Mike Burns is national champion hurdler

He had little opportunity to compete in track in high school or college. Within the past five years he has undergone colon cancer and double bypass heart surgeries.

Mike Burns has overcome all of these hurdles to become a national champion.

Burns, 67, of Milan, won the 300-meter intermediate hurdles at the 2010 USA Masters Outdoor Track and Field Championships held in Sacramento, Calif., July 22-24.

Burns was one of seven Minnesotans to win a national track and field championship in the Masters games held for male and female athletes age 30 and over.

Burns’ winning time in the 300 hurdles for men age 65-69 was 57.79 seconds. He added a bronze medal in the 100 hurdles with a time of 30.53.

He finished second in the 300 hurdles in the national Masters meet in 2009.

Burns graduated from Milan High School in 1961. Milan didn’t have a track team until his senior year.

“They practiced on the football field at the same time they were using it for baseball,” he recalled. “We only went to one or two track meets.”

Burns graduated from Carlton College in Northfield. He went out for cross country as a freshman, but didn’t run again as a result of a shoulder injury.

The only other running Burns said he did was a couple of 5Ks when he was in his 30s.

“When I was approaching (age) 55, my weight and blood pressure were both going up,” said Burns. “Dennis Breen was my doctor and he told me I needed to lose weight and get my blood pressure down. He leaned on me, hard.

“I started walking one to two miles a day. By the second month I’d worked up to where I could run the straightaway on the track and walk the curves.”

While spending the winter months in Palm Springs, Calif., Burns met Nick Newton, a former sprinter who became his coach.

“He really taught me how to run,” said Burns. “I wasn’t very good at first. When I started, he told me it would take four years to be a sprinter. He was certainly right about me.

“I finished and I had fun doing it,” said Burns of his first Masters track meets. “That was the other thing he stressed. There isn’t any sense doing it if it isn’t fun.

“I found a great coach here, too, who helped me with speed,” said Burns, referring to CeCe Turlouw, a Benson High School track coach.

Burns is currently being assisted by Gretchen Reeves of Montevideo, who was a state meet hurdler in high school.

“I met Mike at the hospital. He just asked me if I could give him any tips to make him faster than he already is,” said Reeves. “We do video-taping and work on technique. His goal is to get lower over the hurdles. I think what’s amazing is he’s running against people who have been doing this for years.”

Burns sometimes wonders what might have been if he had the opportunity to run the hurdles in high school and college.

“I’m glad to have the opportunity to do it now. I’ve been very fortunate the last 10 years,” Burns said, referring to his recoveries from colon and heart surgeries.

“There’s a world (championships) every two years. That’s in California next summer,” said Burns of his next likely goal.

“Your best is yet to come,” encouraged Reeves.