Quantcast
Home › Athlete Features › Interview with Neely Spence

Neely Spence on her way to an eighth-place finish at the 2006 Foot Locker Cross Country Championships.

Interview with Neely Spence

Posted on December 11, 2006, Interview conducted December 9, 2006

By Alison Wade

Neely Spence, 16, won the 2006 Foot Locker Northeast Regional and finished eighth in the Foot Locker Cross Country Championships in her debut at the meet. Spence is a home-schooled junior from Shippensburg, Pennsylvania. She won her first Pennsylvania Class AAA state cross country title this year after being allowed to represent Shippensburg High School for the first time. In the past, Spence had competed in open races where she could run without a school affiliation, including the 2005 Foot Locker Northeast Regional, where she finished 19th.

Spence's father, Steve, was 1992 Olympian and won a bronze medal in the marathon at the 1991 World Championships. He now serves as the cross country and track & field coach at Shippensburg University. Her mother, whose maiden name is Kirsten Harteis, never ran in college but she has run a 17:00 5k on the roads.

Spence's parents are clearly doing something right in her schooling. Despite the many tempting entertainment options available to her after her race at the 2006 Foot Locker Cross Country Championships, Spence remained in the press room for well over an hour, patiently conducting interviews, which she handled with the poise of a pro.

Can you explain the situation that allowed you to run for Shippensburg High School this year, when you hadn't been able to do so in the past?
I am a home-schooled junior and last year, Governor Ed Rendell helped pass a law that allowed home-schooled athletes to participate in extracurricular activities after school. This was the first year I was able to do it, and it was a really great experience. I was really nervous going into the first day of practice because all the other kids had known each other, grown up with each other, gone to school together and they were all close. I had no need to be worried. They totally accepted me as part of the team, with their arms open wide. It was a great feeling. They supported me after the season. Even though I'm not wearing a Shippensburg jersey, I'm still one of their athletes. That's just a really cool feeling.

What made your parents decide to home school you?
My dad is the cross country and track & field coach at Shippensburg University and he's away on weekends because of track meets and stuff. It came down to the fact that we didn't have any family time, because school would limit the time that we could all be together. I actually went to a private school through third grade.

How does a typical day work for a home-schooled student?
Of course it's different for everyone, but for me, I actually usually wake up pretty late, like 9:00 or 9:30. I have an iron deficiency that I've been working on for the last eight months, so the doctor told me that I need to take iron and B vitamins, and I need to get at least nine hours of sleep every night. The nice thing about being home schooled is that I do get to focus on my sleep. That definitely is an important component to my everyday life and, of course, running.

How many hours a day do you spend on school, and who is teaching you?
My mom does a lot of the teaching. She assigns my work, and I fit it around the rest of my life. Running, of course, is a lifestyle, so it's definitely nice that I can run in the morning, I can run in the afternoon, whenever I need to run, I can do that. With my schoolwork, it usually ends up being 3-1/2 to 4 hours a day. My mom gives me the work and [the time it takes] depends on whether I work efficiently or not.

How do you choose what classes you're taking?
With the clearinghouse, I have to take certain classes because I do want to run in college. But really, it's nice because I do get to choose a lot of my own classes. I find my own textbooks and it's kind of like a college atmosphere already in the sense that I actually take a lot of the initiative myself.

Do you miss not having the opportunity during the day to interact with other kids?
Well, I've never had it, so I guess I don't really miss it. I definitely enjoy the high school team, and I don't know what it would be like to go to public school, so it's not necessarily something that I miss.

Did you train with the high school team pretty much every day this season?
Yeah, most days throughout the week, I ran with the team. I ran with the guys a lot and I would run with the girls on my easy days. They were so awesome; they were so excited to have me as part of their team. They were all up there at the state meet, cheering for me. That was just a great feeling to cross the finish line and know that I had my teammates there. It's really awesome because my coach, Randy Holtry, is a big part of my life. He is always there; I have like four phone numbers and I can call him at any time, anywhere. Actually, before I decided to run for the high school team, I called him and talked to him and his wife (our assistant coach) on the phone for like two hours. He's definitely invested a lot of time and energy into me, and I really appreciate it. He's really been a huge contributor to my success this season.

Is Coach Holtry your only coach, or does your dad coach you as well?
Well, they kind of share the role. My high school coach and my dad kind of work together to decide on the training plan for me. Coach Holtry was not actually a runner, but he has learned a lot over the last 12 years or so that he's been coaching. He's learned a lot, he's definitely very knowledgeable, and my dad knows me really well. I definitely have a lot of people supporting me and they know exactly what I need, so it's really good.

Was it a natural step that you would become a runner, with both of your parents being runners, or did you try other sports first?
Actually, I started horseback riding when I was eight. I ride English. I do dressage and jumping and I started that first. I continue to do it as crosstraining. I think both running and riding [complement] each other well. It's kind of unique to use the same muscles and they go really well together. It's definitely been something that I really enjoy. When I'm running, it's just me and my watch. Then I have horseback riding, where it's just me and the horse. I really enjoy it because I really like animals.

Do you ever train with your dad?
My dad is one of my training partners and he runs with me a lot. It's really helpful because I'm really social and I don't like running by myself. One of my best friends, Lara Crofford, lives like 20 minutes away from me and she goes to Big Spring High School. She also runs with me a lot, and she was the runner-up in [the AAA race at the Pennsylvania state meet]. It was really cool because here we are, the top runners in our state, and we're training partners and best friends, and everything. It's really awesome and it helps me stay motivated and run faster because I have her and we're able to push each other.

How old were you when you started running?
It was the middle of eighth grade. Actually, I watched this race [the 2003 Foot Locker Cross Country Championships] on Fox Sports and I was like, 'That is so cool, I want to do that someday.' My dad was like, 'Well, you better start training now!' So I started running. It was my choice. If anything, my parents tried to hold me back. I started when I was 13 and I think the starting point for me was the Hershey Track & Field Championships, where I competed throughout the summer and made it to the national meet [in nearby Hershey, Pennsylvania]. That was probably the starting point for me, where I saw that I could be a good runner. I saw that the harder I worked, the more I would get back.

Has your mileage gone up pretty significantly from year to year?
Well, my freshman year my parents only let me run four days a week, so I was probably only doing like 30 miles a week or so. I would do a hard speed workout, a tempo run, an easy run, and hills.

You were probably getting a lot out of those four days.
Yeah, I maximized [the four days of training] by doing that training plan. Then, my sophomore year, I upped the mileage to like 40-45 and I've just continued on the same path, I haven't really brought it up much. I'll hit some weeks of 50s, but that's rare. I saw the huge improvements from my freshman year to my sophomore year and I was like, 'If I can just keep the same kind of training plan, it seems to be working for me.' And I also lift, so as I get stronger, and as I mature, I improve.

Were you expecting to win the Foot Locker Northeast Regional at all? Was that a goal?
My goal was to qualify [laughs]. I was really excited about winning; that was really amazing. Two weeks before, I ran the [New York Road Runners' Cross Country Championships at Van Cortlandt Park] and I actually ended up running faster than I did at Regionals [17:38 vs. 17:41]. The Regional went out so fast that it was just a race of attrition. That really shocked me, though, running the 16th fastest time on the Van Cortlandt course. It's one of the oldest course in the United States, so that was a big mind opener in the sense that I realized winning the regional was a possibility. But again, my goal was to qualify. When I hit the mile mark during the regional, I was like, 'Oh my gosh, I feel like crap. Either I'm having a bad day, or I'm running really fast.' I didn't actually hear the mile time, but it ended up that I was running fast. I just told myself, 'Get in the top 10, that's what you need to do.' I actually started feeling better on the back hills and I kept working my way up. I found myself at the front with about a half mile to go, and I kind of just evened out the pace, the surges and everything. With about 200 meters to go, I took the lead and I was running scared. I didn't know what to expect and I didn't know whether they'd come back on me. I didn't really know I had won until I crossed the finish line.

Did you feel any extra pressure going into nationals as a regional winner?
Actually, I wouldn't really say that I ever felt pressure this whole season. I'm definitely a very positive person and I don't like to be negative. I kind of see pressure as a negative way to expend energy. I kind of just like to go out there and have the best race I can that day, considering weather conditions, how the race plays out, and my competition. If I've done the best job I can, that's all I can really ask of myself.

You seem like you've been pretty relaxed the whole time you've been here. Did you make of point of making sure you enjoyed the experience, and have you been nervous on the inside?
I was a little nervous. This is my first time in California, so this is a big trip. The plane ride was really long, but it was worth it. I've really enjoyed myself. I'm really excited for this afternoon, I think I might go to the zoo, and then there's the dance, the banquet, and everything. My goal was to qualify for this meet. I decided that it would depend where I finished in the region whether I just want to go out there, have a blast, and not really care about the race or whether I wanted to really focus on the race. I decided to find the fine line between the two extremes. I really wanted to have a fun time because it's really important, I think, to get to experience an event like this, which is really a once-in-a-lifetime experience. You never know what next year will bring.

What's been your favorite thing about the whole experience so far?
I would definitely say meeting all of the other elite athletes. I got here and I looked around and saw Marie Lawrence and Jordan Hasay--it was just so cool. I was like, 'I'm in the midst of famous people; this is so cool!" I think it really says something for our sport that everyone's just so nice and accepting. There isn't any animosity or negative feelings, and no one's really judgmental. That's just really nice because it makes you feel right at home.