By Jeff Faraudo
#WCChoops Columnist | ARCHIVES
2020 WCC HALL OF HONOR PROFILES
 
There’s a lesson somewhere in David Kinsella’s story. Maybe something as simple as don’t eat shrimp at a Thai restaurant behind a bowling alley the night before your big race.
 
Funny thing is, it all worked out for Kinsella, now 34, and Portland’s 2020 inductee into the West Coast Conference Hall of Honor.
 
“Obviously, I would have liked to not have food poisoning and do better,” Kinsella said recently. “That didn’t happen. Given what did happen, I'm really proud of how that went.”
 
The happy ending to the tale is that Kinsella wound up finishing fourth place at the 2008 NCAA cross country championships in his final collegiate race as a senior. 
 
How he got there is the real story.
 
“He’s the most talented guy we’ve had,” said Rob Conner, in his 29th season as Portland’s coach. “He was super-competitive, very organized, highly motivated. Also a natural talent.”
 
And clutch on the biggest day of his career when everything could have gone sideways.
 
The week before the NCAA nationals, Kinsella and his teammates ran at the West Regionals at Stanford. The team went to dinner together on the eve of the race.
 
“Across from the hotel we found what we thought was an innocent Thai food restaurant,” Kinsella recalled. “We heard this sound while we were eating that we couldn't place.
 
“We realized, that’s the sound of a bowling alley. It was a combo place. I got shrimp and it was bad news.”
 
Race day the next morning, Kinsella knew something was off. He ran the 10-kilometer course and finished fourth, one spot behind teammate Alfred Kipchumba, as the Pilots placed third behind Oregon and Stanford to qualify as a team to the NCAA nationals.
 
Later, while waiting at the airport with his teammates to return home, Kinsella passed out.
 
“It was awful,” he said. “I don’t think I knew that I had full-blown food poisoning. But the next thing I know I wake up in a hospital bed.”
 
Kinsella had less than a week to recover before running at the NCAA championships in Terra Haute, Ind. He was physically affected, but also took a mental hit with the biggest race of his season just days away.
 
Kinsella often was the victim of leg injuries throughout his running career, and the summer of 2008 was no different. He had a leg fractured that prevented him from putting in the heavy base of training a distance runner needs leading into his season.
 
“I couldn't do anything but just go on long walks with short runs,” he said. “Heading into that season, there was this sense of nothing to lose.
 
“Then the year went really, really well. Everything was firing on all cylinders.  Rob and I were getting really excited. We could do something at nationals.”
 
Now, after the food poisoning incident, that mindset was being tested. Kinsella admits his first response wasn’t entirely positive.
 
“Dang, this sucks,” he recalled thinking at the time. “The rug had sort of been ripped out from under me by a bunch of Thai shrimp.”
 
While Kinsella stewed about his misfortune, his coach provided some critical advice. Conner suggested that instead of fretting over a lost chance to perhaps win the title, Kinsella revert back to his “nothing-to-lose” mentality of the summer months.
 
“He was really good at making me feel like, `All I expect you to do is your best,’” Kinsella said.
 
On race day, Kinsella was in a better place. “I wasn’t supposed to be here,” he said. “I had a tranquil feeling. I was way less nervous. I felt good.” 
 
And he ran great. Oregon star Galen Rupp, who went on to capture two Olympic medals, won the race. Kinsella placed fourth — the highest NCAA finish ever by a Portland runner, and four spots better than he ran the year before.
 
Injuries derailed three of Kinsella’s four outdoor track seasons, but he captured All-America honors in the 10,000 meters as a redshirt freshman to go with his two All-America cross country performances.
 
He earned a law degree at Stanford after graduating from Portland and is now married and helping to lead a tech start-up company in San Francisco. 
 
He has only good memories of his time at Portland. “I loved it,” he said.
 
And he credits Conner for helping him get the best from his collegiate running career.
 
“He was a great complement to me. Different styles work differently well for people, and Conner for me was great,” Kinsella said. “He was a little more like the horse-whisperer coach. Cracked a few jokes and kept everyone relaxed.”
 
Even if his choice of restaurants wasn’t always perfect.