This past November, a 20-year-old college student drove nine miles from his home in Portland, Oregon, to the storefront of “Hopeless Ink Tattoo & Piercing” in Vancouver, Washington.
The student, Cameron Sorter, entered the parlor with a photo in hand. Inside, it was sterile and quiet. The walls were painted a deep slate. The blinds drawn shut.
Sorter shed his shirt. He pointed to a patch of blank skin on his left shoulder blade. The artist studied the picture—a black and white rendering of Matthew Centrowitz, Nutrition - Weight Loss Shoes & Gear.
The idea for the ink started five months before, after the U.S. Track and Field Trials in July, when Sorter saw his running idol cruise through the 1500 and secure his space at the Olympics. He tweeted at Centrowitz with 13 words he figured would go out into the Twitt-o-sphere and last, as they do, mere minutes or seconds.
But Centrowitz responded. “Bet” was all he wrote.
A month went by. As Centrowitz flew down to Brazil for the games, Sorter traveled from his Seaside, Oregon, home to a new school to finish his last two years of undergrad at York College in York, Nebraska. For him, cross-country season was about to begin.
The two athletes, at face value, share only one commonality—and that is their love of middle distances. Centrowitz has a tattoo on his back that reads “CITIUS,” Latin for “faster,” and another on his chest, “Like Father Like Son.” The latter refers to his dad’s track career. He too ran the 1500 and made it to the Olympics.
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Sorter, on the other hand, had never been inked. He fits in perfectly with the perception that those who run middle distances are quiet, thoughtful, quirky, and determined. He came to running later than many college athletes, giving track a whirl only after watching the movie Juno, in which Michael Cera plays Paulie Bleeker, a shy teenager who wears canary track shorts and who impregnates the movie’s protagonist.
“I don’t know, I guess I just liked Michael Cera,” Sorter told Runner’s World.
In his senior year, Sorter was offered an opportunity to run at Treasure Valley Community College near his home in Oregon. Once there, he started getting looks from four-year schools.
His current coach, Justin Carver, says a YouTube video Sorter sent him made him a top recruit. In it, he gets tripped up in the inside lane and tumbles to the outside of the track. The other runners make it 100—maybe even 200—meters ahead of him. But instead of quitting, the kid hops back on his spikes and takes off, sprinting to get himself back in the race.
So Carver wooed him to York, a landscape that Sorter is still unfamiliar with, where the cornfields are like oceans. There’s little to do besides run and talk running. It agrees with him.
During the summer Olympics, Carver invited his runners to his home to watch the track events. Sorter sat on his coach’s couch with his teammates beside him to take in the men’s 1500 meters.
No one thought Centrowitz had a chance to take gold. In 2012, he had come up short by placing fourth at the London games, and no American had placed first in the 1500 since 1908—more than 100 years ago.
“I knew it was a stretch, but I really wanted him to win,” Sorter said. When Centrowitz crossed the line in 3:50.00, everyone was shocked. Sorter just smiled. “I knew he could do it.”
And then, two days after his big win, Centrowitz was back on Twitter:
Behind the scenes, in a private message, the softer side of Centrowitz assured Sorter that he didn’t really have to get a picture of his face permanently etched onto his skin. But Sorter knew he always wanted to some type of symbolic running tattoo.
“When I started back in high school, I didn’t think I would be able to afford college, but cross country and track made it possible for me to get my associate’s, and now I’m here competing at a four-year school,” he said. “Running is my passion. It’s my sanctuary. I owe, like, everything to it. Well, besides like God, but let’s not go there right now.”
Together, the pro runner and college athlete picked four potential photos and posted them in a Twitter poll for the masses to choose. Fans picked the picture of Centrowitz holding the flag up over his shoulders, his mouth upturned in a toothy grin.
Sorter decided to get it done when he went home to Oregon for winter break. His father reportedly loves tattoos. His mother was less on board until her son showed her a picture of Centrowitz. (“She said, ‘Oh he’s pretty cute.’ And then she was cool with it.”) At the shop, Sorter went under the needle for four hours, getting the whole portrait done in one shot.
The next day, Centrowitz, who lives in Portland, met Sorter at the waterfront for a run. “The first thing he did was take a picture with it,” says Sorter. “I think he was pretty stoked.”
Among NAIA teams, York is ranked 21st in the nation, one of its best showings in history—and not bad for a roster of only nineteen.
Sorter placed first in his first two meets and ran an indoor 800 PR in his third match. Coach Carver won’t commit to any cosmic musings yet. But Sorter knows this season is different and is certain the tattoo is working for him in a way he can’t quite explain.
“We’re this little team in the middle of nowhere and we’re just showing up, “he said. “I do believe in that weird stuff like serendipity. I do believe the tattoo is playing a role.”
