Junior Joe Lamburn recently set a new school record in the indoor track one mile event at 4:31.25 eclipsing the former record, which was set two years earlier by his older brother, by .64 seconds. Lamburn’s team-oriented and goal-focused mindset has allowed him to reach success throughout his running career.  

At 11 years-old, Lamburn’s interest in running sparked when he began attending organized running events. He looked up to his older brother, Will Lamburn, who began his running career in middle school and Lamburn decided he wanted to pursue a similar passion. As Lamburn transitioned to high school he joined the cross country, indoor track and outdoor track teams. 

Lamburn finds being a three season athlete challenging; however, the dynamic team atmosphere helps him to stay focused.

“It’s definitely difficult to stay motivated,” Lamburn said. “I think having my team with me, it’s honestly kind of corny, but it’s what keeps me going because we have fun together.” 

His hard work and dedication to training and completing workouts with his teammates over the past three years have allowed Lamburn to develop the skills necessary to break the school record. 

“With our training it’s mostly about constantly improving,” Lamburn said. “So, it’s not changing something dramatically over one season from the next. My coach laid the foundation last year and I am doing generally the same stuff. I am just doing harder things. I am going faster. I am going for longer repetitions [with] more volume this year.” 

Lamburn’s long distance coach Patrick Galvin believes concentrating on self improvement is the first step in successful training. 

“Everybody [on the team] is all focused on self improvement and as long as they are focused on that, all the records and championships, they all follow,” Galvin said. 

Galvin is proud of Lamburn and believes his new school record is well deserved. 

“When he is racing he has his game face, and he refuses to lose to somebody,” Galvin said. 

Lamburn ran a 4:43 mile at the start of the season, and shaved over 12 seconds off his time to set the record. Not only will this record be a part of Algonquin’s athletic history, but it also signifies Lamburn’s commitment and growth in the sport. Having his older brother as an inspiration in running and then beating his school record was surreal for Lamburn. 

“I thought it was cool just because I have always looked up to him, and it’s kind of cool breaking his record, specifically just because it’s shown how far I have gone,” Lamburn said. 

As Lamburn begins college recruitment, he has aspirations to continue his running career. He believes his brother, who runs for Southern Connecticut State University, has been a help to him during this process.

“He can give me advice and I can talk to his teammates as well about recruiting and stuff like that, and things I should be doing,” Lamburn said. “So, it’s good to have someone as a role model.” 

In addition to running, Lamburn has formed an interest in photography, and he films highlight reels for his brother’s college meets and high school sporting events. He combines his passions for running and photography in order to bring more recognition to the records runners achieve.  

“I think that running and track as a sport don’t really get the coverage that [they] deserve,” Lamburn said. “Some of these athletes are doing really cool stuff and most people don’t hear about it on the mainstream just because they don’t see it in front of them. So, I think if you produce stuff that’s just as cool as the basketball videos or the hockey videos, I think people will start to gravitate towards it.” 

With his passion for the sport and the impressive accomplishments he has achieved thus far in his high school running career, Lamburn continues to set optimistic goals for himself as he enters the spring outdoor track season. 

“The mile record in the outdoor is 4:24,” Lamburn said. “So it would be cool if I could break that. That’s still seven seconds away, so it’s definitely a challenge. I think the faster you get, the harder it is to improve a lot, but I think I have a chance for that.”