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Jordan Hasay on her way to a 10th-place finish at the 2006 Foot Locker Cross Country Championships.

Interview with Jordan Hasay

Posted on December 15, 2006, Interview conducted December 9, 2006

By Alison Wade

Though she's only a sophomore at Mission College Prep in San Luis Obispo, California, Jordan Hasay's running resume reads like that of a veteran. At the top of her list of accomplishments is her victory at the 2005 Foot Locker Cross Country Championships as a freshman. This fall, Hasay won every race she ran up through the Foot Locker West Regional. Though she returned to San Diego for the national meet with hopes of defending her title, Hasay had an off day and finished 10th, still good enough for All-American honors.

We caught up with Hasay very briefly after her 10th place finish, but didn't want to keep her long, because she appeared to be having a lot of fun running around the Hotel Del Coronado with some of her West teammates.

What have you been up to since the race?
Yeah, we just went ice skating, and now we're going to go to the beach.

How was the ice?
It was a little wet [laughs].

How does it feel to come here and maybe not achieve your goal, but still have a solid race?
I didn't have a very good race for me, but I've still had a good time here. I have two more years, so hopefully I'll come back and do better. It's just a lot of pressure on me, being the defending champion. I raced a lot of great girls today.

Are you kind of happy to pass that pressure off to Kathy Kroeger?
Yeah [laughs]. It's really hard for the defender to come and win. Next year, there won't be any pressure.

You've mentioned that you were trying to peak a little later this year. Do you think that affected your performance here?
A little bit. I totally changed my training; I did a lot more mileage this year. Hopefully it'll help me in the long run. We hoped it would help me here as well, and it didn't. We'll see if it does later on.

Despite all of this, it seems like you've been having a good time here, even before the race. Was that part of your strategy to help you stay relaxed?
Yeah, kind of. I'm having a lot more fun this year because last year it was my first year here, and I didn't know what was going to happen.

You've mentioned that you're going to run the USA Junior Cross Country Championships in Boulder in February. Do you have any other races planned before then?
Not yet. We'll probably just do some low-key 5k road races, just to keep racing.

Will you take a break at all right now?
I'll take a week of easy running, but not really a big break.

So your big goal is to qualify for the World Junior Cross Country team and go to Kenya?
Yes.

Will you have to get immunizations before the trials if you want to go to Kenya? [Note: Upon further research, it appears that runners who qualify for the team will have time to get the recommended immunizations after the USA Cross Country Championships.]
I hope not! I really hate shots!