Ricky Quintana: It was a pretty tough race there.
Galen Rupp: Yeah, I'm happy with it. Matt (Withrow) is a great guy and a great runner. I'm just really happy for him.

RQ: Did it go as you expected? That was a real battle out there.
GR: Yeah. I definitely expected Matt to surge. He's done that all year, from what I've heard. He's had great success with it, so I don't blame him. I wasn't planning on leading that much, I was going to try and stay back for the first mile, mile and a half, but I got really well and everyone kind of got behind me, I was kind of stuck with the lead. But I can work on that in the future. I was happy I competed well and I was able to get second place.

RQ: You really battled the whole way. Do you think it was maybe a strategic error in that last mile?
GR: On my part?

RQ: Yeah.
GR: No, I don't think so. My strength is really to try and outlast guys. I'm not the greatest kicker, I'm not the fastest guy. I'm not disappointed with that at all. I probably could have done things a little better in the first mile and a half, but I was definitely ready to lead the last mile, I was ready to really push the pace.

RQ: You look really recovered.
GR: I feel good. That's one thing this season, I've been able to recover really well from workouts. That's why I think my training has gone so well this year, because I've been able to do good workouts constantly. I haven't had too much down cycle. I'm really happy with it

RQ: Track season. You must be really excited about that.
GR: Definitely. I think I like track a little more than cross country. Cross country is definitely fun; it's nice that the focus is just on the distance guys and they get a lot of respect and all the attention. Track is fun, you can race against guys a lot more than once. You get a lot of chances to compare yourself with other guys. I'm looking forward to it.

RQ: What are you going to do from here on out? What are your plans for USA Junior Cross Country, indoor track and all that.
GR: I'm not running the junior cross country meet, I think, this year. I have a big a really indoor meet, it's going to be an open two-mile in January at the (New york City) Armory. I'm looking forward to that. I think that's going to be a really fast two-mile time for me there. So that's where my training is going to go for the next month and a half.

RQ: What kind of fitness do you think you have? What are some times you throw out there for us that you think you can run?
GR: I don't know. I try to keep that between me and my coach. I don't want to say anything and jinx myself or something, but I'm looking to run fast this year (laughs).

RQ: Any 5k efforts that you're going to try this summer?
GR: Yeah, definitely. I'm looking to run fast at the World Junior meet and the national meet, USATF. I think that's going to be the big track meet focus this year for me.

RQ: I don't want to put pressure on you again, but 13:44 , Dathan Ritzenhein did that a few years ago. Are you going to try to get in a race where you are going to try and run something like that?
GR: Yeah, I definitely want to run a fast 5k with some open guys and see what I can do. Dathan was a great runner and I think that a lot of guys here, including myself, will have a good shot at running under 14:00 this year.