Keeping Pace
June 07, 2010 10:35 PM | General
June 7, 2010
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| Clara Grandt |
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Clara Grandt is hoping for a cool, fast track on Wednesday night when she competes in the women’s 10K race at the 2010 NCAA outdoor track and field championships in Eugene, Ore.
Two weeks ago at the NCAA regionals in Greensboro, N.C., the West Virginia University senior got neither. It was hot and humid and the pace of the race was much slower than normal.
“The heat affected a lot of people’s decisions of how to run the race,” Grandt said. “It was pretty hot during the day and it cooled off a little bit during the night when we ran, but it was still kind of humid. A lot of people tried to play it safe and went out a little slower.”
Grandt won with a time of 34:29.86, which is almost a full minute off her winning time at the Big East championships back on May 1. Her personal best in the 10K is 33:16.
At nationals last year in the 10K, the West Union, W.Va., resident placed fourth with a time of 33:45.16 to earn All-America honors. The winning time for last year’s race was 33:25.71, but Grandt expects it to be considerably better this year.
“There are some good girls in there this year,” she admitted. “We’ll see how they run.”
The 10,000 is a 25-lap race that requires both physical and mental endurance.
“A lot of it is just being able to handle that long of a race – being able to focus for that long and not letting your mind wander and not thinking about how tiring it is,” Grandt said. “It takes mental strength as well as endurance.”
Clara has a unique approach to running the 10K.
“I try not to look at the laps,” she explained. “You’ve got to know where you are in the race, but you don’t want to be looking every single lap thinking, ‘Well, I’ve got 20 to go.’”
With about eight laps remaining is when Grandt begins to really pay attention to what the other runners are doing.
“That’s when you want to start changing the pace and start dropping people,” she said, noting that while most 10Ks are usually won late, it can also be lost early if a runner goes out too hard and is too tired to finish.
The meet favorite on Wednesday night is Iowa State senior Lisa Koll, who set the national collegiate record earlier this year when she ran a time of 31:18.07 at Stanford. That is a full minute ahead of Boston University’s Andrea Walkonen, who placed third in that same race with a time of 32:31.33. In fact, five of the six fastest 10K times posted this year came on Stanford's fast track.
Grandt was at Stanford, too, but she chose to run the 5K instead and had an opportunity to watch the 10K from the infield.
“Looking at the race, I kind of wished I would have run it because I think I could have had a lot faster PR, but we didn’t know that then,” she said.
Grandt has run the 10K just two times this year, once to qualify for nationals at the Big East championships, and once in the NCAA regionals to reach this week’s finals. Considering the grueling nature of the race, Grandt believes she has run it enough to be prepared for finals while still having legs fresh enough to perform well this week.
“Maybe I could have run one more at the beginning of the year but I ran the 5K instead just to try and improve my 5K time,” she said. “I think I’m in a good spot right now.”
Grandt is making her third appearance at outdoor nationals in the 10K, finishing 11th as a sophomore in 2008 before her fourth place finish last year. The senior admits she learns something new about herself each time she competes in a big race.
“Every race is different and you learn more about yourself and more about other runners in different types of races,” Grandt said.
Two weeks ago in Greensboro, Grandt learned that she could pick up the pace in a much slower race. Grandt prefers to start out fast and keep a constant pace throughout.
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| Clara Grandt is looking to become just the second athlete in WVU history to earn All-American honors three times in the same year.
WVU Photographic Services |
“Sean (Cleary) was a little worried about that,” Grandt said. “He wasn’t sure I could change my pace from a slower race and make such a sudden change at the end and out-kick some people,” Grandt said. Grandt says she is very familiar with this year's 10K field, racing Koll a number of times during her career.
“I ran against her last year at nationals and I beat her, but since then she has gotten a lot better,” Grandt said. “We were about the same in cross country and then her times kind of took off. She’s done really well since then.”
Grandt has, too.
Clara has already earned All-America honors in cross country and indoor track this year, and Wednesday night she can join teammate Keri Bland as the only athletes in school history to win All-America honors in three different sports in the same year. Grandt finished 13th at cross country nationals last fall and placed 11th at indoor nationals earlier this spring (the top eight Americans earned All-America status).
She says placing fourth in the 10K last year and her team’s fourth-place finish at cross country nationals in 2008 are the two highlights of her career.
“I knew it was possible (to earn All-America honors in the 10K) but it was the first time I had actually made it to the top of the national list,” she said. “I was finally one of the top runners in the country and that was very exciting.
“The other awesome team thing was a couple of years ago when we got fourth in the nation in cross country. That was really special.” Grandt believes having already earned All-America honors in the 10K will take some pressure off of her on Wednesday night.
“I have a little more to risk because I already have one,” she reasoned. “Now I can really go for it. I played it a little bit safe in some parts of the race last year just to make sure that I was in the top eight to be an All-American. This year, I don’t see why I can’t push a little harder and try to improve my spot.”
As far as winning it, Grandt doesn’t think that is out of the question, either.
“I am going to approach the race realistically with some ideal things in mind,” she said. “I just want to do what I can do and not try and do something I can’t do and if (Koll) is having an off-day, then I’ll just try and take advantage of that.”
Regardless of where she finishes Wednesday night at nationals, Grandt has already secured her spot as one of the top distance runners in WVU history.
“Sometimes I think about how far I have really come and it’s quite a jump, I think, from high school to my college career,” she said. “I don’t claim to have any awesome talents, but I have some talent. I think it just came from hard work and being with hard working people. A lot of it is attitude and persistence.”
Grandt’s race is scheduled for 10:15 ET on Wednesday night.
