First, I want to thank the Minnesota running community for its support during all of my running career. I have had fantastic coaches growing up in Minnesota (Ben Zhao at Minneapolis Southwest High School and Gary Wilson at the University of Minnesota). I am am so lucky to be part of Team USA Minnesota, both for having great training partners and access to invaluable resources and support systems. The Minnesota running community is so fun to be a part of, and I easily appreciate the support from Brooks, Lifetime Fitness, Twin Cities in Motion, Minnesota Elite Athlete Development Program, Run N Fun, Travis McCathie at Northwestern Health Sciences University, and Lawrence Wock at Chiropractic Healing Arts Center.--Jamie Cheever
Down the Backstretch: Was the objective on Sunday to get a PR, get an A standard qualifying time, all of the above?
Jamie Cheever: The goal of the race Sunday was to run a PR. My legs were feeling ready to
go, so I thought getting the B standard(9:48) was a realistic goal, maybe the A(9:43) if I
felt amazing.
DtB: When did you
realize that you could do better than that? That you might be able to win the
race?
Catching Coburn was not on my mind until I understood I was gaining on her a lap later. I continued to focus on closing the gap. With 300 meters to go, I knew I had a chance to win, but Coburn was able to surge enough the last 200 meters that I couldn't catch her.
DtB: What did you learn from the experience?
JC: Most importantly, I learned what I am capable of on the track with another
year under my belt.
DtB: Did your training
indicate that running under 9:30 was possible?
JC: I knew steeple workouts were going well, but it was hard to know what they
indicated. I keep track of my mileage and workouts, but my steeple specific
workouts vary by year in terms of length, number of hurdles, lane used, etc. So
even though I tried to compare my workout times to last year, I didn't have a
good sense of what, if any, improvement I was having.
JC: I wanted to make sure I felt strong though the first mile, so I was not very aggressive. At the Stanford Invitational last month, I went out a little too hard in the 5K, and I paid for that during laps seven and eight.
On top of that, there were four 2012 steeplechase Olympians in the race (Coburn, USA; LaCaze, Australia; Ramos, Puerto Rico; and Figuorea, Columbia) along with many other talented women, and I wanted to be realistic about where I fit in with these runners.
Also, it has been a long winter in Minnesota, and I wasn't able to go over a water barrier until the day before the race. To sum up, my plan for the race was to get a solid effort and time in, while being realistic.
DtB: Did the experiences from cross country season give you more confidence, make you more savvy on your race tactics?
JC: Cross country and steeple both require strength and toughness, so my cross
country season, and especially my US cross country championships race, gave me
confidence for this track season. Just getting more exposure racing with some of
the top distance women in the US has allowed me to learn from their tactics,
as well as grow mentally.
DtB: Did you get a
chance to get any “non-winter” training leading up to Stanford or were you just
running off of what you could do during our "long Winter" this
year?
DtB: What’s next? You’ve got the A standard. You nearly beat one of the favorites to win the steeple at his year’s national championships(both college and USATF). Has this success readjusted your thinking about goals this season?
JC: I'm going to run the TC 1 Mile on May 9, a 1500 at the Oxy High
Performance meet in Los Angeles on May 17, then probably get one more steeple
in before the US Outdoor Track Championships.
Yes, this race has changed my
goals. Before the race, making a World Team was a goal for another year, but I
now think I should be focusing on getting to Moscow.
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