Post-Race Interview with Laura Stanley, December 8, 2001

By Parker Morse

North Carolina's Laura Stanley en route to a 5th-place, 17:34 finish at the 2001 Foot Locker Cross Country Nationals. (Alison Wade/New York Road Runners)

Laura Stanley Bio

You had a pretty good race today, were you pleased with it?
Yes, very pleased. I moved up from last year, and made first-team All-American. If you get up there in the top five you're happy with the way it went.

It was a pretty quick race. It looked like Natasha Roetter started to break things up around the mile mark, right?
Yes. Molly Huddle was out ahead of our little pack. Natasha tried to go with her, and I knew I could run with those girls. My split at the mile was 5:26. That was exactly what my coach said, he said 5:30 would be fine. And I kept it up all the way around. Everything went exactly how we wanted it to. I was very boxed in for the first half mile, it sort of sucked, with all the people that were right up there. But how people went out was how they finished. I didn't really see what happened, but I don't know if anybody moved up.

The weather was hot, but everybody's got to run in the hot weather, so I can't make that an excuse at all.

Were you building your whole cross-country season toward the Nationals?
Pretty much. This was my first season not playing soccer. I wasn't really concerned about trying to win at the South regional, but I did. That was just the icing on the cake, because I pretty much just wanted to get down here.

We didn't gun for this meet, but we did start early in the summer and work all the way through. And I didn't play soccer for the first time this fall, so I've been able to focus a lot more.

Was soccer a hard thing to give up?
Yes, it was hard, but I've signed with Duke. I know this is what I want to do with my life right now, and I need to focus. Our coach was really understanding, and I think it's made all the difference.

So what's next?
A little bit of time off. Next week will be just resting. Then we'll have a few weeks of active rest, and then start training for track.

Are you training for a spring season, or do you have indoor track?
I've never done indoor. Actually, last year was my first year running track. I played in a club league in the fall, traveling, and school soccer in the spring. Last year I gave up school soccer for track, and that was very important to me. Our school doesn't have an indoor team, and I also played basketball, so I've never trained through the winter.

I'm really looking forward to it. I think my track season will go a lot better with a nice base from the winter.

Any goals for the spring season?
Last year I was sixth for the mile at the adidas outdoor meet, and seventh in the two-mile. So I want to move up, definitely PR - I still have so much to learn in track. I'm very young at it, and there's a lot of stuff I need to learn. Along the road, I'll improve with experience.

So it's really just been two years of competition?
Three of cross-country, now. But just one of track. Soccer's a lot of conditioning, though. I played center midfield, and they say they cover nearly seven miles in a game.

So why do cross-country at all?
I was a sophomore, and I'd been running for a long time to stay in shape for soccer. My soccer coach, she's a running freak. She kept us in good shape, and we were good because we were in good shape. But my school has won six or seven state championships in a row, and they said, "Come on Laura, you might be able to help us." I just went out thinking, if I'm running anyway, I might as well try to help my school if I can. So I was state champion, and it all starting coming together. I fell in love with it. It took me a while to figure out that I needed to stop soccer to get better, but it just grew on me. I think it had been in me for a long time.

I think there are some people who wish there were more runners like you, coming from the soccer leagues.
I know. It's very humbling to be here (at Foot Locker Nationals) and be treated like this. You don't get treated like this every day. This is like nothing ever before. It's very much an honor. The track meet isn't like this at all, it can't be. Anybody can come if they make the qualifying time, and then there's boys and girls in every event. Still, it was really fun, I'm hoping to go back.

What led you to Duke?
Oh, gosh. The coaches, pretty much. They're great people, and I think what I liked about the program was that they care about you as a person. They care about your grades, your family, and your emotional side, they don't just want you to run for them. It's a family atmosphere. And I really liked Duke, the campus is beautiful and it's a great area. And ironically, both my parents went to Duke too.

Ahhh, now it comes out.
I don't like telling people that, because everybody would say, oh, well, your parents went there so you will. But they didn't put any pressure on me at all to go there. But they say it's good to know it's the right place, and I knew. The girls were really nice. I think I was the first one to commit, but now there's five of us. Me, Natasha, Sally Meyerhoff, Clara Horowitz from California - she was [a Foot Locker National qualifier] last year - and Shannon Rowbury, she's a 2:08 half-miler. And their team was led this year for three freshmen this fall.

I'm so thankful for my family and everybody who helped me get here. It's not like you do this on your own. My coach and my family, they understand, they're the ones I can go to after a hard workout and say, "I hurt."

So what's a hard workout? What's the nastiest workout you've done?
Probably my least favorite - the most pain - is five or six by 1,000m, with about a minute and a half rest, a little faster than race pace. I don't know how many times we did it this season, probably five. But one time it was so windy, you turned the corner [and felt like you were running] into a brick wall. But you get over it, I think that's what makes you tough. My coach, at the regional meet, was yelling, "This is why we did the five by thousands for!" If you work that hard, it all pays off in the end, no matter how hard it hurts. You just have to keep your goals in mind, and look towards the future.