Coming Thursday: football and volleyball Athletes of the Year.

Summers in Japan’s Kanto Plain can be extraordinarily toasty, with heat indexes soaring into the high 90s and low 100s during the peak months of August and September.

It’s then that Talan Farrington did the bulk of his training for the 2024 DODEA-Pacific cross country season. Large amounts of running, which the Nile C. Kinnick junior says demonstrated to him how cross country is as honest a sport at it gets.

“It’s the most pure sport there is,” Farrington said. “What you put into it is what you get out of it. That helps me push through any pain I feel. And almost daily, there is pain.”

That pain is part physical, but also mental, Farrington said. The mind and heart are asking the body for more, while the body is telling the heart and the mind to stop.

“It’s an uncomfortable feeling, because (the body) doesn’t want to do it,” he said. “It’s definitely a mental pain. It takes a lot of discipline and consistency.”

That discipline and consistency paid off handsomely in the just-completed season for Farrington, who took first place in three DODEA-Japan and races, second in three more and fourth in yet another.

Farrington opened the season by setting a course record at Misawa Air Base on Sept. 7.

He took the Division I boys title in the Far East 5-kilometer race and second overall in the Asia-Pacific Invitational, run concurrently on Oct. 21 at Risol no Mori in Chiba Prefecture. And he ended the season by winning the Kanto Plain final on Oct. 26.

For all that, Farrington has been named Stars and Stripes Pacific boys cross country Athlete of the Year. He edges out senior Simon Nakamura of Christian Academy Japan, Farrington’s chief in-season rival; and sophomore Joey Brown of Humphreys, the Korea league champion.

Work ethic has been key to Farrington’s success, both in his sophomore year 2023-24 when he finished first nine times in various track and field distance events, then improved his Far East D-I cross country meet standing by five spots in October.

“He ran 50- to 70-mile weeks in the heat in July,” Red Devils coach Luke Voth said. “That’s Talan. He pushes himself hard.”

Also having a strong rival – Nakamura – helped him dig down and find some extra horsepower, Farrington said. Whether Nakamura was ahead of him, side-by-side or just behind him, knowing he was there made Farrington work harder, he said.

They traded top spots in Kanto meets throughout the regular season. In the combined API-Far East meet on Oct. 21, Nakamura edged Farrington by 3.1 seconds, 17:03.9 to 17:06.8.

But Farrington closed the season five days after that, winning the Kanto Plain final on the 4,417-meter Tama Hills Recreation Center upper course in 14:46.4, 12.3 seconds ahead of Nakamura.

“Leading up to the Kanto final, that was all that was in my head was him,” Farrington said of Nakamura. “He’s also consistent in his races as I am. Even when he’s not feeling his best, he shows up and competes. Having somebody next to me allows me to go faster.”

Farrington next turns his attention to the upcoming track and field season, in which he’ll run the 800, 1,600 and 3,200 for the Red Devils in his final season in Japan; his family is due to transfer to South Carolina after the school year.

“There’s a mixed feeling” about leaving, Farrington said. “The competition will be higher in the States, but I think I could do better at this school.”

Talan Farrington

Age: 16

Place of birth: Jacksonville, Fla.

Other sport: Track and field.

Favorite subject: Physics.

Least favorite subject: History.

Favorite athlete: Jakob Ingebrigtsen, Norwegian Olympic distance runner.

Favorite performer: Coldplay.

Favorite movie: Gran Turismo.