On the dirt roads of the Philippines he’d always run barefoot and would always get scolded for it, but that never stopped him from asking his friends to race him.

“No one really inspired me,” said senior Michael Albinto. “I just really enjoyed running.”

When Albinto and his family moved out here, he joined track. As he got older, he decided to keep running track as a sprinter all the way through his high school years.

“The first time I was practicing, I was dying trying to keep up,” said Albinto. He said he and his cousin, Joey Cane, were the only freshmen at the time running with the varsity team. During his first couple of tournaments, he was just proud he wasn’t last.

Now, Albinto has been running for seven years and it has taught him discipline and respect towards others and sportsmanship. It also taught him that even when you are tired to give it your all because in the end nothing matters more than knowing you finished a race worth finishing.

At a track invitational Albinto said he’s always relaxed until he’s out on the track.

“As soon as I step on the track my heart’s pumping, (my) mind is focused, and I’m ready to run.” Because “You may think you’re fast,” he said, “well the person next to you thinks he/she is fast and it pushes yourself to compete.”

As Albinto recalled of a disappointing relay race, he said, “The feel of letting the whole team down was a weight barrier.” He said they had the best relay team this school could ever have. “I was the first leg,” he said, which is the first runner. “I ran as fast as I could and as I passed the baton,” Albinto said, “I slipped up and dropped it.”

Disqualified.

However, Albinto was not always a runner. Former pole vaulters Kevin Tran and Ricky Hughes caught his attention. And from there, he has pole vaulted for four years.

At first pole vaulting was hard for him because he didn’t know what to do. Albinto said his coach would always nag him and both Tran and Hughes would tease him persistently about how he didn’t do it right.

The first couple of times he pole vaulted he fell, either coming down from the air or trying to go up and land, hurting himself every time. Mastering the correct form of running, planting, swinging, rowing, and knowing when to let go of the pole, was the most difficult hurdle he had to overcome.

“You’d have to be crazy to do pole vault because if you fall it’s going to hurt.”

“It’s fast and quick (coming down from the jump),” said Albinto, “and momentarily you feel like time has stopped when you are in the air.”

The very first time Albinto was disappointed in himself was when he didn’t make his attempting height or clear any height in pole vault. “It was a feeling I couldn’t describe.” Albinto said. “There was no one else I can blame but myself.”

On the bright side, he was able to P.R. — attain a personal record in pole vaulting. He said his first initial height was 7ft. and the next time he got a higher mark.

And Albinto continues to improve in both running and vaulting. He said, “All is an experience.”

But in the end he’s the boy who’d take the trash out to the garbage shoot right across from his apartment and used the door as a timer. Doing that everyday helped him improve, becoming the runner he is today and a pole vaulter by chance.