Chris Coddington has turned the pain of training for cross-country into personal gain.

The Glenwood Springs high school senior ran a personal best course time of 17 minutes, 37 seconds for a fourth place finish at last Saturday’s Demon Invitational.

The mark helped the Glenwood boys earn its first team championship of the 2002 season.

And Coddington’s accomplishment was noted by the high school’s coaches and staff, who named the four-year cross-country/track letterman to the weekly Student-Athlete spotlight.

Although Coddington said he likes both sports equally, he noted what makes running cross country special is the distance of the course.

This season, Coddington has also been put in a leadership role.

He is one of the team’s co-captains. And Coddington’s role was expanded when his fellow co-captain, Marco Salmen, was forced to the sidelines by a leg injury.

“My role as a co-captain is to encourage the rest of the team,” he said.

And lead by example.

Which means more training and more pain.

Coddington never complains about his sourness – He said pain is a normal occurrence among runners, and the ones “who can take it the most” usually come out successful.

In Coddington’s case, the training has allowed him to become one of the best runners among Class 4A boys in Colorado.

His personal best time of 16:41.00 in an earlier meet this year is 15th among all 4A runners to date. And, Coddington hopes that enduring some more pain as the current season heads toward the Western regional meet in two weeks leads to a berth at this year’s state meet in Denver.

“That’s my goal, is to place at regionals and at state,” said Coddington. “It’s always in the back of my mind, and that’s what I’ve been working for. I hope it turns out.”