DyeStatCal Male Athlete of Week September 9/30 - 10/04/02
Mohamed Trafeh (Duarte)

Mohamed Trafeh (Duarte) leads near the mile at Stanford on the way to his CR 14:58 (broken later in the Div I contest)

He’s already somewhat of a legend as just an eleventh grader, this slight African immigrant who has torn up the running scene the last year or so after legendary amounts of mileage in his San Gabriel Valley community of Duarte and the neighboring mountain areas. He brings a simple style of racing, “all-out” to his competitions, and is certainly a beacon to anyone who wishes to make it to the top, simply train very hard!!! He amazed with improvement last year that left him comfortable with competition among the State’s very best distance runners, with a 9:08.69 3200 best that had him win the Southern Section State Qualifying competition! He then added a quick 14:39.01 in summer action on the track for 5000 meters. This fall he lost to Mike Poe at the Colton Swarm Meet, but has been out charging since, leading the Course Record destruction at Stanford last weekend with his Division IV solo 14:58 run that took down Ian Dobson (Klamath Union) and his 15:05 from 1999!
The soft-spoken Duarte student is very approachable, as are most distance runners, and was very open about his situation at Stanford, stating his goal was, “to run faster than Yong-Sung Leal (Arroyo, San Lorenzo) had the year before (Leal won at 15:34 last fall there). When told his time was right about 15 minutes, he thought we meant 16 minutes, and was a bit disappointed. However he perked right up when told he had bettered his goal, certainly assisted by ideal weather this morning, very comfortable discussing his race plan. He indicated, “I wanted to get out quickly, and to come by two miles at 10:00.” The 10:00 goal is interesting, as it would put him right at pace to run Leal’s time. He was 10:08, and he described that after that point he “worked on pressing the pace but staying relaxed. I kind of felt better and better as the race went along, and felt that I was picking it up the last part." He looked very powerful to the tape.
An interview in the LA Times kind of added to Mohamed’s fame, when reporter John Ortega relayed the information that the English as a Second Language student wore his uniform under his street clothes for the first two weeks of his involvement with Cross-Country, not sure which day the meets were. His training regimen, first reported by Rich Gonzalez last year, with 1252 miles run over the summer between his ninth and tenth grade years, topped out by “three a day” 50 mile Saturdays a couple of times, is legendary. His ninth grade best at Mt. SAC was 17:53, and he looks to go about three minutes faster this Fall, etc. etc. etc. This guy is amazing!!!
Trafeh is a reminder in many ways that our sport is very simple, with hard work the road to success. The slight-framed Duarte high eleventh grader does not appear to have had injury problems so far, and we will keep our fingers crossed, as he helps rebuild California prep distance running as part of a recent super group of stars!!

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