Grateful and Determined

SIGOURNEY — One thousand five hundred eighty-four days. And counting.

That is how many days in a row Gage Heyne has run at least a mile.

Some may call him crazy for not talking a full day off from time to time, but Heyne prides himself on being consistent.

The streak started May 11, 2020, for the English Valleys senior.

“It started during the COVID shutdown time,” Heyne said. “I was kind of bored, and my dad was running everyday, and I was like, all right I’ll try it.”

“There’s some days you don’t want to run, but you just got to go out and do a mile and get it over with,” Heyne said.

Heyne’s consistency and determination has led to a running career. He’s one of the top runners in the state in Class 1A.

But the senior doesn’t take his success for granted.

Heyne missed the first half of competition last cross-country season, due to a heart issue that had gone unnoticed previously.

Heyne noticed something was off with his heart, and he was diagnosed with supraventricular tachycardia.

“I also had problems with my thyroid as well,” Heyne added.

SVT causes one’s heart rate to be faster than normal due to disrupted electrical impulses in the lower chambers of the heart.

“I had an extra electrical pathway in my heart that made it beat too fast at some points when I had adrenaline,” Heyne said.

Heyne had a procedure to fix the issue. When asked if he still had problems, Heyne simply said, “Nope.”

Heyne raced cross-county the second half of his junior season and placed ninth at the state meet in Class 1A.

His mindset since the heart procedure has helped Heyne in his training.

The gratitude he runs with helps Heyne keep his mental edge and consistency in training.

Heyne has slowly increased his training volume year after year.

“I’ve been slowly progressing each summer,” Heyne said. “This past summer I was getting up to 60-65 miles a week and now I’m currently running 40-50 in season.”

As Heyne has progressed, he has avoided common runner injuries.

“It’s just the consistency part. You do it so often, the body adapts to where you won’t get hurt,” Heyne said.

Heyne’s gymnastics background and being in the weight room constantly has helped Heyne stay injury free, Heyne’s father, Steve, said.

The senior standout won his second race of the season on an extremely hilly course in Sigourney Tuesday night, finishing in a time of 16:52.

A fourth-place finish in Pella last Saturday, running 16:06, has shown Heyne what he is capable of come postseason time.

“My goals are to stay healthy, keep my mileage up during the season and put good times out there and race well,” Heyne said.

“Come postseason, I can drop my load and have my body be feeling really good and hopefully drop a super-fast time.”

Heyne is also determined to go after some school records come track season.

The hot start to the season has sparked a lot of interest from college coaches for Heyne.

“I have, like, five texts from coaches a day. Today's been kind of wild,” Heyne said.

“At this point it’s not about exactly where I want to run but what college has the right majors or education that I want.”

The future success of the English Valleys standout runner are unknown, but one thing is certain. Heyne is going to have fun and be grateful every step of the way.