The mercury dips below zero as darkness descends on Dawson City.

Somewhere along the frozen Yukon River, a young runner picks his way along the icy vein of trail. His limbs swing in a practised repetition of movement. One foot in front of the other. He is stuck in his own head, zoning out in the Arctic cold as the spotlight of his headlamp bobs a couple feet ahead.

Rain or shine; hot or cold, Jack Amos braves the environment to get his run in. Since he began training seriously a year ago, his mom, Bridget Amos, says he’s only ever missed one run outside due to weather.

“Even if he gets in at 10:00 at night, in the middle of winter, he will still go out and do his training,” she says. “He wonders if being able to go out and train on his own despite the lack of facilities and the weather and the darkness, has given him an edge.”

Amos, 15, is one of Team Yukon’s top runners.

He began training seriously for running last summer, after missing out on a spot on the Yukon’s Western Canada Summer Games soccer team.

Instead, he tried out for the running team, attending a talent ID camp held in Whitehorse by local athletics coach Don White.

He was accepted onto the team and ran a few long distance events last summer in Fort McMurray.

Amos enjoyed racing on the track.

“I like being able to see everyone.”

And became hooked on the sport.

“I really enjoy, I must say. It hasn’t gotten old yet,” he says. “I like how stress-free it is.

“It makes you feel really good.”

Since last year, Amos has been coached long-distance by White and has shown a dedication and aptitude for training uncommon for an athlete of his age and ability – especially without a face-to-face coach.

“It’s quite unusual,” says White. “Usually somebody at Jack’s level is under the watchful eye of a coach.”

But White’s training group is based out of Whitehorse, more than 500 kilometres away from Dawson City, where Amos was born and raised.

Instead, Amos does most of his training solo, accompanied occasionally by Logan Boehmer, one of White’s former athletes who now works in Dawson.

Leading into major events like the Arctic Winter Games – where Amos won three medals – or the Jack Brow track meet in Kelowna – where he also medalled – Amos followed a program sent to him by White.

But between the summer’s Kelowna meet and the BC Cross Country Championships on Vancouver Island this fall, Amos set out his own training schedule. Running six days a week, he based his training off of previous workouts that White had supplied.

At that competition, against 30-some of B.C.’s top juniors, Amos surprised everyone.

On a water-logged course, he set out against the biggest field he’d ever competed against, in a mass start.

“I wanted to place. That was my goal,” he says. “Hopefully, I thought I was a medal contender.”

White figured maybe he would be in the top five.

At the start, Amos got caught up in the group.

“It was scary,” he says. “I found it very intimidating because everyone is trying to get to the front.”

He got stuck behind a group. A wall of elbows met him anytime he tried to make a move.

The lead group was getting away.

“For a little while there I was panicking,” he says.

Finally he was able to get past and join the lead group. He got to work.

On a downhill through the forested part of the course, he made a move and took the lead. However, it was short-lived as another runner regained the pole position.

Then, on another downhill heading into the field area, he once again moved into first.

This time the position stuck and he crossed the finish line first, arms raised, mud splatter decorating his face and body.

“Mostly I was relived,” says Amos of his first place finish. “But I was also extremely happy.”

His grit and determination to get the front and test his opponents with moves, is what White calls racing.

“When he finally went by, nobody could stay with him,” says White. “That’s racing.”

But, the coach says, he can still get faster. And the faster you get, the better the racing is.

Amos comes from an active family. Back in the United Kingdom, his father was a gameskeeper.

The Amos’ used to live outside of town and to get into soccer practice, Amos would skate ski with all his gear tucked away in a backpack.

He was homeschooled until a few years ago and the Grade 10 student recalls being inspired by his mother, who was working night shifts at the seniors’ home and would commute to work by running, no matter the time of day.

Now, Amos himself trains no matter the darkness or temperature.

“It definitely makes you spirited,” he says.

He frequents Mary McLeod Road, the Dome, the Ninth Avenue Trail, and the river, once it’s sufficiently frozen.

He’ll run on the highway occasionally, but it’s his least favourite locale.

In the summer Amos was logging between 45 and 50 kilometres a week.

“I find it easy to stay motivated,” he says. “I really love running. I really like running fast times. I want to see how fast I can get.”

In the New Year, he’ll be attending Whitehorse’s Wood Street A.C.E.S program.

He thought it would be a good opportunity to get our of Dawson for a bit and see what living in Whitehorse was like.

He may also be able to train with a group. But for someone used to tackling his sessions alone, or with a few other people, the change could take some getting used to.

“It’s going to be weird training with people,” he says.

This weekend, at the Canadian National Cross Country Championships in Kingston, he’ll race against the biggest field he has to date. More than 200 athletes will compete on the six-kilometre snowy course tomorrow.

“I’m excited to see what I can do against the rest of Canada,” he says.

Coach White, who is accompanying Amos, Whitehorse teammate Joe Parker, and senior female runner Lindsay Carson to Kingston, says he hopes the boys will be about middle of the pack.

“They won’t be last, but they won’t be first either,” says White.

He hopes they gain valuable race experience heading into next summer’s Canada Summer Games.

But, the boys are also racing up in the U-18 category.

“I think he will do fairly well,” says Amos’ mother. “Hopefully coming in the top 20, which is what he is hoping for. But again, it’s the unknown and this time he is up against 200 other runners who are older than him.”

Given the chance, Amos might just surprise everyone. Again.

This is the final story in a series of profiles about the local runners representing Yukon at the National Cross Country Championships.