Slowed, Nearly Stopped, but Not Finished : Track: Hawthorne’s Allen attempts to overcome injuries and finish his high school career as a winner.

For the better part of five years, Erik Allen has been limited and sidelined by hamstring injuries that have slowed what might have been a stellar high school athletic career.

Now, with his final chance at helping Hawthorne High win a state track title, Allen wants to forget about his pain a little while longer and keep on running.

“Later, I’m going to have to rest, kick back and relax,” said Allen, a senior who, when healthy, runs the 200-meter sprint and also anchors the 400 and 1,600 relays. “I’ll just be walking. No running. No roller-skating. I’ll just be a nice person and smile and rest. But now, I want to run.”

Despite being limited by scar tissue on his right hamstring, a reminder of a more serious injury he suffered in 1987, Allen won Friday’s Bay League title in the 200, the only event he competed in, with a time of 21.9 seconds. It was only his second meet since a knot showed up in his right hamstring on April 1.

“It’s a feeling on my muscle where everything around the center of the muscle is tight,” said Allen, who will attend UCLA in the fall. “When I shake my leg to get it loose, I have this knot in the center of the leg. It does not move up or side to side. Whatever you do, it stays tight and takes a while to come out.”

Allen said he ran last week at about 80%, but hopes to run in his three specialty events at the Southern Section 4-A Division prelims Saturday at Gahr High.

“I’m not a doctor so I don’t know how well he’s holding up,” Hawthorne Coach Kye Courtney said. “The problem is a day-to-day deal. If his leg holds up, we are in business as far as our state title chances. If not, then we have problems. With Allen, we could challenge Compton. Without him, some other teams would slip by ahead of us.”

In 1987 as an eighth-grader, Allen injured his hamstring while running for the Los Angeles Jets club team. He pulled his left hamstring while running the 200. Instead of stopping, he tried to stay in the race, but his right hamstring popped.

By his sophomore year at Hawthorne, he had recovered. He took fourth in the state 200, helping the Cougars to their sixth state title in seven years. He had a wind-aided time of 21.48 seconds that season.

However, it did not signal an end to his hamstring problems. After playing football in 1989, Allen said he did not give his body proper time to rest before track season. The result was pulled hamstring muscles to both legs and a throw-away junior season.

This year, scar tissue first appeared two months before the track season. Allen went to therapy, and although he did not race in any preseason meets, things seemed fine once the season was under way. Allen’s best time, 21.3, is the second-fastest time in the Southern Section this season. But on April 1, Allen felt the knot in his right leg. He went to the doctor and found out about the re-appearence of the scar tissue.

“I guess it’s good that it came back now, instead of later in my career when it could matter,” Allen said. “You learn what is important and that you cannot take anything for granted.”

Again, Allen had to stop practicing and re-start his therapy routine (heat and ice treatments, bike riding and light jogs for distances, administered by the Centinela Sports Clinic). Normally, he would go three times a week. However, since he has decided to try and run with the injury, Allen undergoes two-hour sessions five times a week.

“Right now, I am not doing anything to improve (the hamstring),” Allen said. “It will only get better with rest. I am just in rush therapy so I can run. The odds are against it getting better while I run. But, it’s possible to run with pain; not so much running to the max, but so you can compete.”

This may be key to Hawthorne’s chances of winning its seventh state championship. Derek Scurry and Danny Phifer, who compete in the long and triple jumps, and hurdler Demond Smith give the Cougars a strong squad. However, Courtney says that Compton has a lock on 30 points because of its outstanding sprinter, Ricky Carrigan, meaning Hawthorne needs strong efforts from everyone, including the hobbled Allen.

“With (Allen), we can win the sprint relay,” Courtney said. “And maybe we take the mile relay. And we’ve got the jumpers, so something could happen.”

Because of his injuries, Allen said he is happy that he signed early with UCLA in November, assuring him of a scholarship.

“Thank God,” he said. “I’ve thought about it, and if I had not signed early, I’d be desperate to find a place. Especially considering (the hamstring injuries) happened two years in a row. I’d be in deep trouble.

“The reason I went to UCLA is that I knew the people. I was always up there and around the track when I was little and got to know the runners and the coaches. My mom, Gloria Allen, has worked at UCLA for around 25 years as a research scientist and so I was always around the program. I used to see Jackie Joyner-Kersey and Florence Griffith-Joyner up there all the time.”

When he talks about running and his future, Allen sounds every bit as sharp as you would expect for someone with a 3.7 grade-point average to be.

“Now, I know how to run and not make it hurt. The whole purpose of high school is to make it to college. College is where it matters. That’s where you can make money, get sponsors and go to Europe. All that stuff. If it had to happen, I’d rather get it out of the way now.”