Illness and inexperience hurt PA's harriers on Vanny's unforgiving course"
PA's Class competitors fared well
Northeast Foot Lockers Non-seeded race photos
The full PennTrack post-race interview with Frances Koons after her 5th place Foot Locker Finalist qualifying race in NYC 11/28
Frances Koons
PTXC: Is qualifying for Nationals the goal for the season?
Koons: Yeah, qualifying was definitely the goal. But I'm not settling for this either. It's going on to Nationals and doing really well. These past few weeks have been so focused. After coming from the race in Ohio and meeting all those great Pennsylvania kids, knowing the next week would be a hard week of training, and knowing all these kids I had just met were doing the same exact thing. They were going out in the rain and cold, and they were going to come here and represent Pennsylvania. It gave me a lot of drive during the workouts, knowing that I wasn't the only one out there.
PTXC: What was your race plan today?
Koons: It went out really nicely. We went out in 5:30, and that's exactly what I wanted to do the first mile in. The second was a little bit slower, but I was in 3rd, so that was OK. I just pushed the hills. I let them take me through the first mile. I didn't want to lead. But for a while in the woods, it was me, and Nichole Blood, and Lindsay Donaldson pushing each other through those hills. Once we got past the two-mile mark in 11:45, it was time to push it in, and fly down those hills. And I was flying. It was fast, but I was in position and setting myself up to go. And I was pushed. With about 600 meters to go, I heard somebody saying to a group of girls behind me, 'one of you is not going to go, one of you is not going to make it.' And I said, 'that's not gonna be me.' So I gave it my all, and I know you have a ways to go along the final stretch, but I kept going strong. No one was going to get me there. I wasn't going to be the 9th girl.
PTXC:With 1000 to go, you were in a group of four with a chase pack on your heals. Talk about that portion of the race.
Koons: I had fallen behind a little bit. There was a girl who had moved ahead of me and Donaldson at the 2-mile point. And coming into the last stretch, a girl from New York passed me again, and I could barely move my legs. I never felt like that before. But I knew it was going to be this, or nothing.
PTXC: You had been concerned about your speed in Ohio, but did the hills here help your confidence.?
Koons: It did. I felt very strong working the hills. My coach told me Saturday after a great workout that he knew I was ready. We did a ladder workout to simulate the race. And we did work on speed these past two weeks. And this week I didn't take it too hard.
PTXC: Where did Blood take off?
Koons: It wasn't so much that, it was more that Donaldson and I fell behind a little bit. She just kept her pace. The one who slows down the least, wins the race. She established herself about a mile-and-a-half.
PTXC: How important is experience in running well at Van Cortlandt?
Koons: I think it is vitally important. I ran here my sophomore year, and last year I came in 26th. And even before that, I ran in the New York Roadrunners Championships, and that was good in getting a feel for it. I ran with Angie Saterstad. You can't race on a course with elite people and not know what the course is going to be like. There is no margin for error. Coming out of the woods my first year it was such a surprise that I was done. And it's not just running the course, you have to visualize it too. I knew the first mile exactly, and everything through the woods. It's very important to know the course. Especially if you want to qualify.
PTXC:Were your nerves a bit less today without the expectations of having to win the race, as it's been in PA all season?
Koons:Well, actually at the line today, I felt like I was going to throw up. I was pretty nervous. But I think knowing the course and knowing what you're going to do, like your splits - and not so much who was going to be there with me, I didn't really care about that. I didn't even look around me to see who was here. I was just going to go an run my own race. I just said whatever I am going to do, I'll do, and it will be my best. I was nervous, but confident.
PTXC: And the college search?
Koons: I saw a lot of college coaches here for the first time, but it's still limited. The four are still Pittsburgh, Providence, Duke and the University of Virginia. And Villanova is in the mix. I'll take an unofficial visit there. I have only visiited Pittsburgh, but I'm excited to see the other schools.