In It to the Finish--Cameron Miller (Stockdale HS, Bakersfield; Stanford)

Courtesy: David Kiefer
Release: 11/13/2014

THE CENTRAL VALLEY city of Bakersfield is known for its oil, agriculture, and long hot summers.

Dust and sweat are realities of everyday life. Pumpjacks and oil derricks dot the landscape in a region that once beckoned the Dust Bowl refugees of Steinbeck’s “Grapes of Wrath” with silent malice.

For an average of 108 days per year, temperatures reach at least 90 degrees. And there’s the smog: By one measure, Bakersfield has the worst air pollution in the nation.

In this town, toughness is a birthright. And it is at this confluence of churning metal, rich soil, and burning orange sun that we meet Cameron Miller.

To truly know Miller, a junior distance runner at Stanford, is to truly understand where he came from, because it is those origins that helped him weather a series of misfortunes that threatened to end his collegiate career, and may even have ended his life.

Miller will race Friday for the No. 9 Cardinal, a team seeking its 21st consecutive NCAA Championships appearance, at the NCAA West Regionals at Stanford Golf Course. It’s remarkable really, that a runner – and not even a heralded one -- who missed nearly two full years of competition has ingrained himself into a solid member of one of the best teams in the country.

“The discomfort I’m going to feel out there is nothing compared to the struggles and challenges I’ve had to face just to get to the starting line,” he said.

* * *

LET'S BEGIN IN Bakersfield, Calif., where Cameron, the son of Mark and Karen, a podiatrist and dental hygienist, and older brother of Drew, began running to get in shape for basketball. Until back injuries shelved him, Mark was a strong recreational runner and for Cameron, running became just as natural.

At Stockdale High, Miller was fueled by good coaches and dedicated teammates, winning two Southwest Yosemite League team titles and a Central Section Division I championship in cross country.

“It was a battle every day to run, whether it’s getting up really early in the summer time to beat the heat or getting out on the track during the school year when it was 100 or 105 degrees.” Miller said. “We persevered through a lot of things. I think that definitely shaped me, not only as a runner, but as a person, just being out there and not being concerned about the conditions.

“I definitely feel I gained a measure of toughness. Really, I had no choice. Our family wasn’t going to move.”

As a senior, Miller and teammate Blake Haney, now at Oregon, dominated local races. Miller was a good runner who became greater as the season evolved. He was ninth in the California Division I cross country championship, followed by sixth at the FootLocker Western Regional (covering the Western U.S.) and 31st at the FootLocker nationals. Suddenly, he was in Stanford’s sights.

* * *

AT FIRST, MILLER'S collegiate career seemed promising. While redshirting, as is the custom for true freshmen under Stanford’s Franklin P. Johnson Director of Track and Field Chris Miltenberg, Miller proved the equal of the Cardinal’s other top runners in his class during two early-season meets.

But in early October 2012, “everything changed,” Miller said. On a Wednesday morning run along Campus Drive, Miller arrived at the intersection of Campus and Palm Drive. An important note: Miller doesn’t like to stop at intersections.

“To me, running is supposed to be this continuous activity,” he said. “To stop for a minute bugs me, It’s really annoying.”

To avoid stopping, Miller had a habit of running behind a line of cars rather than waiting for them to cross. He didn’t notice the bus rounding the corner – until it was too late.

The bus struck Miller, who landed hard on pavement. Fortunately, the bus was traveling under 10 mph at the point of contact, and Miller’s worst physical injury was a broken arm, though he never has quite shaken the trauma of the crash.

“I was in the hospital,” Miller recalled. “I was trying to wake up. I thought it was some horrible dream. I remember trying to pinch myself, and trying to tell myself that this wasn’t happening. But it was all real.”

Miller missed only three weeks of training, but the accident sent him into a spiral that would take more than two years to escape.

* * *

WHEN MILLER ARRIVED at Stanford, he wasn’t one of the team’s top recruits, but felt if he worked harder than everyone else, it wouldn’t matter. But with the accident, that focus on outworking his teammates revved into hyperdrive.

Miller had to make up for lost time. He had to regain his tenuous position on the team and establish some kind of respect among his veteran teammates. Every run was too far or too fast or too soon. Not surprisingly, a strong pain quickly developed in his lower back.

An MRI revealed a severe stress fracture of the sacrum, the large triangular bone at the base of the spine. It may originally have been caused by the accident and aggravated by his relentless training, but there was no way to be sure.

After a slow recovery that included 10 weeks without running a step on the ground, Miller looked ahead to competing in the fall. But the pain returned. There were no signs of a stress fracture this time, but doctors warned him that another in the same area could end his running career.

“Honestly, I was scared that the next step may be my last,” Miller said. “I thought it was just going to blow up.”

Further rehab led to an optimistic outlook, this time for the 2014 track season. But Miller’s hopes were again shattered in the form of a tibial stress fracture to his left leg. For the next two months, there was a little improvement, but not much. It was clear that the periods of constant training disruptions were becoming too difficult to overcome, and Miller felt himself dragged into a never-ending injury cycle.

“At that point, I was done,” Miller said. “I told Coach Milt I needed some time away from the team to re-evaluate my priorities and my commitment, and to think about whether I wanted to do this anymore.”

Miller felt increasingly marginalized and isolated as he remained sidelined.

“I wasn’t running with them, I wasn’t working out with them,” he said. “So much of my self-identity and self-worth was tied to that. For that to be taken away wasn’t easy. When you commit yourself to a sport and a team, and you’re not able to do it, there’s a void there that’s not easily filled.”

* * *

THROUGH IT ALL, Miller excelled in his studies. A history major with a concentration in law, Miller has maintained a 3.76 cumulative grade-point average while also writing columns for The Stanford Daily. He aspires to a career that intersects law and sports, perhaps as a college athletics administrator, in pro sports management, or perhaps even as a player agent.

His interests and experiences as a student-athlete provide him a unique perspective on contemporary court cases involving the rights of collegiate athletes. One such op-ed piece was linked in a Tweet by attorney and national college basketball analyst Jay Bilas, who has more than 750,000 followers.

“It’s a very dynamic time for collegiate athletics right now,” Miller said. “I’m lucky enough to be a witness to it, and I have an opinion on a lot of them.”

Perhaps it wasn’t surprising that Miller decided to return to running. Ultimately, the thought of giving up an opportunity to compete for Stanford – an opportunity he had worked so hard for – seemed unfathomable.

“I wasn’t going to give it up that easily,” Miller said. “I would rather try and fail, and try and fail 100 times rather than not try at all. I was raised not to give up on anything no matter how tough it may be. I was out there running in the fields when it was 95 degrees. I didn’t stop right there and walk home.

“I knew I had potential. Somewhere inside of me was that runner who came to Stanford, was so excited to run on the team, and showed promise in his first couple of races. I knew that runner was still inside of me.”

* * *

WE OFTEN HEAR stories about how it takes someone to hit rock bottom before things really change. Miller certainly followed that pattern. He now runs with an ease and happiness that was absent before. He runs without pressure and has learned, most importantly, “to be consistent and to be moderate.”

“Those were the two paramount running values hammered home by guys like Chris Derrick, Elliott Heath, and Garrett Heath, the values those guys embodied in everything,” Miller said. “You can be consistent in training all you want, but if you’re not moderate or taking your easy days easy, or if you’re going balls to the wall every day, it’s probably going to end poorly.”

Miller finally made his Stanford cross country debut on Sept. 27, placing 23rd overall and No. 3 for the team. Afterward, he heard the words of acceptance that he might never have expected.

“I want to bring you to Washington next weekend,” MIltenberg said, of an upcoming invitational.

Miller was Stanford’s No. 5 in that one, earning yet another shot, this time at the high-powered Wisconsin Invitational against some of the best teams in the nation. He placed 78th there, as Stanford’s No. 4 runner. That, in turn, led to his inclusion in the Pac-12 and NCAA West Regional championship meets.

“Every race that I’m racing here has been the biggest race I’ve ever been in,” he said. “There’s no way I’m not going to take advantage of every opportunity to keep putting one foot in front of the other.

For Miller, those opportunities were created in the Bakersfield dirt, and his mind often takes him back to one of his favorite paths, which winds through the fields of carrots, and the orchards of almonds and pistachios.

“It’s beautiful in the mornings when the sun comes over the Sierra Nevada mountains,” Miller said. “You can see the whole south Valley. There were a couple of mornings this summer when I was running at the end of the fields and I just couldn’t stop smiling.”

At last, Cameron Miller has a reason to.


#gostanford