Pre-Race Interview with Nicole Blood
By Alison Wade

Nicole Blood (left) runs the course with Caitlin McTague the day before the race. (Photo by Alison Wade/NYRR)

Fast-Women.com: Was it hard, last year, not being able to run at the regional (because she was only in eighth grade)?
Nicole Blood: Yeah, it was kind of nice though because it's a lot of pressure at that young of an age. At least this year I'm ready for it. It was a bummer, but it was all right.

How did you think your season went in general, are you happy with it?
I'm very happy with it. I didn't expect to make that big of an improvement. My time on my home course improved like 25 seconds.

Do you have the Saratoga home course record?
No. Erin Davis still has it. I missed it by, like, four seconds.

But you still have a few more years to try for it. Has Erin Davis been an inspiration to you?
Definitely. There are a lot of people who came from my team that are definitely inspirations -- Cheri Goddard (now Kenah) and a bunch of them.

Does it help you knowing that Erin won here when she was a freshman?
Yeah, that builds up my confidence, but I'm trying not to pressure myself at all. I came here to have fun and do the best job I could.

So are you succeeding with the having fun part so far?
Definitely, it's really fun.

What do you think of the whole experience?
It's really exciting, it's such a big meet. They treat you like Kings and Queens, it's pretty cool.

How much school are you missing as a result of being here?
A lot, because I'm spending time with my family out here, so I'm missing about a week, and a few days.

(Joking) Are you still going to pass all of your classes?
Yeah, I'm alright. I still have some homework to do.

Do you have a big cheering section out here?
Yeah, I have about ten family members, including my younger brother.

Saratoga has such a great running tradition, why is that?
I don't know. We work really hard, we work together and we have fun doing it. I think the most important part is that our coaches know what they're doing, they've been coaching for a long time. They know when we can have fun and fool around, and when it's time to focus and get down to business.

Are there a lot of team traditions that have been carried along through the years?
Before some big races we'll have pasta dinners at the school, and we hang out a lot. We're friends, too.

How many kids do you have on the team?
Total, right now -- boys and girls -- we have 120. We have about 75 girls, it's a big team.

When did you start running?
Seventh grade.

Did you start running with your area track club?
Yeah, they have a community club (the Kinetic Running Club) in the summer that you can go to if you want to. I start running in that -- like a mile a day or something... Eighth grade was really when I made the big move and started running varsity, so that built my confidence for this year.

It must be hard to make Saratoga's top seven. Do you think the competition to do so is something that helps the runners improve?
It's hard because when you're on JV your whole high school career, you're like 'Ah, I didn't make varsity,' but you don't realize how good the team is. It's really hard to make varsity. Definitely everyone plays a role on the team, not just the top seven. The top twenty work really hard -- it's hard to see that on our team, but they still get a lot of recognition.

What kind of training do you do, in terms of mileage throughout the season?
It really varies. It's usually around 40 miles per week, I usually don't go higher than that. It varies depending on whether it's early in the season or later. Right now my highest is probably about 40-45. It doesn't [go] that high. What [varies] is what kind of [quality work] I do.

Is it pretty intense mileage?
We have certain days that we just go easy, and then we have a few days of the week that we go hard. It varies all around and it depends on when the races are.

What are some key workouts for you?
[Coach Art Kranick] mixes it up, sometimes we do hills, but once we get to track season, we'll do shorter distances... He has different cards for people at different levels. 'A' card is usually all the boys, 'B' card is the top girls.

So the boys and girls train together?
Yes.

I can just imagine 120 kids all doing a workout at once. Is running something that's popular at your school, is that how you get so many kids out for the team?
Umm... I don't know. It's not as popular with the boys, but for girls, it's a lot more popular. Probably the summer clinic, if people come and like it then they'll go out for cross country. So that's probably an advantage for us.

(Interview conducted December 13, 2002, posted January 8, 2003)