Quoi Ellis knows this feeling too well.
Rounding the corner and heading into the home stretch of a 200-meter race, the Mt. Carmel High senior was in front of his running mates, gait like a thoroughbred, separating with ease.
With only three schools competing in this meet last month, Ellis was missing his chief competitor, Madison junior Kenan Christon, and thus the motivation to push his personal record of 21.25 seconds.
“This is just a practice for me,” Ellis said.
But the gold-chain-clad sprinter — with New Balance soles to match, inspired by track phenom Trayvon Bromell — galloped to an easy win, leaving his competitors with nothing but the sight of his gold-bottomed shoes, missing spikes and all.
Despite running a less-than-stellar 21.92, he recorded a 1.71-second win, easily beating the field.
Waiting at the finish, though, was the solitude of a sprinter.
“It’s a lonely lifestyle,” he said, stretching his quads, hamstrings and IT band after the dominating victory in the 200.
He wouldn’t be running the 400 meters or the 4×400 relay on this day. He has always had trouble with the relay that is normally the last race of the meet.
“If I’m out there for too long, I start thinking that I would rather be at home watching SpongeBob and eating ice cream,” Ellis said. “The less you think, the better you run.”
He has managed injuries that he initially sustained last summer playing football, where he was a wide receiver, defensive back and punt returner.
The 6-foot, 160-pound Ellis said he was being looked at by football teams all over the nation after showing well in 7-on-7 competition. But after injuring his hamstring, he committed his speed exclusively to track and field.
The decision has paid off. Ellis will be heading to the University of Oklahoma in the fall, joining Xavier Brown and Joseph Sheffield on what is already the best 4×100 relay team in the Big 12 Conference.
Ellis will enter Saturday’s San Diego Section championships with season bests of 10.69 in the 100 meters and 21.44 in the 200. Both trail Christon’s season bests of 10.58 and 21.42.
During his years at Mt. Carmel, Ellis has become somewhat of a star, especially after taking home the 100 and 200 crowns at last year’s section championships.
But he remembers when he was a fringe freshman fighting for a spot on the relay team.
“The only reason people started talking to me was because I’m fast,” Ellis said. “They would come up and say, ‘Oh, you that fast kid?’ and I kind of got in like that.”
Even so, Ellis maintains a somewhat isolated lifestyle from his teammates.
The day after his dominating performance at the April meet, while his teammates joked and complained about training, Ellis worked on his form.
He brought his own speed hurdles from home, set them up along the track, and, to the soundtrack of Gunna’s Drip Season 3, he worked on his strides.
Much of what he does is apart from his teammates.
Still, Ellis jokes with them. He spent much of the practice getting dogged by freshman Amir Adams for his fluorescent pink Nike socks. Ellis countered with quips on their <FZ,1,0,14>effort level while offering advice and encouragement.
“Everyone gets dusted,” Ellis said. “Even I got dusted when I was a freshman … Your time is better than mine was as a freshman.”
He has obligations as a leader and role model on the team. He also must keep himself on the right track.
Ellis keeps on his own diet, inspired by Michael Norman, a sprinter from UCLA, who said he eats a salad with every meal and drinks two gallons of water a day. Both of which, Ellis said, are incredibly hard to maintain.
He has his own trainer whom he sees several times a week after practice and a cryotherapy clinic that he frequents for frigid treatments, all paid for by his mother, Qujuanetta.
He said he gets frustrated sometimes that his teammates don’t have the same motivation he does.
“But I’ve gotten used to it,” Ellis said.
He’s also gotten used to winning — even when he doesn’t expect it.
Ellis loves to tell the story of his 100 time at the Jaguar Invitational at Valley Center.
“I wasn’t feeling it that day,” he said.
Ellis was tight and once again was without Christon to push him. He got a bad jump.
“I didn’t think I did that well … and they announced the time at 10.63… I was low-key shocked.”
His previous personal record of 10.60, at last year’s section finals, was not wind-legal so he doesn’t consider it his best.
And it is times like this that make his occasional lackluster times — 10.99 and 11.17 at different meets in March — so infuriating.
Ellis said people — even some opposing coaches — have called him co*cky for complaining about times that 99 percent of San Diego runners can’t even fathom.
Ellis exudes confidence from his frohawk down to his gold-bottomed shoes. But being co*cky is one thing. Expecting a lot of himself because he has worked for it is another.
Then again, take one look at his car, his crusty, early-’90s Toyota Corolla — complete with a birthday note from his ex-girlfriend — and his right to be co*cky is easily questioned.
But not his desire to be great.
On this night, he rolled away, ice on his knee, heading off to eat his spaghetti and side salad before meeting with his personal trainer.
In four months, he’ll be off to Norman, Okla., fighting for a spot on the relay team.
For now, he rides off, alone, a feeling he knows all too well.
Engberg is a Union-Tribune intern.
