Ino Cantu- Cross Country- WORK IN PROCESS – NOT COMPLETED

A successful life journey is not defined by your financial balance sheet but by pursuing core passions inspired by the heart. Most people give up on fulfilling their core God-given blessings for various reasons. Ino gives us a reason to give up on our dreams. He offers us a roadmap to embracing his blessed, God-given innate core strength while balancing life time obligations such as raising a family.

Paul J. Kiell, MD, the author of “American Miler: The Life and Times of Glenn Cunningham”, discusses Ino Cantu in his book on milers.  “ Ino Cantu is a true hero. A non-celebrity known mainly to the masters running world for his age group’s world records. His running became an extension of the person, a metaphor for life’s lessons. He is a man who finds and becomes himself through the good old-fashioned values of honesty, perseverance, hard work, willpower, courage, and drive.  He is everyman, striving to learn and succeed, resonating with George Sheehan’s definition of a hero as someone who makes the most of their basic endowments. His running, his life gifts us with a priceless message and ethic that all of us can aspire to.” Ino became a devotee of Olympian Steve Prefontaine when Steve said “to give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.”

 
Running saved him and gave him a future   There is power in developing your talents and following your passion. In other words, utilizing your gift.   The sooner you find your pleasure and your gift from God, the quicker you will understand some of the reasons behind my quest.  He says that there are more talented runners than him, but he does not believe any could outmatch his desire and tenacity to succeed.
 
 
 

 He always ran hard. He was a great age-group runner and an even better person. His effort and positive attitude were always there.
At age 72, he ran a one-hour and 37-second half marathon, a 1:57 second mile at age 76, and finally, a world record 6-minute and 42-second indoor mile at age 80.
 
He learned to employ unconventional methods to put his mind and body in the right state. Racing was his destiny, his God-given talent. There were no clues about his greatness based on family heritage, ethnicity, or the circumstances of my early life that led me to write. No, it was my love of running and my passion that brought me to this place. After many years, I can say without a doubt that I was born to run.
He always dreamed that there was more in store for him, and running helped to validate those feelings. It gave him a way to look ahead to his expanded future vision. Running empowered him to deal with the unpleasant aspects of life.
1946: He completed schooling at Page Elementary and started high school at Giddings. His home had no electricity, indoor plumbing, telephone, or other modern conveniences. In this high school, there was a flushing toilet and a nice shower.
1948: His family, sharecroppers, moved to El Campo, TX. It was there that he met his very first coach, who believed in him. 
 
In 1950, Coach Reynolds watched him run and told him he would run the mile at the Boling meet. It was his first official event on the El Campo track team. He was confident because he knew he had a special gift from God. He believed that “his body could achieve what his mind believed. ” He won the race.  He told his father that his running ability was a gift and that he wanted to further develop it. He finished the year undefeated, having won both district and regional titles.  He finished 7^th in the state meet.  It was running track that he realized that the race was only one component of individual growth.  Just as important as winning, he learned that a team sport is transitory, leading to team spirit with a social component. His teammates respected him.
Running taught him that “we all have the ability; the difference is how we use it. “ By his senior year his mile time had dropped from 5:21 to 4:47.
Running begins not with the feet but with the heart.
 
Prayers answered- A track scholarship is part of his destiny and helps him fulfill his dream
 
1951- Victoria College offers him a scholarship.
Ino says that even before I contacted Coach Shin, the mayor’s offer of his office had a profound effect on how I felt about my journey to fulfilling my dream. It brought to mind some words of wisdom I had once read: if the mind can conceive a dream and your heart can feel it then the dream will be easier to achieve.  In life, some let setbacks destroy their dreams, but Ino said, “Every setback along my path to success only fueled my resolve.
 
Every Champion starts somewhere.  Learning to use the tools of the trade, such as the toaster and other kitchen appliances, and employing effective strategies, like prayers, helps him complete his journey. 
 
At Victoria College, he excelled in running Cross-Country. He won all of his races.  Victoria won the National Junior College Track & Field Championship for two consecutive years.
At Victoria, I won almost all of my races and was a national junior college champion in both the mile and the two-mile events. I lowered my mouth time to 4 minutes and 29 seconds. His success layered to an offer from Colorado A&M to run track and cross country.  He declined the offer.  After his second year at Victoria College, coach Froggy Lovvorn from the University of Texas offered him a scholarship. He accepted.
 
1953-1954- The Longhorn Years

He ran the two-mile and cross-country for two years for the Horns.  In 1954, he was unbeaten in the cross-country conference events. He was the SWC champion in Cross Country.   Ino made the national meet in 1954, finishing 11^th.  In his two years at Texas he only lost two races.  Not bad for a boy who came from the Cotton Fields of rural south Texas the the highest state of the college cross-country world.  He was an All-American and a Longhorn letterman.
 
(determination has to be stronger than the body.
 
Military Service begins on March 13, 1956
 
He was 22 and was part of the Navy’s “Special Services Company, composed of only athletes.  His first race was the steeplechase, and he came in last.  In his second year, he was assigned to the Cross Country team. His team won several honors for excellence.
Ino chooses to finish his education at Southwest Texas State Teachers College, later known as Texas State University.
 
He graduated in May of 1959
In 1960, he joined Delta Air Lines as a baggage handler.
1962, he joined the teaching profession.
May 25^th, 1963, got married.
 
A return to racing in the early 1970s in his late 30’s
He enjoyed the inner competitiveness that led him to success in track and translated to a fulfilling life.
He was ranked first in his age bracket for the mile, and Nike and Adidas both sponsored him with shoes, clothes, and sometimes airfare.
At 48 years of age, he set a personal best in the indoor Astrodome meet at 4:38. He had competitive times that were equal to races of his youth.
 
To run fast, you must train fast.   As he aged, he was a realist with his time and work-out regimen. He said “What I do is concentrate on what I can control to slow down the aging process. He says that formula continues to work for him. His times have slowed but he says “the experience, challenge, and joy of participating are unchanged.
We all have the ability; the difference is how we use it.
Says running if there’s any activity happier, more exhilarating, more nourishing to the imagination /
I’m at a loss to think of what it might be. In the running, the mind flees  with the body in the mysterious efflorescence of language that seems to pulse in the brain and rhythm with your feet and the swinging of your arms.”
Running was the ticket out of the expectations of my father and of a lifetime as a farmer.
However, from the time we are able to think, reason, make decisions, and accept responsibility, we begin to form our lives. Along the way, we are counseled by role models to show us the proper behavior. We learned traits from our teachers and parents, and eventually became reliable, responsible, and happy members of society.