Climbing the Mountain
September 12, 2007 09:45 AM | General
September 12, 2007
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – So much is often made of the grueling task West Virginia football players endure when they run up and down Law School hill during summer conditioning.
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| Maria Dalzot will be competing in the World Mountain Running Tournament in Ovronnaz, Switzerland this weekend.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks |
While running up and down the steep hill is no doubt tough for a 275-pound lineman looking to get in shape, it pales in comparison to what West Virginia cross country runner and Morgantown native Maria Dalzot will face when she competes in the World Mountain Running Tournament this Saturday in Ovronnaz, Switzerland.
Dalzot, a sophomore at WVU, will run a mile and a half up the mountain course in the Swiss Alps before coming a mile back down. While the sheer distance and grueling uphill battle providing enough of a challenge, there will also be a six-hour time change and altitude factor to further test Dalzot
“For the past three weeks I have been making my bedtime earlier and earlier. I am back to 8:30 but it’s still nothing to compare to them being six hours ahead of us,” Dalzot said. “I’ll be racing at 4 a.m. our time and 10 a.m. their time. I’ve been getting up and eating breakfast at 4 a.m. to prepare.”
More than 30 countries will be represented with each team being divided into four groups – men, women, junior men and junior women. The race has featured some of the world’s best long-distance and hill runners over the past two decades.
As only the second West Virginian to ever participate in the race, Dalzot will be one of three members on the junior women’s team. The top two times will count toward the U.S. team’s total score.
“I am so blessed to have this opportunity. I have been working for five years for this and it’s always been a dream of mine to wear a USA jersey,” said Dalzot, who won three cross country titles while at Morgantown High. “For it to finally come true I almost can’t believe it.”
Dalzot describes herself as a strength runner, a style that she believes will help her in this race.
“I’ve always had the ability to run further without much fatigue. I’ve always had a knack for running hills and that’s why I am excited for this particular race because it’s going to be challenging but it’s also well suited for my running style,” she said.
Dalzot has fully recovered from a stress fracture in the third metatarsal bone of her left foot sustained last spring that prevented her from running for four months. The sophomore has been running 70 miles a week and visiting Wisp Ski Resort on the weekend to train for the race.
“I’ve been training with the girls. We do two workouts a week and I do one workout with the team and then usually on Saturdays I go to the Wisp ski resort and run up some of the ski slopes there,” Dalzot said. “The more I do it, the easier you would think it would get but it doesn’t. I did my last workout up there this past Friday and it’s one of the toughest things I have ever done.”
While that seems like an ideal way to train, Dalzot explains the ski slope in Maryland isn’t close to what she’ll face in Switzerland
“It will help prepare me mentally but ski slope there is only half the size of the mountain in Switzerland so it doesn’t even compare to what I’ll face but it gives me a little taste of it,” Dalzot said.
While the best U.S. junior finish in the race has been 12th, Dalzot stops short of setting a specific goal of where she places on Saturday.
“There are so many factors you have to consider with the altitude and the time difference that it’s really hard to judge,” Dalzot said. “Finishing around the best mark of 12th would be an honor but to finish the race and be breathing after it would also be an honor. Just to be there is great.”
Dalzot is excited about the confidence boost this opportunity gives her and plans to learn from the experience and use it to make her WVU team the best it can be in her sophomore season.
“It will be a confidence booster for sure. I know when I get back I will be ready to go with the team. We have a spectacular group of runners this year and my goal for when I get back is to do everything I can to help my team get to the NCAA championships,” Dalzot said. “If we made it to NCAAs and I got to run in the World Championships that would be all I could hope for.”
When the going gets difficult on Saturday as she trudges up the mountain, legs burning, her body spent from exhaustion, Dalzot explains that it will be a matter of sheer will.
“I am a ball of fire right now. It’s going to be about who wants it the most,” Dalzot said.
“I’m going to have to do everything I can to get up that mountain even if I have to crawl on my hands and knees.”
And we thought those big linemen had it rough.
Note: Those wishing to follow Dalzot’s trip can read the team’s blog: Link
