Home runner
Without a school affiliation, Dron, 16, makes name for herself
CANDIA, N.H. -- She is as tranquil as the sleepy pond behind her New Hampshire home, glittering in the sun, peacefully, without a ripple. She is a teenager, growing and changing, hormones raging. So how does Chantelle Dron remain so serene? How can someone so young be so calm? Why does Chantelle make you feel like she's the grown-up and you're the kid? She is only 16, yet already a decorated classical pianist, an accomplished student, a champion runner. If she had more time, she likely would be an ice hockey star, too, but for now, she settles for the occasional skate with her father and his friends.
"She can do anything," marvels Mick Grant, her track coach. "I don't know why one person was given so much talent. It's not fair to the rest of us."
Her achievements are connected by a chord of uncanny self-discipline. Dron will succeed or fail based on her own blueprint, a carefully constructed schedule she has devised to accommodate her many interests.
Right now, her most pressing extracurricular activity is running. Dron is the top returning high school miler in the country. Last spring, she ran a time of 4 minutes 22.08 seconds in the 1,500 meters, which translates into a 4:43.05 mile. But, because she is home-schooled by her mother, Sheri Dron, she is not affiliated with any school program. That means her workouts are often solitary jaunts through the woods near her home, which once included a race with a young doe. For most teenagers, the challenge of training themselves on a daily basis would be too daunting, too mundane. For Dron, it is a blissful exercise of self-control and mental fortitude.
"You have some people with talent who are afraid to compete," Grant explains. "Then you have some people who can't wait to get out there. That's Chantelle."
When Chantelle was 5, she sat quietly watching her mother try to play music on the keyboard for a half-hour before she asked for a turn.
"I was a total beginner," explains Sheri Dron. "I was still learning to read the notes. Chantelle just sat down and started playing. I gave up. She kept going."
By the time she was in seventh grade and practicing on a real piano, Chantelle entered and won the Granite State Auditions. The next year, she won the New Hampshire Music Teachers Association competition. Her parents enrolled her in a summer program at the prestigious Longy School of Music in Cambridge, where she immediately captivated the faculty.
"She played a Rachmaninoff G minor prelude for her audition," recalls Deborah Beers, the associate chair of Longy's piano department. "It's technically a rather difficult piece. It's not something you'd expect a 13-year-old to choose.
"Only someone who feels quite confident in their abilities would play it."
Chantelle's audition was close to flawless. It was also charged with emotion. The shy girl who approached the piano transformed herself into an animated, demonstrative musician once she touched the keys.
"She played with a lot of fire," Beers reports. "She played with flair. She was definitely into it."
Competitive desire Dron's tranquil demeanor also evaporates when she approaches the starting line at a track meet. Within seconds after the gun goes off, Dron comes alive, nostrils flaring, eyes riveted to the finish line.
"She's really quiet," says Grant, "but when she starts running, she's ferocious."
Dron was drawn to running at an early age.
"I think it was the freedom of it," she says. "I liked going fast."
When she was 10, she decided to enter her first race, "just for fun."
She ran the 800 meters in the Hershey Track and Field meet in Manchester and stunned organizers by winning her age group. They checked and rechecked their charts. Who was this girl? Her victory made her a surprise qualifier for the regionals in Rochester. She won that race, too.
She continued on to the national tournament in Hershey, Pa., and won the race in a time of 2:31. By then, Grant already had secured a spot for her on his track club, the Greater Lowell Road Runners.
"It was a pretty amazing performance," Grant says. "For someone who had no idea what she was doing, she was awfully tough, awfully competitive."
She won the
"I love running," she says softly, as though she was sharing a secret. "I love the feel of going fast. It gives me goose bumps. I've been doing it so long, it has become a part of me."
Daily routine Her success has drawn attention to her home-schooling. Opponents wonder whether she sleeps as late as she wants, does her schoolwork in her slippers, or takes days off from her studies when she needs extra training.
They do not understand that Dron is at her desk in the basement at 8 a.m., completing assignments her mother has prepared. She breaks for lunch from 11:30 to noon, then resumes her studies until 3 p.m. She begins her training after that, and when she's completed her running, she practices on the piano for 1-2 hours.
"The only hard part has been other people's perception of home-schooling," says Sheri. "What bothers Chantelle is because she's such a talented runner, people think she runs all day. They think she plays the piano all day. They don't think she's doing her schoolwork. They think she has some kind of unfair advantage."
Because she is not affiliated with a school, Dron must compete as a non-sanctioned athlete, which has prevented her, in the past, from competing in such events as the Penn Relays and Millrose Games. She currently runs for the Lynx Elite Athletic Club, with Grant as her coach, and her next competition will be next weekend at the Junior Nationals in Texas. She prepares by running her predetermined country routes, with her mother occasionally biking alongside.
"She comes down to run with us sometimes," says Grant, "but she runs by herself. No one else can keep up with her."
Asked if she's thought about making a bid to qualify for the 2008 Olympic Games, she nods. "That would be wonderful."
"She certainly has the potential [to be an Olympian] but she needs a lot of things to go right," Grant says. "There are a lot of talented people out there. She needs to improve and enhance her training, while at the same time figure out how to stay healthy."
Dron is hardly banking on running as her life's work. She'd like to go to college and study equine science. She is curious about art and photography. She'd like to continue with music. She gave up formal training at 13, and teaches herself now. Because she travels so much for track, and can't very well pack up her piano, she's taken up classical guitar -- self-taught, of course.
As she sits on the piano bench playing a Chopin piece, the "Grande Polonaise Brillante," the sea of calm dissipates, and she attacks the keys hungrily, passionately.
When she is done, she turns and smiles demurely. It is a Mona Lisa smile.
It is the smile of a winner.
