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Interview with Molly Huddle and Lauren King By Chris Fox
Chris Fox caught up with Notre Dame's Molly Huddle and Lauren King after they went 1-2, respectively, at the Notre Dame Invitational October 3. Fast-Women.com: How did it go; was it difficult or slippery? Molly Huddle: It was cooler than what we're used to running in, and the course was a little mushy, so it wasn't super fast Lauren King: It was a just great opportunity to just test where we're at... MH: ...Get in racing mode again. LK: ...And just practicing [being] tough, because that's what cross country's all about. FW: I guess you were aware that Tiffany McWilliams was in there. Did you run together for awhile? LK: Molly kind of set the pace and broke things out, and I just was kind of running behind her. I just kept her in my sight; knowing she's up there just helps me run [well]. MH: [Lauren] was gaining on me in the end; but I couldn't sense anyone else behind me; (to Lauren) I knew you were the first one behind me. LK: I was running right behind Molly most of the race. MH: We broke away close to a mile I'd say, but I'm not sure. FW: Do you train on this course, or do you run somewhere else? MH: We'll come out here a few times. LK: We train on all sorts of surfaces MH: We barely do the same thing twice. We run around the lakes, we go to parks, we run out here a few times. LK: We've had some experience running here, but not in conditions like today. FW: It rained last year too… LK: I think its pretty reliable to get rain on the Notre Dame Invite FW: You stayed here this summer? What kind of mileage did you do? LK: We both stayed and got some tough classes out of the way; MH: Probably in the sixties. We focused on getting our mileage up there over the summer. FW: Will you run differently in the big races? LK: Once we get into a race with upwards of 300 people, it's going to be more about helping each other out and getting through the crowds. MH: We usually pair off; Lauren and I are always together. I think Megan (Johnson) and Kerry (Meagher) found out they work well together; so we're just going to keep using the pairs in the race. LK: We'll definitely use the team aspect to help us in the bigger races coming up. FW: Your whole team didn't run today… LK: We have two runners who sat out (today) who will definitely contribute later in the season — Margaret Nelson and Stephanie Madia — who are both very strong runners. They came back from the summer very fit, they're just getting over some very small injuries right now. FW: (To Molly) Was it tough to run the [NCAA Outdoor Track Championships] then U.S. Junior Nationals? MH: I was just kind of racing off of the work I'd done earlier in the season; it was like a big long taper from nationals to junior nationals; so it wasn't too difficult. I felt like I was getting a little stale by the end of the season, but I got a nice long break afterwards. FW: Do you prefer track to cross country? LK: I think whatever season you're in, you've got to love it. It's cross country season, so we're cross country runners. MH: I agree. FW: Do you have a goal for this season? LK: On our team, we all want to be the best runners we can possibly be, but not just individually; we want to be the best team we can possibly be. If we train really hard and stay really motivated... That will help us achieve our goals. MH: I think it's totally reasonable to finish where we finished last year (third) or better. FW: You were 6-19 individually, right? MH: We want to work on closing the gap (between us). LK: Definitely; we want to be up there as individuals as well as as a team. (Posted October 11, 2003)
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