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Caroline Cretti runs at the 2006 Tufts Health Plan 10k for Women, where she finished 18th in 35:06.

Interview with Caroline Cretti

Posted on March 29, 2007, Interview conducted March 27, 2007

By Alison Wade

After graduating from Williams College in 2006 with an English degree, Caroline Cretti packed up and moved to Blowing Rock, North Carolina, to become a member of ZAP Fitness, a post-collegiate training group for distance runners. Within months, Cretti had worked herself into what was probably the best shape of her life before she suffered Achilles injuries (first on one side, then the other) beginning in November. Prior to the injuries, she set an 8k PR of 26:32 at the NTELOS 8k in Richmond, Virginia, and represented the U.S. at the Chiba Ekiden in Japan. After months of rehabbing her injuries, Cretti has returned to training and will begin her 2007 season this weekend at the Cherry Blossom 10 miler in Washington, DC.

As a collegiate athlete, Cretti won three NCAA Division III national titles (2006 indoor 5,000m, 2006 outdoor 5,000m and 10,000m) and earned 15 All-America honors. She holds Williams' outdoor 5,000 (16:29.70) and 10,000 (34:35.71) records along with the indoor 3,000 (9:33.83) and 5,000 (16:44.57) records. She also won the 10,000 at the 2006 Penn Relays. Williams' head track & field coach, Ralph White, has called Cretti the greatest female distance runner in school history.

Before arriving at Williams, Cretti also made history back in her hometown of Carbondale, Colorado. Competing for Roaring Fork High School, Cretti won four Colorado 3A state titles (claiming the 1,600 and 3,200 in 2001 and 2002), despite not getting serious about running until late in her high school career.

Was it difficult to make the decision to pursue professional running, or was it something you knew you wanted to do?
During the [2005] cross country season, I started to get that same feeling I had at the end of high school. It was, 'Man, I know I should keep going. I know I shouldn't end here.' But I was so oblivious about the options that I just put the feeling aside, signed on to monster.com [laughs] and kept my fingers crossed.

ZAP actually contacted my coach, Pete Farwell, and I thought it sound like an amazing opportunity. You can't really get a better setup than ZAP. After that, my eyes were opened and I started looking at other places around the country, very superficially—just sort of looking at their web sites. I came down to ZAP, checked it out, and we liked each other. Once they made the first move, it wasn't a hard decision for me to make.

Did you get strange reactions from anyone when you told them what you'd be doing after college?
Oh for sure, from pretty much everyone [laughs]. I got a couple of reactions at Williams that were like [Cretti puts on a condescending tone], 'Oh, so you're just going to be running?' It was sort of the what-a-waste-of-a-degree reaction. And then, of course, there was the 'That's amazing! Congratulations!' reaction. And then a couple people who I knew in the running world were skeptical, but they looked into it and took it upon themselves to make sure I was making the right decision, which was helpful. And then a lot of people just had no idea what I was talking about. You get all sorts of reactions.

What would you say has been the biggest difference so far between being a professional runner and being a collegiate runner?
This is a roundabout way of answering your question, but being a division III runner, you are surrounded by people, situations, and experiences that are dramatically different from the professional world and the division I world. Every other athlete here ran division I and their experiences in college were so unbelievably different than what I had at Williams that I think, for them, the adjustment is a lot less dramatic.

But in terms of my own experience, the difference is that right now I'm doing a couple of writing [jobs] on the side, but basically all I do is run. By that I mean that my life is based on running. If I'm not running, I'm doing something that will help me run better. Versus, at Williams, it was go to practice—and I worked really hard at Williams for running, don't get me wrong—but at the same time I had papers and I had social [obligations]. Here it's just running.

Do you ever find yourself not having enough to do?
No, which is strange. We have practice, and then we have strength building. After that we do some chores, and then I usually do some writing. At that point, it's usually time to put your feet up and relax, so you either sleep or just relax for a few hours. Then it's time to do something else like run, crosstrain, strength building, or drills. Then it's time for dinner. Then you relax a little bit and go to bed. I honestly haven't been bored, but I don't get bored easily.

Has the male-female ratio been an issue at all? For example, if one of the women gets injured, I would think that that would dramatically reduce the number of potential training partners that you have. [According to ZAP's web site, there are currently seven men and three women—not counting founder Zika Rea—training at ZAP Fitness.]
It's been a social adjustment in terms of that because boys, and especially male distance runners, have pretty much perfected the sarcastic banter [laughs]. I've always appreciated it but I've never been good at responding to it. There are a lot of times when I'll say something, and they'll say something back...and then I'll sort of have to think for five minutes and then I'll be like, 'Listen to my funny response now!' and they'll say, 'Caroline, we were done talking about that a long time ago.'

But in terms of training, I think it works out pretty perfectly because I think girls as a whole are very independent trainers and work really well with the option of company but also [appreciate] the option of independent workouts. And I think you'll notice that just by the [lower numbers] of women who are in groups like this. I think women train really well on their own and I think the situation right now at ZAP is pretty great because you do have the option of doing a long run or a workout with one or two other females, but a lot of the time you can do your hard workout on your own because you're at a different stage or like right now Zika [Rea] is training for the marathon so she's pretty much on her own, but then we get to run with her on easier days.

So in terms of training, it's pretty ideal to only have two or three women, which may be a strange way of looking at it. I'm a pretty independent runner myself, so it's nice not to be overwhelmed with running partners.

It seems like a lot of professional runners spend more time on their supplemental training. Do you find that you're doing a lot more of that than you were doing in college?
Yeah. It's interesting, I'm lifting—as in the actual lifting of weights—a lot less than I did at Williams, but I'm doing a lot of body-weight and sustained strengthening. We do a whole core set a couple times a week. At first I was like, 'Oh great, I'll work on my abs, this will be fantastic!' but halfway through I realized it was working every single part of my leg. We do a lot of body-weight, timed exercises and we do a lot of reps. You don't even realize the strength you're getting out of them, really, because you're nowhere near a weight machine.

We also do drills, which are really helpful, they've really helped me with my foot speed. I haven't been doing those recently because I had been injured, but I'm expecting to get back to those soon.

I'm also able to focus a lot more on the recovery. I was listening to an interview Deena Kastor did and she said that a lot of people mistake being tired for needing to train less, and she said that actually what you need to do is recover more. I think that's such an interesting way of looking at it. It seems so simple, but I never thought of it that way. We have that ability to [rest more] here, which is fantastic.

Has your mileage increased much since you arrived at ZAP?
I was a pretty high mileage runner in college, but the higher weeks have been higher, for sure, here. My coach [Pete Rea] has been saying that in the future I'll just keep increasing slowly, but right now I'm still on the upswing from my time off. But definitely, on the whole, I've done more mileage, and it's all on dirt trails which are really well maintained, so you can keep up a really good pace. I would run for the same amount of time at Williams, but a lot of it would be on technical, out-in-the-wilderness trails. So I'd finish a 90-minute run and I'd probably call it 12 miles, but it would probably be a lot less. Here, when you do 90 minutes, you're going at a steady pace the whole time.

How did your injury come about, and what did you have to do to make it better?
It was a week before the Chiba Ekiden. I was so excited, but we kept getting these e-mails saying 'So-and-so has been injured, so we're down one more person.' About a week out, we got an e-mail that said, 'We have no alternates.' We didn't really think twice about it, my teammate [Stephanie Pezzullo, who was also competing] and I. We went and did a workout and my Achilles was a little sore during it, but I really didn't think anything of it. Then afterwards, during the cooldown, I was suddenly like, 'Wow, this is not good.' I stopped immediately and after that, I didn't run the whole week before Chiba.

I was really terrified. I was really worried about [being on] my first USA team, and they put me as the anchor so that I wouldn't affect other people's chances to run. But at the same time, I was like, 'What if you're anchoring for your first U.S. team and you DNF? That would be awful.' But at the same time, I had all of the coaches saying, 'Make sure you do stop if it hurts.'

I did the race and it was a total miracle, [my Achilles] did not hurt at all. I don't know what happened, I had a lot of people sending me good vibes that day because I told them I was so worried [laughs]. But that was pretty much the last pain-free day I had until about a month ago.

After that, my Achilles was pretty messed up. I took time off and then came back. Just as I was coming back from the left Achilles, I ran on some snow and injured my right Achilles. I finished the run and [though] it hadn't hurt at all during the run, I felt the exact same pain on the right side. It took me until pretty much the beginning of March to bounce back from that.

Do you have any idea what caused the injuries?
Well, I think my calves are very tight. Achilles injuries seem to be caused by calf or heel tightness, and I think mine are calf-related. I got new orthotics, and I've been doing a lot of slow strength stretching and I think that's really helped. I was actually so frustrated with my Achilles when I was at home, away from ZAP. I didn't know what to do, no one was helping, so I finally went on letsrun.com for the first time [laughs]. I typed in 'Achilles' and found all these eccentric exercises that really helped a lot. So I've been converted to the benefits of letsrun, on some levels.

Were you able to do any other sort of treatment to help your Achilles injuries heal?
I did iontophoresis a little bit, that seems to have helped, but only once it had started the healing process. It didn't actually help at all at first. I tried running through the right [Achilles injury], my coach and I were trying to work on muscle memory—just run 10 minutes a day and eventually the pain will go away—but eventually we decided I needed to stop.

If I were giving advice to people with Achilles problems, my advice would be that once you know it's a real injury, take 1-2 weeks completely off, doing strength work on your Achilles, and then come back slowly, because it's just not worth running through. If you're running consistently with pain in the Achilles…you hear too many horror stories.

What kind of crosstraining did you do to stay in shape? Were you pretty intense about it?
Well we went down to Florida for our winter training for about two months, so yeah, I was pretty ridiculous. Ryan Warrenburg was also injured for part of the time with a knee problem, and Mike Bunker was also a little bit injured. We were doing some pretty intense pool workouts [laughs]. It's funny because at Williams, my coach would literally have to force me into the pool. I would be the one sitting with my feet dipped in as everyone else was on their fifth lap of swimming. But this time we were aqua jogging for up to two hours at a time. I mean, I was sweating in the pool, which is so counterintuitive. I was like, 'What is this happening on my face?' [laughs]

Were you able to do any other types of crosstraining?
A little biking, and a lot of stairmaster, actually. I didn't lift my foot up at all and it really got my heart rate up a lot. I would put it at the right level where it would be easy enough so I wouldn't have to touch any part of the machine with my hands, but hard enough so I would be breathing hard. I've had some bad experiences with the elliptical, so I didn't want to go on that.

Going back to the Ekiden, you mentioned that you were pain free, but how did your leg of the race actually end up going?
It was the strangest day. I've always been a marginally neurotic racer—I'm not one of those girls who freaks out, but I have my routines that I like to quietly do. If certain things don't go right during the week, I would often let it get to me. In that race, [I realized] the power of being strong mentally. I was determined to be positive. This is silly, but you know how you can record voice messages to yourself on your phone? I recorded one that said, 'The race is going to go well, you are going to be great.' I listened to it the day before and the night before the race.

I ended up feeling absolutely fantastic in the race. I didn't quite catch any other countries, but I think I almost caught a couple of them. It was an amazing experience all in all, and my coach seems to think maybe that is what has led to the other injuries, but it was a great experience. There was no pain during the race and I felt wonderful. I think it was the right decision to have me run. I wish I had caught a couple people and had been of more benefit to the team, though [laughs].

What distance was the leg you ran?
[About] 7.2k and ironically, it was really hilly. The first leg lost a huge amount of [elevation] and then my leg was getting it all back, which was funny since I had an Achilles injury. It was great, I was just in this total zone. I called one of my teammates who has all of these routines and I told her, 'You know what, you just need to realize that if those don't go well, you can still have a good race.' Because it was just pretty amazing that everything went wrong that could have gone wrong.

I think I had a good race. It's an [odd distance] so I'm sure someone out there has done the conversion and figured out what my pace was, but I certainly didn't. For all I know I ran 6:00 pace [laughs] but regardless, I felt good.

Before that you had run some great times as well, like your 26:32 8k.
It was great because I'd never run an 8k before, and the course is ridiculous. The last mile is so downhill. But that was a wonderful race also. It was a beautiful course and it was nice to feel good. Just when you're sort of rigging up, you turn the corner and there's a downhill for the last 1,200. Mentally, it's just a fantastic course and it was exciting.

And then you also ran 16:57 at the Mayor's Cup. Was that a Franklin Park PR for you?
It was. I'd been sort of haunted by my freshman year cross country PR there. For the past couple years in cross country, I'd be like, 'Man, they must have changed the course, because I'm running so much slower than I did my freshman year, and I just don't feel like I'm that much slower!' So that was a good thing to cross off the list. I had been sort of harboring resentment against that one performance [laughs].

You're racing again this weekend, correct?
Yes, I'm doing the Cherry Blossom 10k…I mean 10 mile run…and I should get that through my head, because I keep thinking it's a 10k and it's not [laughs]. I have no idea what to expect on many different levels, which is sort of nice. I really like racing without expectation. It's nice to be able to go out and say, 'I have no idea what I'm going to run for this,' because I've never run this distance and I've only been training for a couple weeks.

It can be a little scary to race when you don't have a lot of hard workouts behind you, but some coaches will have you do that just to remind your body what it's like and to remind you why you're putting in all of that hard work.
I think that is part of Pete [Rea's] motivation. If everything goes well—knock on wood—I'm running in a couple of big races out west. He knows I'm a pretty aerobic runner, and the longer the better, so I think it's his way of combining the two worlds—me being a little freaked out about racing and him knowing that racing will be good for me. A 10-mile race is off the track and [the measure of success] is a little more subjective, so I think it was really helpful and great of him to put that one out there before I head out to Oregon [laughs].

Which track races are you planning to do?
Well I'm definitely doing the Oregon [Invitational] 5k [on April 20], then I'm running the Cardinal Invitational 10k [April 29 at Stanford]. I might run a shorter race in Nashville, and then the USA 25k Championships [May 12 in Grand Rapids, Michigan]. But this is all if it goes well. I'm so superstitious that I'm holding my legs and being like [in a dramatic voice], 'If my legs make it.' [Laughs]

So has anyone said the word 'marathon' to you? Is that where this is all heading?
I think so, yeah. At first they sort of said it and then quickly moved on. I'd be like, 'Wait a minute, you just said my name and the marathon in the same sentence. Go back.' But now Pete's more open and once again, if everything goes well, running one sometime next [fall] is the plan, which I am super excited for. The distance fascinates me; I just think it's the most amazing race. I'd love to see how I react to it.

Would you aim to run the Olympic Marathon Trials [in Boston in April of 2008]?
Yes, I think that's the plan. We'll see how track goes and then make decisions accordingly.

What's your running history? You were a state champion in high school, right?
It's funny, I was a big-time all-around ball sport athlete. I did soccer, and my soccer team was really bad. Soccer was my love, but finally I just got so frustrated with not having a successful soccer team that after we didn't make districts that spring, I ran a [track] meet my freshman year and qualified for regionals. I just happened upon a really slow year, so I qualified for state and ended up placing well. That was really it, I didn't think much of it, and I thought I'd do the same thing the next year, so I did.

[My sophomore] year, the stakes were upped a bit. I went to state and ran about 30 seconds faster and I placed about equal. I was like, 'If I'm going to put myself through this much pain, I might as well work harder.'

So finally, my junior year, I did cross country and absolutely hated it. I missed volleyball and I thought it was the worst experience of my life. I kept passing out after races because, basically, I was in horrible shape. I had to run for a team that was about 15 miles away because my school didn't have a cross country team. I tell people [at ZAP] that sometimes if I couldn't make the drive, I would just do Tae Bo in my house [laughs]. I thought that jamming to Billy Blanks would really help me, but it didn't. I hated cross country and almost thought I wouldn't do track.

I sucked it up, re-evaluated yet again, and did track [as a junior]. I ended up winning state that year in the 1,600 and 3,200, which no one expected, myself included. That summer I really trained hard for the first time. A coach introduced me to the whole concept of running mileage [laughs]. But still, I was just around 40 miles a week and that was huge for me.

Cross country was a totally different experience my senior year. I loved it and had a great time. That's when I contacted Williams and things started rolling. At that point I hadn't put a lot of physical effort in, but a lot of mental anguish had gone into the sport [laughs], so I thought maybe I wanted to do this in college. I did basketball all winter, but I would run on the treadmill in my friend's basement in the mornings. Senior year, I had a big breakthrough. It was a perfect way [to develop] because it was low key so there was no chance I would burn out, and it was a wonderful way to break into the sport.

Did you win more state titles as a senior?
Yes, I won the 1,600 and 3,200 again and got fourth, I think, in cross country, which was better than the 20-something I got the year before. But basically, I learned how being in shape can make running such a better experience [laughs]. Before that, I was going out like a crazy person and wondering why it hurt so much.

And I'm sure the altitude didn't help.
Oh yeah, but at the time I didn't know that whole theory [laughs]. But I'm always grateful for my introduction to running because I would talk to teammates whose high school teams were the best in the country and be like, 'No wonder you hate the track.' And then college was such an amazing experience in so many ways. I can imagine coming out of college and being burned out, but I had such a wonderful time. Situations [have been such that] I would have had to work very hard to not love the sport [laughs], which I have been so grateful for.

How did you choose Williams?
At that point, I had a couple of Division I schools looking at me, but they were really bad ones [laughs], places I wouldn't want to go. My mom grew up in the Northeast and I knew I wanted to go to school out there. After a little bit of research, I realized that Middlebury and Williams had the top Division III programs at the time, for distance running.

I went out the summer before and I looked at all sorts of schools, and I narrowed it down to Middlebury and Williams. I came back from visiting both of them and decided that I was going to mail in my early decision application to Williams like two days later [laughs] and that was it. I really can't explain why I liked Williams more than anything else. I thought for sure I was going to Middlebury, and then at the last minute, on this totally gut instinct, I was like, 'No, I should go to Williams…if they let me in [laughs].'

I always think the school rivalries are so funny because you could probably be happy at any number of schools, and many of the schools are rivals precisely because they're so similar.
Oh, for sure. I left Middlebury after that visit and I told my dad, 'There's no reason to visit Williams; I am going to go to Middlebury. I love it there.' And then I went to Williams and changed my mind. There's something about the NESCAC [New England Small College Athletic Conference] athletic environment that is just so incredible. Talking to the athletes here, who had very different experiences, I just can't say enough about NESCAC and Division III. If anything is going to prepare you for a love of the sport, I think that is it. And I've become—as you can tell—very sentimental towards it because the elite running world is just very different. I think it can be overlooked how amazing the people are that you get to run with, be coached by, and compete against.