Alec Govi always pictured himself in a college tennis uniform, but shortly after running in the cross country state sectionals his junior year of high school, he traded the racquet for a simple pair of running shoes.
While tennis was his first love, senior Alec Govi transitioned into running competitively during high school. Though he’ll go on to law school upon graduation, Govi is still interested in pursuing his love for running.“I went to a really small school so it wasn’t that hard to make state,” Govi said. “But for me it was like wow, maybe I’m better at running than tennis. For my senior year, I started to do track and cross country. I basically gave up on tennis and that was a very hard decision.”
As a high school senior, Govi certainly could not have imagined what college senior Govi is preparing for right now. With the Jim Bush Invitational coming up for the UCLA track and field team, Govi is training daily at Drake Stadium, keeping a focused eye on the finish line of his Bruin career.
However, with too little experience and not-fast-enough times, Govi wasn’t recruited by any schools as he submitted his college applications before ultimately choosing UCLA.
Now, running holds the spot in his heart that was once so dearly reserved for tennis. After four years of running for UCLA track and field and despite some struggles on the track, Govi has learned to love the sport in a way that won’t fade.
To get to this point required the perfect combination of a little luck and a lot of perseverance.
The luck part came from a complete overhaul of the coaching staff in the summer of 2009, resulting in a smaller recruiting class and a new coach with a different mindset.
“A week before orientation, I found out pretty much the entire coaching staff got fired,” Govi said. “I thought that was my chance to start from scratch.”
The perseverance began after Govi learned of the change. He immediately prepared a letter for the new long distance coach, Forest Braden, and delivered it to him during new student orientation.
A response from Braden gave Govi a unique opportunity to practice with the team to see how he fit. If he was good enough to keep up in this trial run, he was on the team.
“I was impressed just by his attitude, and we were in a situation in which we could take a chance on him,” Braden said.
“I was looking for athletes who wanted to work hard and wanted to put in effort to be great and to be the best he could be.”
In practice, Govi was quiet and just went about his business, but he did everything the coaches asked of him without a second thought.
Even though he was always playing catch-up with his faster and more experienced teammates, this was the opportunity of a lifetime and Govi enjoyed every single moment.
“It was the hardest training of my life, but I loved it,” Govi said. “Everyone was kicking my butt, but it was so fun. My dream was to run for UCLA.”
The beginning did not come smoothly. But as the year progressed, everything began to click and Govi started to hit his stride, lowering his personal record in the 1500 meters by almost 13 seconds. It was official; he had earned that blue and gold UCLA tracksuit.
The next year brought along a much larger recruiting class and immediately the competition intensified. During the cross country season, talented recruits often beat Govi, and he grew discouraged.
“This was a wake-up call, these guys were killing me in workouts,” Govi said.
As the cross country season ended and track season began, Govi managed to turn things around and enjoyed running once again. He performed well and managed to lower his personal records in the 1500 meters and the 5000 meters substantially.
At this point, despite the success, Govi questioned his own motivations.
“I started asking why am I running if I’m only happy when I’m improving and doing well,” Govi said. “Am I doing this just because I like running personal bests or because I actually love competing and training and getting the best out of what I can do? It was reflection time.”
Govi knew he always loved running, despite all the discouragement of not training as well as he would have liked to during the cross country season. He needed to find a way to enjoy running even when his progress slows down.
Somewhere along the line in his junior year, Govi seemed to have figured it out.
“I just realized that when I was struggling in workouts or races, you have to remember why you’re competing,” Govi said. “My attitude, while still improving, has become more positive. I’m doing this because I love doing it regardless of if I’m doing well or not.”
Despite a self-proclaimed rough senior year, Govi said that he has developed a deeper enjoyment for the sport, one that is more enduring than a joy based solely on results. And this intrinsic love is what keeps Govi pushing hard through practices and races despite the disappointments with his performances.
“You can see it in his face that he’s just grinding out there,” said redshirt freshman distance runner Lane Werley. “He’s kind of like a bulldog out there. He bulldogs his way through practice and every race. He just grits his teeth and really goes after it.”
With his senior year about to come to a conclusion and law school on the horizon, Govi has found a way to keep that love of running still burning.
Even with such a huge commitment, Govi has decided to keep racing because he enjoys too much the act of running and the idea of training for something. So when he does hang up the blue and gold tracksuit at the end of this year, he won’t be hanging up his running shoes along with it.
Instead, Govi will hope to compete at elite meets and run faster than he has in college. But of course even if Govi can’t keep up with the best, his love for the sport will keep him running.
“It’s that maturity of maintaining a positive attitude regardless of how I do,” Govi said. “My love for the sport isn’t a function of how fast I’m running on any particular day.”