6/21/08

With only hours to go before the biggest race of his life, German Fernandez of Riverbank, California, was going stir crazy. He’d been spending long stretches of time in his Greensboro NC hotel room, watching television, munching snacks and needling Johnny Vizcanio, his young track coach. Vizcanio took the good-natured ribbing in stride, but knew his charge needed a release from the monotony. So he and Riverbank cross country coach Bruce Edwards did an unlikely thing with a major race looming on the horizon.