Where one path ended for Randy Jacobs is where another began.
When Jacobs was a junior at Waltham High back in the fall of 1999, he had thoughts of following in his father's footsteps on the football field. He played special teams on the varsity squad, heard a word or two from area colleges, and was looking forward to a bigger role and bigger opportunities on the gridiron as a senior.
Then, in the second game of the season, Jacobs broke his foot. His high school career was over, and with that the chances of him extending his career into college as his father, WHS football Hall of Famer Randy D. Jacobs, did at Northeastern were gone as well.
So in part to help strengthen his foot - and in part just to give him something to do - he went out to the local wholesale shopping club and bought a bike.
For the rest of that fall, and then again throughout the spring, he rode in the woods off Trapelo Road and up and down the former ski paths of Prospect Hill one or two dozen times a day on what he called his ``beat up old mountain bike.''
After awhile, he got pretty good at it. He found he really liked it as well.
Two weeks shy of graduation - having completed all the coursework necessary to secure his spot as a Northeastern undergraduate that fall - he left Waltham for Martha's Vineyard.
``I went to Martha's Vineyard and got a job in a bike shop,'' he recalled. ``I saved up, traded in my $200 Costco bike for a $2,000 racing bike.''
There he set out on a climb up a mountain he continues this day. It's a climb that has already taken him to greater heights than he'd ever imagined even though, in some ways, he's only just beginning his ultimate ascent.
Two weeks removed from winning two national mountain bike championships at the expert (top amatuer) level, he's having thoughts of national sponsors and world competitions. The 25-year-old is looking forward to a future that is tantalizingly uncertain and potentially full of promise.
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Jacobs rode in collegiate competitions throughout his time at Northeastern where he was ``kind of a midpack guy'' at area events. Upon graduation, he used his degrees in economics and East Asia studies from NU to land a job that sent him to China where he also taught English and continued riding when time allowed.
Back in Waltham working on a graduate degree in law and diplomacy at the Tufts University Fletcher School this spring, he decided to delve back into the riding scene where he'd always had some success as an endurance athlete with good natural ability.
That work and renewed dedication paid off two weeks ago when Jacobs was crowned national champion in the expert division of the cross country and men's short track divisions of the USA Cycling Championships at Mount Snow in West Dover, Vt.
``When I got back into it,'' he said, ``I trained with the goal of going semi-pro this season with the hope of going pro next year. I was expecting that I could be headed to Nationals. My goal was to win there.''
Jacobs said he went up to Mount Snow a few days before the competition to learn the course. The planning and extra time paid off as he dominated the climbs in winning the cross country race - which includes more than 1,200 feet of climbing per 5-mile lap - by nearly a minute on a mud-slicked track. He then overcame a bad start in the short-track race, took the lead in the final climb, and won a sprint to the finish by about one second.
The titles automatically elevated him to semi-pro status for the rest of the summer season and have fueled his desire to ride professionally starting as early as next year.
``Up until this point I have been more focused on education and my non-athletic career,'' he said. ``I have always had this as a hobby I took seriously. At this point, because of my financial situation and having a good flexible job, if I have a successful season next year I could see doing it as long as I am able to do it.''
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Jacobs said he plans to race in events in Hingham and Ware in September and then take part in the U.S. Collegiate Championships in North Carolina later this fall. He will train five or six days a week and ride 20 to 30 miles over terrain that is much more demanding than even the hilliest and most pot hole-ridden paved roads.
Then he will begin a winter of high-elevation training that will likely take him back to the other side of the world.
``In January,'' he said, ``I am planning to head someplace like the start of the Tibetan Plateau in China or the big island of Hawaii to train full-time for next year.''
Jacobs said he is fortunate enough to have a professional schedule that requires him to do some traveling to Asia anyway, and that he has received great support from his local sponsor of Wheelworks of Belmont and Somerville.
His ultimate goals are now to move up in the pack in professional races, sign a contract with a national pro racing team and eventually compete in World Cup races.
Thoughts that may have once seemed as fanciful as one day suiting up for a New Year's Day bowl game now suddenly don't seem so far-fetched after all as Jacobs prepares to tackle his racing career the way a football player would tackle the challenges of an upcoming training camp.
Only with better scenery.
``You don't really do this for the money,'' he noted. ``The glory part of it only comes once in a while. It's really the adventure and the culture that surrounds the sport that's the biggest thing.''
Not to mention the satisfaction of succeeding at something beyond the realm of the average athlete. Once upon a time, Jacobs thought about doing that on the football field like his recently deceased father did. Now he has done something exceptional far differently in a way he hopes would still have made his father very proud.
``For me,'' he said, ``the happy and sad part about this is that on one hand I wish he could have been around to see it. On the other hand, it's very fulfilling to accomplish something around the level of what he accomplished athletically.''
It all started with one bad break his senior year of high school.
It ended up leading him up a path to breathtaking heights where flying down to the finish line gives an exhilarating rush.
