FW: You just signed with Nike, is that right?
VJ: I did! Yeah, and I also signed with my agent, Chris Layne. I’m really excited to be a part of Nike; it’s like every high school runner’s dream to run for a company like Nike [laughing]. I’m really looking forward to representing them over the next couple of years or longer.

FW: Great, so what plans do you have looking into the summer and beyond in terms of running?
VJ: Well, I’m really not tired. You know, most people shut it down after the collegiate season to regroup for cross country, but what’s nice is that I don’t need to be ready by August or September and I feel really good still. Fortunately Lisa Galaviz trains with us and she’s also with Nike and Chris Layne so it looks like we’re going to go to Europe later in July and I’ll have Lisa to work out with until then, which is good.

FW: So, will you be competing in some of the European track circuit events?
VJ: Yeah! I’m going to hopefully run a 5[000] and a 10[000] and I’m going to also try to get in a flat 3K.

FW: Speaking of nationals, you did amazingly well! You finished fifth in the 10,000 in a very deep field. Tell me about how you prepared for that particular race and if you had any strategies going into it.
VJ: Okay, I knew that I was going to be a little tired from the NCAA championships two weeks earlier and I actually came down with a pretty bad sinus thing; I was very congested and had been pretty sick for about a week, so I knew that I wasn’t a full 100 percent, but I was starting to recover a couple of days before USA’s. Then, when the race got postponed [due to storms] an extra day, I was probably the only one who was excited about that because it gave me another day to try to get healthier.

You know, I think I learned more from that race than from any other race this year because I didn’t feel good and I didn’t have the adrenaline going like I normally do and then three laps into the race, I just felt awful. So, I was like “Oh no! This is going to be an interesting one!” I was so excited to be in the race, so excited to be wearing Nike, and that’s what got me through the race.

Even though my body didn’t feel 100 percent, fortunately, it is a 10K and if you don’t feel good the first two laps, you might feel fantastic two miles later [laughing]! So, as the race progressed, I just kind of stuck it out and told myself “You’ll be fine, just keep running and keep doing what you normally do,” and I got through it! I was pleased with how I did. You know, going into the race not feeling 100 percent and to still run a respectable time and to place fifth running against some fantastic women, I was definitely pleased. So again, it was a great weekend [laughing].

FW: Good. So, you’re going to stay in Arizona to continue your PhD, right?
VJ: Correct.

FW: So do you plan to continue running under Coach Quintana’s guidance?
VJ: Yeah, I think that what I have going with Coach Quintana at Arizona State is fabulous and it would be stupid to change it. He’s such an incredible person, such an incredible coach, and we have a really good dynamic together. I think he’s the future of US distance running. A lot of people are starting to notice that and are giving him the recognition that he deserves. Not only is he a fantastic coach, really easy to work with, and such a great guy, but also, he’s helped so many runners excel.

I think that the boys and the girls at ASU are up and coming. Well, actually, they have already arrived! It’s going to be really fantastic to see how well they do this fall. With Lisa Galaviz in the area as well, there’s a growing group of runners in that area and a lot of different professional runners have said that they’d like to spend more time training in Phoenix in the winter. So, I think it’s becoming a place where people want to come and train during the next few years.

FW: I’ve heard the same. In fact, Sara Slattery and her husband Steve plan on doing their winter training in Arizona.
VJ: Yeah, and I’m really looking forward to running with her this winter.

FW: That’s fantastic; it’s always good to have great runners to train with. Let’s move on to a new topic. I find it so fascinating when extremely talented runners excel academically as well. It is especially remarkable when these running talents express just as deep of a passion toward their studies as they express toward their running. Tell me more about your PhD.
VJ: Okay! Well, when I was at the University of North Carolina, I worked with two professors who specialized in American Indian or Indigenous history and I really became passionate about the topic. Their good friend Peter Iverson is sort of “the man” when it comes to Indigenous history and he was at Arizona State and they highly recommended that I go out and work with him at Arizona State. He’s such a special, nice, kind person and he’s really passionate about the field. So, he’s the chair of my committee and I’m also working with two other professors in my field, Matthew Whitaker and Waziyatawin Angela Wilson.

FW: Are you still completing your graduate course work or have you begun your official field work?
VJ: I have one more year of course work. I’m going to take my comprehensive exams next spring and then I’m going to focus on my dissertation. My dissertation topic is about breaking down the black-white binary when it comes to segregation in the South because in a lot of areas it was a lot more complicated than that. In Eastern North Carolina, there was actually a three-way system of segregated education; there were black schools, white schools, and Indian public schools. The majority of these communities were really poor so you can only imagine a school district trying to support one school, let alone two, let alone three schools. I think it complicates our assumptions and ideas concerning race and how ridiculous segregation was when you have all these different categories of people going to different schools. I’m going to be studying the Indian public school system in the southeastern United States in the middle of the 20th century.

FW: That’s so interesting!
VJ: [Laughing] Thank you! Yeah, I kind of found a niche because it really hasn’t been studied before. I think it’s a story that needs to be told!

FW: So, was your move from North Carolina to Arizona primarily to study under Peter Iverson and not so much about running for Arizona State?
VJ: Yeah, it was. I mean I knew that I was going to be running as well and I took an official visit and met with the team and I felt so bad because I didn’t realize how great of a program there was at Arizona State. It was definitely icing on the cake and a whole lot of icing on that cake! I was stunned; it was perfect for my running! The girls and guys on the team are such great people and kind of welcomed me with open arms. I was really fortunate to fall into a place like that.

FW: Now, you only ran your freshman and sophomore year at UNC and then you went on a medical release, right?
VJ: Yes. I ran my freshman year and then stopped running my sophomore year and was on the medical release for my junior and senior year and I really credit Mike Whittlesey for doing that for me because when you go on a medical release, you can never compete for that school again, but he knew that I needed to get healthy and that there was a possibility that I would be able to run again in graduate school, so it was really amazing of him to do that for me.

FW: So, he gave you that ray of hope, that though you were letting go of collegiate running at the time, that you could still come back to the sport in graduate school.
VJ: Yeah; actually the first time I started thinking about it was over dinner with Shalane Flanagan and her now husband Steve Edwards and my boyfriend Mike Cvelbar. So, the four of us were sitting at dinner and we were just talking about running and I hadn’t run in probably a year and a half and was sort of getting antsy and sort of thinking about starting again and it was Steve, Shalane’s husband, who got so excited about my making a comeback and was like ”Oh, you’ll be fine. Give yourself a year of training and you will be right back at it.” He was just so encouraging. So, that’s when I started thinking about it.

Then, my senior year at North Carolina, I started running again and Coach Whittlesey would let me run with girls. I would sometimes hop in a workout here or there and I ran in a couple of races unattached and I was like “Okay, I really think I can do this!” So, that’s how everything developed.

FW: Let’s look back on the evolution of your running from high school to college to graduate school and to now as a Nike-sponsored professional runner. You’ve made such a remarkable progression. The fact that you have battled and recovered from anorexia makes you an amazing role model for female athletes. The media strongly focuses on the obesity epidemic in this country, but research shows that young females and males continue to struggle with eating disorders. As a nutritional counselor, I work with women in their twenties, thirties and forties, who have been battling with eating disorders since they were teenagers. I find that many of these women were competitive athletes in high school.

You are such a powerful example to young female athletes who are struggling with eating disorders today, showing them that even the best of the best can struggle. More importantly though, you show them that it is possible to overcome an eating disorder, to be happy, healthy, and perform better than ever in your sport. I am curious about what you would suggest to a young female who seeks to recover from anorexia.
VJ: Well thank you so much for what you said, I appreciate that. I have spoken with a lot of athletes with eating disorders and I sort of like to think of myself as a contact person that these young women can go to, because I do have so much experience with it and I dealt with it for such a long time. I started struggling when I was 9. So, it’s been a long, long time.

I think the first and foremost thing is that if it is athletic-based, she should just drop the sport, get away from the sport and focus on the basics, which are just being happy and healthy, loving yourself and surrounding yourself with people who love you. It’s just as basic as that. There are so many people in our sport who have the Type-A, workaholic, perfectionist personalities and it’s easy to get caught in negative patterns and behaviors. This means that you need to take a step back, take a deep breath and reevaluate everything, just focus on the basics.

I was so fortunate to have such a supportive family and friend network, with my parents, my boyfriend, my sister and her boyfriend, and my friends at North Carolina. You certainly have to become determined to get healthy yourself, but it is that support network that will help you to get through.

FW: Do you feel at your strongest now as a runner since recovering from anorexia and since becoming happier and healthier?
VJ: Oh yeah, absolutely! I enjoy every run, every day, and outside of running, whether if it’s reading for my program because I‘m a big history nerd, or hanging out with my boyfriend, my friends, or my family. You know, it’s about fitting the running into your life and not making the running your life. It’s about finding that balance and just enjoying every day. With the way that my running and my training is going right now, I feel fantastic and I only see myself getting stronger and faster in the future. It’s a pretty exciting time right now.

FW: That’s incredible; that’s such an important distinction that you made, fitting the running into your life as opposed to making running your life. So, what are some running goals that you hope to accomplish in the next five years?
VJ: Oh wow [pauses].

FW: Okay, if you had to pick three major goals, what would they be?
VJ: Three major goals [laughing]? Well, the first one would be to make the USA team and whether that’s in cross country, or the marathon, or track, I don’t care; I would just love to represent the United States. That’s my first goal and one reason for this goal [laughing] is because my boyfriend and I have this healthy competition with each other because he made the junior national team as a decathlete the year that I was an alternate and we didn’t know each other then, but he always jokes around because he got to go to France and I didn’t. It would be nice to even out that with him. So, I guess that’s my first goal, to make a US team.

My second goal is to just keep my PR-rhythm going and to keep dropping down my times in the 5[K] and the 10[K]. I’d really like to break 32:00 minutes [for a 10K] within the next couple of years and I’d like to get down into the low 31s. I think that’s going to be my key event over the next two years.

My third goal is sort of a long-term goal and that’s to do the marathon. I’d like to stay shorter and on the track as long as possible. I’d say that in the next five to 10 years, the marathon will be my focus. I don’t want to rule out ’08 [2008 Olympics] though ,because you can never say never. Ultimately, though, I think it will be further down the road when I will be significantly focused on the marathon.

Interview conducted on June 29, 2006, and posted on July 5, 2006.