‘A lion’s heart.’ TX runner loses shoe, wins more than gold in bloody finish at state meet
Grant Martinez will never forget his final high school race.
Not because he just missed winning a medal at the TAPPS 5A state meet in Waco.
Martinez was a favorite to place among the top three May 6, but his day ended in pain.
Martinez, a senior at Frisco Legacy Christian Academy, was about a fourth of the way into the second lap of the 1,600 meter run when he realized something odd was happening with his left foot. He was losing his shoe — every runner’s nightmare.
“Before the race I was running behind, so I think I single knotted it. I’m used to quadruple knots,” Martinez said. “I thought to myself, ‘Please don’t fall off.’ Then, I could feel it coming off.
“It was going to come off either way, so I just kicked it off.”
With more than two laps still to run, Martinez didn’t stop. Instead, he ran the rest of the way with one shoe and only a sock on his left foot — a bloody left foot by the time the race was over.
“I felt something slapping my foot. I thought it was my sock,” Martinez said. “But it was my skin. At the medical tent after the race they were picking little pieces of the track out of my foot.”
Not only did Martinez finish the race, he still almost medaled. He placed fourth with a time of 4 minutes, 28.10 seconds — only two seconds shy of a bronze medal and less than four seconds behind his career best time of 4:24.78.
“I’m watching from up in the stands and I see it fly off immediately — and he still finished the race!” said his coach, Barrett Hardage. “My heart sank, but he just kept running and running.
“It was the gutsiest thing I’ve seen in 22 years of coaching.”
Harding told his star that his courage, determination and accomplishment was more memorable than any he might have won — gold or otherwise.
“I told him even if you ran a minute faster, it still wouldn’t be as impressive,” Hardage said.
The loss was the first of the season for Martinez, who was 5-0 in races previously. It was also his second consecutive appearance at state, having finished sixth as a junior.
Running wasn’t first love
Martinez originally planned to play soccer in college. This past season as team captain he helped the Eagles to their first state championship and was named all-state midfielder. He also helped them reach the state finals in 2021.
However, he also had his heart set on attending TCU, from where his older brother Austin Martinez graduated on May 13. Austin is a solid athlete in his own right, finishing fifth in the 132-pound weight class for TCU in the Collegiate Nationals Powerlifting competition in April.
Realizing TCU does not have a men’s soccer program, but still wanting the collegiate athletic experience, Grant turned his attention to running. It wasn’t long before he learned just how good he was at the sport and it became his new passion. He owns every school record in the 1,600, 3,200 and cross country, in which he finished fifth in the state the past two seasons.
“When people said, ‘Grant, you’ve got wheels,’ he started listening,” said his father, Joe Martinez.
“I asked him, ‘Why would you run if you’re not chasing a ball?’” Legacy soccer coach Monty Page said with a laugh. “But he’s great at it — and he’s determined.”
Page first learned of that determination during Martinez’s freshman season. At only 5-foot-3 and 95 pounds, he was nonetheless one of the toughest players on the team.
“People couldn’t believe I was starting someone that small, but he’d get hit, knocked down, and pick himself up and get right back at it every time,” Page recalled. “He just was not going to let anyone beat him.”
Now, at 5-8 and 145 pounds, Martinez’s determination has grown as well. Nowhere was that more clear than his performance at state.
“He was literally tearing off the bottom of his foot, but there was no way he was not going to finish that race,” Joe Martinez said. “He had his heart set on winning a gold medal, but I told him God has a bigger plan here.”
Grant hopes that plan includes running for the TCU men’s track team. He realizes he still has some work to do to lower his times even more, but in the span of a single year he knocked more than 20 seconds off the best time of his junior season.
On the bottom of his running shoes, Martinez has written 4:10 on one (his time goal) and “stay humble” on the other.
He said, in fact, that he has been in contact with TCU about joining their program.
Take a closer look
Page said that what Martinez did at state should be looked at closely by coaches as they make their decision.
“Yeah, they’re going to be looking at times, but with more than two laps to go, 99 out of 100 runners would have stopped. But he kept going,” Page said. “The one that will stand out among them all is this guy that lost his shoe and he still got within 3 seconds of the time that got him on the inside lane.
“They should say, ‘I want him! He’s a young man with a lion’s heart.’”
Not only did Martinez finish the race, he refused to go to the hospital after. His soccer team was being honored by FC Dallas that night.
“I was going to make that celebration. I was not going to miss that,” he said, adding that he even refused using crutches. “And I was determined to walk.”
In fact, he said he was running again not long after the incident.
“My foot healed really fast. I ran five miles three days after the race,” he said. “But it was definitely hurting bad that day and you’d think it might have taken longer.”
Martinez plans to major in exercise science at TCU with a minor in business.
“Helping athletes rehab is something I’d be interested in,” he said with a smile.
Looking back, Martinez said that, though painful — physically and emotionally — at the time it happened, he sees the incident as a life lesson. He believes it made him a stronger person.
While he had his heart set on winning, he said: “The things this taught me are much more valuable. It taught me perseverance, for one thing. It definitely gave me another outlook that something you’d never expect can bring out a lot more in you.”
Whether it’s in college or otherwise, Martinez plans to keep running for a long time.
“I love testing my body. What I have has been given to me by the Lord. It’s my job to use it to the best of my ability,” he said.
In regards to that, his father gave him some friendly advice.
“We may use duct tape, super glue, whatever it takes to hold them,” Joe Martinez said. “But those shoes will never come off again!”
