Post-Race Interview with Nef Araia
By Becky Orfinger

Nef Araia runs in second place, just past the two-mile mark. (Photo by Alison Wade/NYRR)

Nef Araia finished third at this year's Foot Locker Cross Country Championships, following an 18th-place finish in 2001. Before being nipped at the line for third place by the South Region's Bobby Curtis, Araia was about to make it a one-two-three sweep for the Midwest Region team behind winner Chris Solinksy and runner-up Wes Smith.

MensRacing.com: Congratulations on your great race today. How did you feel?

Nef Araia: I felt really strong, but early on in the race I cramped up on my right side. I just tried to push it out of my mind and think, 'I'm not cramping, I'm going to have a great race today, I'm going to push through it,' because I have fifteen minutes to show everyone how tough I am today.

The race unfolded exactly as I expected, which was great. I knew when it was going to hurt, when people were going to back off, and I was able to respond and cover as many moves as I could. But those top three guys were just tougher than me today, I guess.

Did you know Bobby Curtis was coming up behind you at the end?
I knew it was going to happen. Curtis and I joke around a lot about our PRs and make fun of each other, and today after the race he told me he saw me up there [ahead of him] and said to himself, 'Wait, that's Nef -- he's not going to beat me today', and then he just went for it. I don't have much of a kick. We focus so much of our training on the middle of the race -- two to four [kilometers] -- that when I have to kick [at the very end], I'm usually by myself. That just wasn't the case today. I'm looking forward to advancing my training [and working on my kick.]

And you are headed to Stanford next year -- a great place to do just that. Are you excited about your college choice?
I'm very excited. I don't know about everyone else, but for me and some of the girls from the Midwest Region, our coaches are peaking us to do our best collegiately and post-collegiately. Right now we're not running the high mileage; we're not running intense workouts four or five times a cycle. So that's why I'm excited for college -- I know that I'll finally be able to do that kind of training. I know I will respond to it. I'll finally be able to get to a place where I'm given the same opportunities that everybody else gets. Right now it feels kind of like a handicap when other guys you are racing against are running twice as much as you are. But it's exciting to have a lot of room for improvement.

Were you really psyched when Stanford won the NCAA cross country title this year, knowing you would be part of that team next year?
Yeah, I was actually there and I watched it. I only live an hour away [from Terra Haute] so we drove down and watched it. Just watching the Stanford uniforms run around the course together like that was amazing and very inspiring for me to do well. I'm really excited that to get there and just be a part of that.

Did you consider any other schools besides Stanford?
Yes, I was strongly looking at IU and Notre Dame. It was a really hard decision for me -- not hard because I didn't know where I wanted to go, but hard because I had to weigh so many different aspects and really measure if one thing was worth more than something else. But in the end, when I took all my visits and came home, I knew that [Stanford] was the right place for me. I just knew.

Do you think you'll have a hard time transitioning between your current coach and your college coaches?
I really trust [Stanford] Coach (Vin) Lananna and Coach (Michael) Reilly. When I got there, I could see that there was a connection between the athletes and the coaches -- with everybody. It wasn't like the coaches only focus on two or three guys. [Lananna] keeps tabs on everybody and was really watchful. That made me feel really comfortable, because I know that if I do get injured, I will be in good hands. They said they are going to look at what each of the freshman were doing in high school and focus on either intensity, frequency or mileage. I'm just excited to handle whatever they give me and move up to the next level.

Have you changed your training a lot throughout high school as you got better and better?
I didn't run [cross country] my freshman year because I didn't think I would be fast enough for my school. So I ran track, and I did okay. But then my sophomore year, I wish I knew then what I know now. I ran five days a week, didn't run Saturday or Sunday because it was the weekend, and who would do that? (Laughs.) My first cross country race as a sophomore I ran 18:02, and then I ran 15:49 at semi-states. And I thought to myself, maybe I'm on to something here.

What changes did you make to improve by so much?
I just concentrated on it more. I figured, why not run fast? Why not push my limits? So, I did it, and I'd like to think I'm still doing it. I'm excited to keep improving. I never settle. Crossing the line today, I felt so bad. I've never collapsed after a race and I always make fun of people when they do. I think it's better to just walk away and pretend you're fine. But today, I did pretty much collapse and these people were holding me up and trying to take me to the medical tent. And I was like, nope, we're not going to the med. tent -- I can walk. I just hid underneath a big billboard for a while and lay there until I felt better.

At least the weather was pretty ideal today, or we might have seen a lot more people collapsing.
It was good. It was dry, which is a lot different than the summers in Indiana. You just feel weighted down [by humidity] in the early season. Last year in Florida, it was so sticky, and I did not feel acclimated to the climate at all by that point in the season. This year, it was a lot easier going from 0 (degrees) to 65, instead of 0 to 80. Today we had perfect racing conditions.

What events will you focus on for your final high school track season?
For the state meet, I'm going to run the mile and the two-mile. The guy that was 27th today is in my state, and it's going to be really hard to win if he runs the two-mile fresh. But like I said, I like to push my limits and I think it'll be tough to have to double back and still run really well.

Is this the indoor state meet you are talking about, or outdoor?
Outdoor. Indiana doesn't have an official indoor track season. We have unofficial state meets, but that's it. Our team will probably go to NIC (the National Indoor Championships) or NSIC (the National Scholastic Indoor Championships) and then we will focus on outdoor track. Our track team's been pretty good; hopefully we will three-peat this year [at the State meet] and go on to go to the adidas meet -- we had a lot of All-Americans last year.

My coaches have developed me mentally, as a runner, to be a leader and to know when to coach somebody as a teammate and when to let them find out for themselves. I'm really excited to lead the team again in track, because a lot of the kids on the team are really young and inexperienced. Last year having mono, I couldn't do much to set an example for people, and as a sophomore, I wasn't put together yet. So I just want to get out there, run fast, and win.