Maine Milesplit Q &A Will Geoghegan
You are coming off a fine performance at your conference championship meet last Saturday, where you won by 9 seconds over Jason Kaake, with a strong 16:44 clocking. Can you give us a recap of how the race unfolded? What was your race plan going in? How did you feel in the early stages of the race? When did you take the lead?
Going into the race, I just wanted to be with the leaders going into the last 400 meters so that I could have a chance at kicking for the win. I got out well at the beginning and just hung on in the middle of the lead pack. I felt really good so I decided I would try to take the lead at some point. Shortly before the mile Tyler Gammon opened up a gap on the pack. We went through the first mile around 5:05, which was fast, but it could have been worse. After the mile mark, Luke Fontaine closed the distance with Tyler, so it was the two of them with a 10-15 meter lead on the chase pack. As we approached the long grassy hill just before 2 miles, Jason Kaake and I closed the gap with Luke and Tyler. I really tried to push the hill, so at the top I had a tiny lead that I just tried to hold on to. The next hill was a moderately long steep one coming out of the woods with about 1000 meters to go in the race. It wasn’t until I was at the top of this that it really hit me that I had created a lead of about 15 meters, so from there I was just desperately trying to hang on. The finish is a long loop around the fields that goes down and then up again with about 200 meters to go. I think Jason was closing pretty fast on me, but I was able to hold him off for the win.
This weekend is the Eastern Maine regional meet, where you will race many of the same athletes as you did last weekend. How confident are you that you can repeat your winning performance again this week? There is a real difference in the courses between UMA & Belfast; will this affect your race strategy at all?
There are so many evenly matched individuals in the conference that no one can really be confident of
a win, but I feel like I’m capable of winning if I have a good race. UMA is definitely a very difficult course compared to Belfast. I think that the only major difference in race strategy between the two courses is that the pace will more than likely be faster for the first mile or two at Belfast. This means to have a chance at winning, it’s important not to get caught up in the fast start and kill your legs so that there’s nothing left for the final mile.
You finished off the outdoor track season as one of top Maine runners at the New England’s in the 3200. So coming into this XC season what did you do to prepare to have a successful junior season? What are some key workouts you have been doing this fall to get ready to run well in the championship meets?
I had never run more than once or twice a week during the summer before this year. The biggest thing I did to prepare for XC was do 30-40 miles per week over vacation. Our team does a lot of track work. I think this really helps, particularly in that it gives us some decent leg speed for the championship meets (regionals and states are both at Belfast, a fast and flat course).
Your team finished 2nd in the KVAC championship behind Lewiston. What are your team goals for this weekend and the upcoming state meet the following week?
This weekend at regionals, our goal is to beat Lewiston. It’s going to take a big effort by our entire team, but I really think we have the ability to do it. At states, we really want to qualify as a team for New Englands. This means being either the winner of Class A or being one of the fastest 3 teams other than the class winners in the combined results. We have a realistic shot at doing it, but like beating Lewiston at regionals it’s going to take a big effort.
How did you first get into running? Who's been the biggest influence on your running up to this point?
No one in my family runs, and I didn’t start until 6th grade. During the first or second week of school, Coach Dearing (who is the junior high XC and outdoor coach and one of the high school indoor coaches) went around to all the classrooms and gave a speech about XC. I decided I would try it out, and I ended up doing outdoor too because I didn’t make the baseball team. Up to this point, the biggest influence on my running has probably been Liam Cassidy. I honestly wasn’t a hard worker when it came to running from 6th grade through my freshman year. Liam works harder than any runner I’ve ever seen, and he improved at a ridiculous rate throughout outdoor and indoor his freshman year. At the beginning of XC my sophomore year he beat me pretty badly, and that really motivated me to put in as much effort as possible. I’m lucky to have someone pushing me hard every single workout.
Do you have any pre-race rituals or superstitions?
I have a bunch, but the strangest one is that I eat a peanut butter & jelly sandwich half an hour before every race.
Final Question … Fall or Spring? What’s you favorite time of the year…
Well fall is the season of XC, so of course fall is my favorite.