» Thomas Rivers Puzey
» BYU-Hawaii senior
» Cross country

Want to improve one’s running? Give it up.

That’s what Thomas Rivers Puzey did in the rural mountains of Costa Rica last year. He was consistently beaten by villagers in the local trail events, some races that went to the tops of 6,000-foot-high mountains on out-and-back courses of 20 miles.

"Here I was doing nothing but training, and these guys who had jobs were beating me," the 26-year-old Puzey said. "I tracked some of them down to their village and learned that they were porters. They’d pack up the luggage (for tourists) and take it up to the top of the mountains, then run back down.

"So I stopped running and became a porter."

He returned to campus with an improved aerobic capacity, with wife Stephanie and baby daughter Harper Lynn, and with an insight into his double major of exercise science and cultural anthropology.

"If it hadn’t been for my anthropology curiosity, I never would have followed those runners to their village," Puzey said.

It has led Puzey back to Brigham Young-Hawaii, where the Seasiders are one of the top teams in this Saturday’s PacWest championships at Turtle Bay. The senior has won the past three races and has helped BYUH to four team titles and a second-place finish this season.

"He’s always been a strong runner, but he’s returned as a great motivator," BYUH cross country assistant Kevin Schlag said. "He’s really got the team concept down. This is our best shot in a long time to get to nationals and Rivers (Puzey) is in the best shape of his life."

Saturday is the first step of a three-step team goal, according to Puzey.

"Our thoughts go beyond winning the conference team title," he said. "It’s the means to get the regionals and then to the nationals. It’s not a hope; it’s an expectation.

"There’s some pretty outstanding runners coming in from the mainland schools, and it will be a challenge."