Well, I finally got up early and saw the ponytailed wonder.

It took a bleary eyed drive up the coast to meet the nation's No. 1 prep track and field star, through her Arroyo Grande hometown, past her high school in San Luis Obispo (Mission Prep) and deep into farm country, to Santa Margarita Lake, site of “The Cross Country Event Jordan Hasay Might Run In.”

For the record, it was the Atascadero-hosted Brug Cross Country Invitational. For the record, she blew out another field.

Yep, I caught up with Hasay on Saturday - which is a sentence you might never see again in a story regarding the 17-year-old golden girl. No one catches Jordan Hasay.

The country's elite prep runner - and Central Coast's most publicized athlete - made a rare appearance at a local event.

Now, there are staff members here that can recite her titles one by one - in case you need reminding, she has three national track and field titles and three cross country titles. I'm not one, but this, a chance to witness up close the forming of a potential Olympian - Mary Decker, here she comes - was something I couldn't pass up.

To put her in perspective, the Times staff had a unique newsroom discussion recently. Reporter Kenny Cress - who covers Hasay better than anyone - proposed a “Senior Spotlight” series. The idea was to highlight this year's top local fourth-year prep stars.

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Some felt Hasay should not be included, because to mix her among the others was demeaning.

Jordan Hasay is in her own league.

So I set out to see her, and somewhere between Arroyo Grande and San Luis Obispo stopped feeling sorry for myself - sleep deprived and wondering if the rain would cancel the event altogether. You see, I came to a sobering realization: I wasn't the one running three miles in the rain.

Camp Hasay might nix this one, I thought. It was a modest event and the season's first rain was slicking a dangerous path for one of the nation's most touted college recruits (Arizona State just showed her the campus, and Oregon - “Home of Track and Field” - gets its shot soon).

Then again, if there's one runner that doesn't miss an event, it's Hasay. You get the idea even if thunder and lightning canceled the Brug, Hasay still would have showed up to run, solo. For all we know, she ran to the Lake on Saturday.

Hasay ran the Brug alright, in 17:54, more than 1 minute, 34 seconds faster than the second-place finisher.

For all the accolades, I expected someone 6-foot-2 emerging from the other girls looking 10 years their elder their age, muscles bulging as she stretched. Someone like Jackie Joyner-Kersee. Someone that would stare down the field before crushing it with disinterest.

Jordan Hasay looks like someone that might try to sell you Girl Scout cookies.

Maybe she was on her way to band camp, I thought - this can't be her.

She looks like someone that lost her puppy. Shouldn't she be at a concert somewhere, screaming at Justin Timberlake?

She giggles, hops and skips between people, cheers on teammates, her long ponytail flapping in the wind. In a day and age when track stars are summed up by two words, cheats and egos, Hasay seems more the “ah shucks” type. She nudges just past 5-foot tall - yet produces remarkably wide strides with her short legs. And then there's that ponytail. Like a carrot dangling, waving in her wake as if to say “Come on, just try to catch me!” It is something altogether beautiful seeing her run, her long hair flying in the wind, like some sort of purebred's mane.

And how easy she makes it look. Hasay doesn't breathe hard, she hardly breathes. She runs miles as quickly as we run from the idea altogether. The city will never work for Hasay - the Oregon-Trail, maybe.

Watching Hasay effortlessly chart a 3-miler is enough to make you purchase a pair of sneakers “and give it a shot.” “It can't be all that hard, right? She just did it.” She has that all-American look - but while most are selling MTV, Hasay is selling Disney.

And then she lines up along the cones - those steely eyes glaring straight ahead, knees slightly bent, arms ready to whip into action - that intent in her face, the same she flashed at the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials, where she stunned even the NBC announcers by reaching the finals. It's over.

Every muscle, every fiber of her 5-foot-1 frame is fined-tuned for this. She wakes up at 5:30 a.m., and sets out on runs. Today's “a warm-up for the season,” she said. “I feel like I could run another one.”

You'd accuse her of bragging, but she really looks as though she wants to run another.

"You're not even tired, are you?” said a Mission Prep teammate afterward.

KSBY's Andrew Masuda also made the trip this morning.

“I heard you had a hard time getting up,” Hasay jokes with Masuda.

Hasay all but apologizes to the both of us. What! She's not suppose to feel sorry for us. She's supposed to answer questions with cliches, make no eye contact - repeat what she sees on TV.

“You were the one running in the rain,” I wanted to quip.

“It was nice, perfect cross country weather,” Hasay answers. She obliges each question, thanks us again for coming and takes off - looking like any other kid.

Masuda looks at me and makes an astute observation: “Is it weird to see a 17-year-old girl signing autographs?”

“Yes ... ” I say, “... and at a cross country event, too.”

Suddenly, Hasay pops back up, this time with a t-shirt for Masuda. “My official T-shirt,” she says proudly.

KSBY's sports talent is then asked, by her coach, if he wants her to sign it, to which Masuda gleefully nods.

“Are you sure, you really want me to sign it?” Hasay says embarrassingly.

He's sure.

She signs it, and leaves us with this, “Thanks for getting up early, guys!”

Sure glad I did.

Assistant Sports Editor Dan Watson can be reached at 739-2235 or by e-mail to dwatson@santamariatimes.com

October 08, 2008