Wednesday, September 23, 2009
The Kansas cross country team’s freshman runners are making an impressive transition to college — and college running.
“There’s a lot of school work and a lot of running,” David Roberts said. “The balance is pretty difficult.”
The team has seven non-redshirt freshmen. Four of them — Roberts, Kyra Kilwein, Brenna Farren and Kathleen Thompson — have finished in the top seven among the Kansas runners. Being in the top seven is significant because it means that they qualify for the traveling team, which competes in all the meets that are farther away.
These new Kansas cross country runners have a little more than balance to worry about; they have a new running workload that is unlike anything they have done in the past.
“I’ve gone up about 15 miles a week, so it took a little adjusting,” Kathleen Thompson said.
Thompson said that she was more of a middle distance runner traditionally, so it was a shock to be running so many miles. Even those runners with a lot of long distance experience, or “high mileage,” have difficulties adjusting to working out at a collegiate level.
“I have pretty high mileage right now because in high school I ran for a club team, so we did a lot of mileage,” Brenna Farren said. “But it’s just workout-wise and getting used to weights because weights are different.”
It’s not just the workouts the runners have to worry about; it is the actual races as well.
Roberts had a strong showing in his first race at Rim Rock, finishing a 6K in fourth place, which was second overall for Kansas. When the time came to bump up the distance to 8K, Roberts struggled a little and finished seventh among the Kansas runners. Roberts said his high school races were usually 5K races, so he was better conditioned for the 6K and his first 8K was a bit of a shock to him. He has been working hard to be ready for his next 8K in about a week.
“I should be more prepared just off the mileage I’m doing,” Roberts said.
Many of these freshmen ran on the same courses for four years of high school and got used to all the nuances; they knew where the first big hills were and where they should speed up and slow down. In college they are running on new courses in new states.
Kyra Kilwein went to Lawrence Free State High School, so Rim Rock was a course she knew very well. Traveling to Missouri was a new experience for her.
“I was more nervous because it was a course I didn’t know,” Kilwein said.
At Rim Rock, Kilwein was the first freshman to cross the finish line, but at Missouri her times went up by 20 seconds and she finished as the third freshman.
“You just learn from the past and get ready for the future,” Kilwein said.
The runners do have support within the team to make sure their adjustment, whether with workouts, races, or hills, is relatively smooth.
“I like everyone on the team,” Farren said. “You can basically go to them for anything.”
For these freshmen, knowing that they are Kansas runners makes the hard work worth it.
“It’s about trying your best and representing myself as a KU Jayhawk,” Kilwein said.
— —Edited by Samantha Foster
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