By Melissa Wallace '11
Athletes are born with passion. They are born with the passion to succeed and to accomplish goals that the normal person could not achieve. And it is this passion that drives them to work hard, never give up, and always set high standards that only sheer determination and commitment can help them achieve.
For Chris Curto, the assistant coach of The College of New Jersey's men and women's cross country teams, this type of passion is not foreign. On October 10, with over 42,000 competitors, Curto finished the Chicago Marathon with a personal-best time of 2:35.39, placing 127th overall and 23rd in his division. The Chicago Marathon was only Curto's third marathon, an impressive feat for such a grueling and draining competition. His finish boasts an average pace of less than six minutes per mile.
Yet it is Curto's passion for running and competing that has helped him maintain the success he once had in high school and college competition. He had ran cross country and track for four years at Rancocas Valley High School and then for four years here at TCNJ.
A graduate of TCNJ in 2003, Curto was a distinguished athlete on the men's track and field team. In July of 2003, at the Larry Ellis meet in Princeton, Curto posted a school-record effort in the men's steeplechase event with his time of 9:12.12, which was also a NCAA provisional time. He said that was his biggest and most memorable accomplishment of his lifetime thus far.
“After college I took some time off. I ran recreationally, but I didn't really train to race. I started coaching at TCNJ in 2006, so that got me back into running every day,” said Curto.
Curto, who is a teacher in the Hamilton school district, was able to train with his athletes not only for regular distance runs, but also for long runs (once a week - anywhere from 16 to 20 miles) and for interval workouts. He believes that having people to train with makes a big difference and had a positive impact on his marathon competitions.
“Training for the marathon, or for that matter cross-country, is as big a mental challenge as it is a physical challenge. Any of the cross country runners on the team will tell you that running by yourself in the summer, in the heat, sometimes early in the morning or even late at night to avoid the heat, can get pretty lonely.”
For that reason, he tried to meet up with his athletes a few times over the summer. The men on the team had been training for an 8k race and the women had been training for a 6k race, so they had to put in just as much work as he did.
“When you're with them every day, it's hard not to stay motivated because you see how hard they work,” he noted.
With the help of his passion for running and his extremely good work ethic, Curto was able to finish his first marathon in New York in 2007, which he ran in a time of 2:47.
“I was happy with it at the time, but I knew I could run faster than that,” Cutro said.
In 2009, he competed at the Boston Marathon and finished with a time of 2:39:25, which he was extremely happy with as well. But, again, he knew he could be faster.
“I had set a goal of 2:30 for Chicago, and I ran 2:35:59, so that original goal is still in my head. I'd like to try to run something close to 2:30.”
With his passion to succeed, sheer ambition, and commitment to something he loves to do, it's only a matter of time before Cutro achieves that goal.
