Miles Burr fondly remembers his entry into the sport of track and field. It was middle school and an intro from his gym teacher Coach Johnson. Fast forward five years later and the junior from Mt. Desert Island High School in Bar Harbor, is winning state titles and breaking long standing records.
"I was really excited to break the 200 meter and 300 meter indoor records," Burr said." I know they will help push me to do my best in the upcoming seasons and I'd like to lower both those times next year. Both those records mean a lot to me."
After sweeping the 55m meter dash and 200 meter dash crowns at the Class B State Championship, Burr was back in action against the nation's best at New Balance Nationals Indoor.
Hype is a word often overused in sport, but it's key to Burr's success. During all of his races this season he's been super excited. He visualizes the distance he needs to run and gets fired up.
"The New Balance track was incredible and I felt good after the race," he exclaimed. "Once I saw my time in the in the 200 I was overwhelmed. I knew I had achieved and exceeded the goals I had set for myself at the start of the season. It was an amazing thing to see and feel."
In addition to the 200 and 300 meter records, Burr barely missed out on the 55 meter and 60 meter records by .01 seconds. Consider it fuel for the fire as he heads into the outdoor season where he will compete in the 100, 200, 400, long jump and triple jump.
"My main focus for this year would be my 100 meters and to just keep chipping away at my times," he said.
Putting the work in on track is a given, but it's what he and his MDI teammates do in the weightroom that gives them an extra edge. It starts with Coach Hallet's strength training program that focuses on getting stronger through the first half of the season with full body workouts.
"Those are geared towards explosive, fast twitch movements," he explained. "During the last phase of the season, we should begin to work on our compounds to get our strength up and work towards peaking for the championship season."
Burr credits Coach Hallett, who is in his first year as the head coach after being an assistant for his first two years at MDI, with helping him on improving his block starts, which he hopes will allow him to achieve his goals.
Those goals include sub 22 in the 200 meters to start the season, under 10.80 in the 100, and to dip below 50 seconds in the quarter mile. In the field events, Burr wants to set personal bests in the long jump and triple jump.
"This outdoor season I want to continue to improve in all my events and to encourage my teammates to do so as well," he added.
With a year to go in his high school career, Burr has the chance to break every sprint record in the state, and it's definitely something he has on his radar, to go down as one of the best ever in Maine.
"I am definitely using all the state records as motivation and it would be amazing to get them," he said. "The state records are something I will be focusing on and looking at throughout my high school track career."
No matter what happens Burr said once high school is over, he isn't closing the book.
"I definitely want to run track in college and keep improving."
