Tuesday is almost as special as race day because, believe or not, “The Flash,” Adam Harder’s favorite TV show, is on the air.
“Every single week, every Tuesday, I look forward to that and I get chills down my body because I can’t wait to watch it,” the Hanalani junior said.
“The Flash” on the tube while devouring a plate of ono grinds from Panda Express. Beijing beef. Chow mein. Sweet fried chicken.
“It’s so good,” Harder said. “I get it whenever I can get it.”
Burning thousands of calories every day, the cross country and track runner — he does the 3,000-meter race in spring — must refill. So he does — all for the Royals, all for the future.
In the quiet streets of Mililani, a tiny school is running victoriously. Five years ago, cross country was non-existent on the Hanalani Schools campus. On Saturday, five Royals placed in the ILH top 50, led by the league champion Harder, who is the leading contender to capture the HHSAA state championship. The Royals are one of the top challengers for the Division II boys team title.
Harder also operates his own lawn-mowing service and keeps a close eye on his pet bunnies, turtle, fish, mice, crawfish and cat. Will he become a veterinarian one day? Quite possibly. Will he win the state cross country championship Saturday? All signs point to the runners in purple and black. Harder won the ILH individual title on Saturday with a time of 17 minutes, 6 seconds at Patsy Mink Central Oahu Regional Park. His top competitors, Wolfgang Sakamaki and Joshua Lerner of ‘Iolani, were 15 and 20 seconds behind.
“I wasn’t really focusing on time. I just wanted to lead it and win it,” Harder said. “I’m pretty good at running in the heat. It doesn’t really bother me that much.”
Harder also won the Punahou Invitational, outlasting his frenemies from ‘Iolani, as well as last year’s top sophomore. Harder finished 15 seconds behind Garret Smith of Kapaa in 2017. At Punahou, Harder won in 17:21, and Smith came in third at 17:40.
Strength in numbers
Work ethic is key, but Harder has also found his niche. Hanalani has more than 40 runners, close to 50, from an enrollment of just 300 students from grades 7 to 12. That’s roughly 15 percent of the student body, a massive percentage.
Since transferring from Damien during middle school, there’s just one thing Harder strongly dislikes.
“I hate when people are walking at school and they’ll start doing a Fortnite dance or something,” he said. “I would never do it, even if I knew how.”
Harder is undefeated this year. The anticipation of the Honolulu Marathon/HHSAA State Championships on Saturday at CORP has built for weeks, months, years. In the offseason, and during the season, the Royals are there at least two, three days per week. Sometimes more.
“We’ve got a lot of determined runners. The determination, the coaching and a good coaching staff, it’s everything,” Harder said. “A lot of hard work, a hard kind of love. Tough love. It depends on the person. Jeremy has a program. Anyone who wants to run should do that.”
Jeremy is coach Jeremy Honold, someone who transforms. Sometimes, it takes something supernatural to convince young students that training nearly every day, practically year-round, on hills and flat terrain, on grass, mud, concrete, cinder, dirt, is just as fun as a few hours of Fortnite.
“I just work hard every day, the hardest I can. As long as I know I worked my hardest, that’s good enough for me,” Harder said. “I trust Jeremy. He has everything laid out even before the season starts.”
Pathway to success
In 2014, Honold applied for the coaching position at the campus, just 800 meters away from Mililani, one of the largest public high schools in the state. Honold, an ’09 Kapolei graduate, never considered himself a natural harrier. When he attended Whitworth College, his coach told him straight out that he’d have to work harder, do more, sacrifice to become a college-level cross country contributor.
“That’s where I started really dissecting things and really where I became insane about it,” Honold said.
Honold took that advice and mined every possible pathway to improvement. When Hanalani hired Honold, he was barely out of college. He had also begun to harness the power of faith, incorporating it into the physical methodology of training runners in a program that did not have a single runner. Yet.
Hanalani — with Harder, Ben Hodge (18:12, ninth at ILH), Kevin Au (19:07, 21st), Ben Scully (19:54, 34th), Corban Hodge (40th, 20:14) and Logan Castro (46th, 20:28) — is on the cusp of something magnificent.
Going for the gold
The last time states was held at CORP, a relatively flat area with some moderate slopes, Kaeo Kruse of Kamehameha won with a time of 15:38. Hanalani trains there regularly. Slopes, hills — those are what Harder enjoys most. Every nook and cranny, every tree root protruding above ground, every incline and decline — sewn into the subconscious mind of all Hanalani harriers.
Off the course, Harder has plenty of studying to do. His goal is to get his GPA up to 3.5. He takes care of his animals. The training, the devotion, the countdown to the state championships. Getting the best points possible.
“I’m not really going for time at states. I’m going for first,” Harder said. “We’re going for a team title.”
ADAM HARDER
Hanalani
Cross country, track and field Junior
Q&A/FAVORITES
>> Athlete: Usain Bolt
>> Team: Philadelphia Flyers
>> Food at home: Mom’s stuffed bell peppers
>> Food eating out: Panda Express
>> Hobby: Reading, studying, caring for animals, inline hockey
>> Movie: “Coraline”
>> TV show: “The Flash”
>> Video game: Call of Duty: Black Ops
>> Music artist: Luke Combs
>> GPA: I want to graduate with a 3.5.
>> Class: Animal science
>> Scripture: 2 Timothy 4:7
>> Dad (Bradley) says: “Maintain focus on what is important.”
>> Mom (Cindy) says: “Always represent yourself well.”
>> Travel: “I’ve been to California for cross country, the Foot Locker Western Regional Championships, and for inline hockey. This past summer, my team beat the Canadians to bring home gold in the AAU International 18U Championships.”
>> Bucket list: “I would like to travel to Canada. My mom’s friend is from Canada and we always talk about how beautiful it is.”
