Post-Race Interview with Amber Harper, December 8, 2001

By Alison Wade

Amber Harper tours the FLCCC course the day before the race. (Alison Wade/New York Road Runners)

Amber Harper Bio

First of all, congratulations on your strong run. How do you feel about your race?
I'm not as happy as I would be because I didn't make my goal, my goal was top five. But being the first underclassman is cool and I made the top 10, at least. I wish had done a few things differently, like gone out faster in the first mile - not too much faster, maybe just a few places and a few seconds faster. I'm kind of neutral about it. I'm not way disappointed, but I'm pretty disappointed (laughs).

Do you know what your splits were?
My first mile was a 5:35, so it was one of my slower miles in a race. I think it was the slowest race mile I've had, so that was kind of scary. And I was second to last at that time.

Well last year Sara Bei was in about that spot at the mile mark and she went on to win.
Yeah, that's what I heard. I was thinking, "Yeah, I can still win this..." But then I thought, "No way." I'm pretty neutral about it.

So based on today's race you're going to be the top returnee next year. Are you ready for what goes along with that?
Yeah, I'm excited. Winning is kind of an addiction. In my state -- I'm not trying to be cocky or anything (laughs) -- I'm undefeated in 4A. So once you win, you just want to keep winning. So it's exciting. I hope I have a good chance next year.

Last year you competed against Laura and Jackie Zeigle at the Utah State Meet and this year you didn't, why was that?
Yeah, last year we were 5A and this year we moved down to 4A. We switched with Fremont, they moved up to 5A. So I didn't get to race them, which is like one of my favorite things to do, I love racing with them, they're really fun to race with.

Your brother, Golden, ran here in 1999 and finished 10th. Did he have any advice for you about the whole event or the course?
My dad said that he said, "Rock the course." (laughs)

Did you know what to expect at all because of him?
No, he never really told me anything about it. He said it was tons of fun but he never said anything about the race. So this was all new to me. I was supposed to qualify last year and I wish I had because then I would have had more experience this year, I think I would have run better. But I had a bad race at the West Regional last year (she finished 67th).

What happened at the Regional last year?
i went out too fast, I felt okay and everything but just trying to stay up there I went way too fast up the hills. That was really bad for my leg, and then coming down the hills hurt a lot. I had a constant knee problem that hurt on the downhills. I also drank pickle juice (laughs). That was something my coach told me to do to get rid of cramps. I did that.. and that was bad.

Have you tried it since?
No, never. I hate pickle juice.

Your mother is a good runner, was she the one who inspired you to take up the sport?
Actually, it was more my brother, I think. He started getting good and it made me be like, "Well I want to be special somehow," (laughs) because I didn't really do anything. He took me to cross country one day, I really liked the people and I just kind of stuck with it. I didn't really go to practice, I'm still not a practice person, I don't like going to practice, I like running by myself. I just like being out by myself, that's always fun.

Do you ever training with your mother?
I run with her maybe once a month, not very much. I like to run faster and she likes to recover more.

Do you have the family PRs on the women's side?
I do in the mile, two-mile and 5k. She still has faster road race times, I think she ran 15:50-something in the 5k.

What grade were you in when you started running?
I was a freshman.

And had you done any other sports before that?
I ran a little bit when I was little but not too seriously, just because of Golden. And like I said, I wanted to be special somehow so I started running. I wasn't very good, I just kind of ran because it was a family thing. I just ran a year or two there and then I stopped for about four to six years and then started up when I was a freshman, mostly because of Golden. And my dad likes to see us do things, he likes to see success so he kind of wanted me to do something too. I was doing nothing, I mean nothing.

What kind of training do you do now?
Well, it's changed a lot since I was a freshman. I do lots of different things, like things that people have never heard of. I tell people about my workouts sometimes and they're like, "What's that?" I do speed changes - you float the curves on the track and sprint the straightaways, I'll do up to three miles of those sometimes. And then like basic workouts, 400s, 800s, ladders like 400-800-1,200. I usually do those two times a week, and three if I don't have a race, and then I'll do recovery runs on the other days.

What kind of mileage do you do?
In the summer it's usually higher because I don't do any speed workouts, I just do plain running. I try to get in a base. I didn't run very much this summer, I don't know what that was. Normally during the season it's not very high, maybe 30 to 35, it's really not very high at all. Forty-minute runs are usually the highest I get to. This week was really low, probably like 15 miles (laughs). I think I do better when I have high mileage but I haven't had very high mileage this season.

Do you know why that is?
I think it's because I was more into racing this year than I ever have been so I was trying to prepare for races and relax and recover, so I'd do my speed workout and then in order to get ready for the next one, I wouldn't run as much. I think that helped a lot, I was never tired, and I recover very fast. I don't know why I did it, but I did. Now I have something to learn from.

Do you do any supplemental training - cross training or weight lifting?
Sometimes in early track they have us do weight lifting. I not really a weight lifter, basically running is all I do.

What are your goals for track season?
I actually want to win state this year because I haven't been able to do that yet (laughs). I don't know what's wrong with track. I seem to do fine up until states. Indoor track kind of takes it out of me, so I'm not going to do indoor track this year. It just makes the season way too long. I want to win state this year in the 1,600 and 3,200 and I want to go to the big meets that I went to last year and I actually want to do well at those, Golden West, Arcadia, Great Southwest, and Simplot -- that's the only indoor meet I'm going to do.

What's Golden up to these days?
He went to BYU his freshman year, ran cross country and redshirted track. He actually ended up doing pretty well. Now he's on his mission for two years. He's going to Iowa on Wednesday. I won't see him for a while. That's why I didn't really get to get any advice from him about the race, you can't really write that in a letter.

Do you have any thoughts about where you might like to go to college?
I really don't. I really like the east. I haven't looked at any schools yet because I really don't want to deal with it right now. I like the east but I don't have any particular schools in mind. I really like BYU just because I think Pat Shane is awesome. The team is awesome too. Laura and Jackie (Zeigle) are thinking of going there and if they go there, that would be a really thing for me. I really like them, I think we could have an awesome team. If those two to go there and I joined them the next year, I think it would be fun to have us all there. That would be something I would look at but I haven't really started to think about it yet.

Well good luck and we hope to see you back here next year.
Yeah, I hope so.