Lebanon High cross country runner Birhanu Harriman exploded onto the Upper Valley running scene last fall, extending his season to the Northeast regional race at Van Cortlandt Park in Bronx, N.Y.
College coaches took note of the 5-foot-5, 115-pound junior. However, when they discovered Harriman was in his first varsity campaign and only a part-time member of the Raider harriers at that, their almost-universal response was to say they’d wait a year before truly assessing his potential over the sport’s 5-kilometer distance.
Next year has arrived, and Harriman’s performances during the coming weeks will likely determine his athletic future. Having stepped away from Lebanon’s soccer team after helping it to a 2021 state title, “B” — as he’s known to his friends and family — has scholarship offers potentially for the taking.
“The faster I run, the better things will be, but I’m just trying to enjoy it,” said Harriman, who recently made an official visit to Southern Illinois University and has others scheduled for New York’s Hofstra University and UMass. “Could I win the New Englands and go to nationals? To me, it’s less an outsider’s goal and one within myself.”
First up is this weekend’s NHIAA Division II championship meet, where Harriman will presumably duel with Coe-Brown star Aidan Cox, who’s committed to the University of Virginia. That’s followed by the Granite State’s all-division Meet of Champions and the New Englands. The Northeast regionals include runners from New England, Pennsylvania and New Jersey and take place Nov. 26 in Wappingers Falls, N.Y.
Should Harriman withstand that gauntlet, he’d be off to the Dec. 3 nationals in Portland, Ore. That would be an enormous accomplishment, but given that he was 29th at the regional level last year, certainly not impossible.
“I’m usually clueless as to how I can perform,” Harriman said. “Sometimes I warm up and feel good and the race doesn’t go how I thought it would. But last year at the Meet of Champions, I felt crappy going into it and then ran 20 seconds faster than I’d ever run.
“I just go out hard and see what happens.”
Harriman is the youngest of three Ethiopian children adopted by Lebanon residents and Chester, Vt., natives Cliff Harriman and Stephanie Davis. The couple couldn’t conceive naturally and first pursued adoption in 1999.
Their daughter, Isabella, graduated in 2017 from Lebanon High, where she played ice hockey.
In 2005, Davis went back to the same orphanage and eventually returned with 6-year old Raphael, as well as a formerly premature infant they named Birhanu (pronounced Bir-HA-noo), which means “light” in Amharic, Ethiopia’s official language.
“He was always so little,” Stephanie Davis said. “The joke at first was that his head was in the 99th percentile but his weight was in the first, so it’s been fascinating to watch him grow.
“He has been our most stubborn kid, but it’s because he’s sure of himself. Although he used to be shy and not look people in the eyes.”
Those days are gone, but the 17-year-old remains quiet much of the time. Woe to the person, however, who mistakes this for timidity, for his friends still laugh over the events of a certain JV soccer game during Harriman’s sophomore year.
That day, a large defender knocked the diminutive forward around, until No. 20’s patience evaporated and he exploded off the ground in a rage so fierce his teammates had difficulty dragging him away, his tormentor staggering backward in shock.
“You only get out of B what you ask him,” Lebanon cross country coach Kevin Lozeau said with a chuckle. “He’s personable and approachable but also laconic. He’s confident, but you wouldn’t necessarily recognize that, because he’s not braggadocious.”
Harriman, who’s considering engineering as a college major, spent part of his time outside school because of the COVID-19 pandemic, running various distances, including a marathon jaunt, with soccer teammate Tommy Wolfe. On a nice day, Harriman was known to slip on a weighted backpack and bang out 10 or 15 miles for fun.
During spring vacation week last year, Harriman and Wolfe ran a mile at the start of every hour for 48 consecutive hours near Wolfe’s house, which abuts the Eastman Golf Links’ second hole. The teens would cut across to start their mile on holes 17 and 18, cruise past the clubhouse and finish on holes 1 and 2.
“Waking up from a deep sleep at 3 a.m. was difficult,” Harriman said soon after. “The second night, I just remember the cold and wet and not much more. I slept for 12 hours after we finished.”
Nearly six months later, Harriman broke the soccer program’s mark in the mile by running 4 minutes, 52 seconds — while wearing Crocs, the ubiquitous rubbery resin clogs not intended as footwear for strenuous activity. Harriman said he found them comfortable on the track, but it was a short-lived experiment.
Harriman contributed significantly as a left-footed forward during the soccer team’s title run last year but also thought increasingly of dropping the sport.
His agreement with futbol coach Rob Johnstone was that he would put that activity first, running cross country only when there wasn’t a conflict. How much better could he run if he participated in daily training and didn’t subject his body to soccer’s grind?
“My dad was worried about me getting hurt in soccer, and I came to terms with taking the next step,” said Harriman, who serves as a soccer team manager this fall, attending practices and games when cross country practice is done or that team has the day off. “But I miss the physical aspect of soccer.”
Harriman daydreams about his passion while in class, envying others who are running at that very moment.
“There’s nothing like being in tune with your body naturally,” he said. “It’s just one motion, but there are so many options. Where will you go? What kind of music will you listen to?
“Your heart beating, your legs feeling fatigued. Running is sort of like a meditation with yourself, the way you feel everything that’s happening to you.”
Tris Wykes can be reached at twykes@vnews.com.