“A lot of people running in college won a lot of their events in high school, so that’s a big difference when they come to college and they’re like, ‘Wait, what?’ I think it’s important for people to realize that winning is important, but it’s not everything. Giving your best really is enough and the best thing you can do. And loving running.”
“I trained all through the spring to get ready for cross-country for my junior year [at IWU]. In high school, I was the top guy on our team, so confidence in high school was huge for me. It propelled me to being the No. 1, and then I came here junior year, and I was all the way in the back. So that whole flip was huge for me and completely diminished any confidence I had, and I definitely struggled through that. But then I learned that [running] is more than just an individual sport, and you can be excited for other people on your team.”
“My advice for someone who wants to run in college is the importance of doing the little things right. It’s something we talk a lot about here. The importance of getting good sleep, of eating well, stretching—those little things can really help prevent injuries, and they can really help long-term create your season and kind of help mold the runner you are. It also gives you more confidence knowing you did everything right. You don’t doubt yourself like, ‘Oh, well maybe I shouldn’t have eaten that before I raced today, or maybe I should have slept more.’ You know no matter what, you left everything out there.”
“I’ve gone through several periods where I wasn’t running at all. About three-and-a-half years ago, I started getting an itch to do it again. The loop around my neighborhood is just over a mile, and I always had in my mind that whenever I wanted—until I was like 45—I’d be able to break five minutes in the mile. I hadn’t run a step in earnest in a year-and-a-half or so. I decided one night—I was going through some family problems and just a super stressful time in my life—that I was going to go for it tonight. I’m going to run a mile as fast I can around the neighborhood and see where I’m at. I went out there, did a warm-up lap, stretched a little bit. For 1.1 miles, I ran about 5:50, so nowhere close to sub-five. It was a super humbling moment—I don’t think I was proud of my running at that point, and I had no reason to be. It was like, Oh my gosh, if you gotta do this, you’re gonna have to really invest in it. That moment was a turning point for me. I realized that I’m not getting any younger, and I’m only going to have this time of my life to take a crack at finding out what my potential is. After that, I started taking training pretty seriously. Not even six months later, I ran 1:13 for a half marathon.”
“I gave this advice to a high schooler last week, so hopefully it’s good. She’s injured and she called me. I don’t know her well, but she went to my high school, and she’s like, ‘I don’t know what to do. I’m so discouraged, and nothing’s going the way I want it to.’ I just told her that everybody takes their turn being injured. You just have to have a good attitude through it, because I don’t know anyone who hasn’t gotten injured in their running career. We all take turns being injured, and what’s going to show about you has nothing to do with your running ability. If you can just show your teammates that you have an amazing attitude even though you’re not able to compete right now, that’s going to do so much more than what you would have contributed to the team.”
Hooray Run 