 2, and will be followed by the Nov. 11 state championship.  

“They were going to do whatever it took,” head coach Michael McGovern said. “Whatever they could find to keep that aerobic base up they were going to do it, and they both had accelerated recoveries because they were willing to work really hard.”

Harwell made his season debut with his fellow Spartans at the Sept. 9 opener in Oakville. But his journey back to the starting line began seven months prior, when he struggled to move his inflamed foot after completing a February workout.

A trip to the doctor’s office revealed the fracture in his navicular bone that dashed his outdoor track season.

Harwell’s initial response to the diagnosis: “Why again?”

Two years earlier, as an eighth-grader, he required season-ending surgery on his left foot. 

Slaughter’s hobbled hip wasn’t his first run-in with injury either. But the stress fracture he developed as a sophomore paled in comparison to the torn labrum, which his doctor diagnosed in mid-April. Slaughter underwent surgery to repair the labrum and remove a bone spur on his hip after school ended in May. 

“When they first told me, they said I was probably going to have to miss cross-country,” Slaughter said. “Hearing that, that was just demoralizing.” 

For him and his cross-country team. 

Mountain Brook earned a runner-up finish at the 2016 state meet behind top 10 showings from Harwell (seventh) and Slaughter (ninth). 

“I knew I was going to recover,” Slaughter said. “It was just a matter of when.”

Late June emerged as the answer for Harwell. After swapping his walking boot for orthotics, he began to run, bike and swim in preparation for the fall. He also incorporated yoga and targeted strength training into his routine. The junior was rewarded for his persistence at his first meet back, where he clocked a 5K time of 16 minutes, 11 seconds. 

The mark earned him a 10th-place finish at the competitive Chickasaw Trails Invitational.  

“Hanging with the top guys, it was just encouraging,” Harwell said. “I was just kind of like, ‘I can do this. I can do good this season.’”

Slaughter only started running again on Aug. 1. But like Harwell, he prioritized cross-training amid his recovery. There were days over the summer when Slaughter would fine-tune his fitness by utilizing the arm bike, stationary bike and pool in succession. 

As a result, he shaved about six weeks off his projected recovery timeline. Slaughter made his return at the Sept. 23 TCBY Invitational, where he finished third in 16:39. Harwell was one spot ahead. 

“I wasn’t really surprised,” McGovern said of the pair’s quick reemergence. “I’d seen the work they put in and I knew aerobically they were both going to be in great shape.”

Their times have continued to drop since their return. In mid-October, both dipped under 16 minutes at the Dew it on the Trails Invitational. Now, their sights are set on state. 

 “It matters now to train, but I’m not necessarily worried about what I’m running [in races],” Slaughter said. “ I’m more focused on what I’m going to be running Nov. 11.”