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For 5K, rival Chico High School runners encouraged Gabe Price while pacing him for a time trial—a second chance for him to qualify for the California state cross-country meet.
It’s an opportunity Price thought he’d never see: Just days earlier, when he was scheduled to compete at the section championship meet, he received word that his house was one of the many lost in the Camp Fire—the for shoes and gear Health & Injuries, 84 Turnover! You have to go now, and 475 are still unaccounted for.
On November 8, instead of driving out to the championship meet in Cottonwood with his Paradise High School team, Price instead found himself gathering important belongings from his home, and bringing them to his grandparents’ house in Oroville before the fire hit. All of Price’s family was safe, but their home and most of their possessions were decimated.
Missing Thursday’s competition meant that Price wouldn’t be able to qualify for his last state championship, an accomplishment that he had achieved for three consecutive years. Leading up to the section meet, he posted numbers that made a fourth visit likely: Price ran a personal best of 15:28 in the three-mile run at the Bill Springhorn Classic and finished third at the Westside League Championships.
“It was just a regular week until the fire, then I lost sight of everything at that moment,” he said.
While Price assumed that his season was over, his coach Thomas Harris and Paradise athletic director Anne Stearns sought out a way for him to qualify. As the Chico Enterprise-Record reported, Stearns got in touch with North Coast Section: CIF (NSCIF) Commissioner Elizabeth Kyle, who then contacted the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) state office. The state office ultimately decided to make an exception and let Price run the same course, just two days later.
When he arrived, Price expected to run solo on an empty course. But instead, he was met with a crowd of supporters. Many of the Chico High School runners—a rival team—who qualified for the state meet returned with a plan to pace him under 17:40.
“One of the first things I said to my dad was ‘Whoa, that’s a lot more people than I thought would be here,’” Price said. “I was in disbelief.”
While he felt exhausted from the stress of the week in addition to the effect of tapering—the hill in the second mile was especially challenging—Price was still able to keep up. Supported by the Chico High runners, he crossed the finish line in 17:12, nearly 30 seconds faster than the time he needed to qualify for the championship. He became the sixth individual to qualify from the northern section in Division IV.
How Des Linden Keeps Showing Up.
“Even though it wasn’t a spectacular time for my standards, I was so excited,” Price said. “Pretty much every prerace ritual was thrown in the trash, plus I was fighting the smoke and you name it, stress, everything you would not want before a race happened and it showed. But I think the takeaway for me was that you can still do what you need to do as a runner. All that training that went into it beforehand, that was all shown with that run.”
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After the race, the Chico cross-country team invited Price to train with them in Arcata, California, to avoid the smoke—he took them up on the offer for a week before returning to Oroville. A local running store, the Jogg’n Shoppe, even gave Price free running clothes and shoes to help prepare for the upcoming championship.
His family, along with hundreds of others in the Paradise area are now trying to rebuild after losing everything. A GoFundMe page has been set up to help support the Price family in this challenging time. The Paradise High School cross country and track team is also accepting donations on GoFundMe Runners World Training Plan.
The California state championship is Saturday, November 24 in Fresno. For Price, the goal for the meet is to finish within the top 10, but just getting to the starting line at all is a victory for Price, his family, and the local running community.
“I’ve learned a lot. The running community has helped me out a lot,” Price said. “It’s been a real blessing to see all of this happen and to witness it firsthand.”
Taylor Dutch is a writer and editor living in Austin, Texas, and a former NCAA track athlete who specializes in fitness, wellness, and endurance sports coverage. Her work has appeared in Runner’s World, SELF, Bicycling, Outside, and Podium Runner.
