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Shannon Rowbury competes in the 3,000 at the 2007 Terrier Invitational at Boston University.

Interview with Shannon Rowbury

Posted on April 2, 2007, Interview conducted March 29, 2007

By Madeleine Marecki

Shannon Rowbury closed out her final collegiate indoor track season with a bang at the 2007 NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships, held March 9 and 10. The fifth-year senior at Duke University claimed her first national title, winning the mile in a time of 4:42.17 and defeating her nearest competitor by more than a second. Rowbury's victory was also the first NCAA women's track & field title for the Blue Devils. However, the day was not over yet for the San Francisco native. Rowbury returned to the track less than two hours later, toeing the line for the 3,000 meters. She finished second in the event, running a huge indoor PR and school record time of 9:02.73.

Rowbury's performances come on the tails of a successful indoor campaign, highlighted by her school record run of 4:34.94 in the mile at the Tyson Invitational. Last year, Rowbury redshirted her final indoor and outdoor seasons and gained valuable racing experience as she competed in professional meets as an unattached athlete. During this time, she set personal bests in the 800, 1,500, 3,000, 5,000, and steeplechase.

Currently working on her Master's in Film Studies, Rowbury took time out of her busy schedule to talk about her experience at Nationals and her hopes of qualifying for the 2008 Olympic Games.

Can you talk about your goals for Nationals? What were some of your thoughts going into the weekend?
I definitely went into it with the goal of trying to win the mile. It was my last indoor season and I love the mile as an event. I luckily had some good races leading up to it. I was really excited about the opportunity to just go out there and see what I could do. I tried to think of it as more an opportunity than as something I had to achieve or if I didn't do it, I would be upset with myself. I really just tried to be excited about it and I think that helped me going into the race and not feel like I had all this pressure.

Of course I was nervous, but I did my best. We actually have a sports psychologist at Duke that works with a bunch of the team and helps us develop mental strategies for races and break the race into parts and stuff like that. I had met with him this season with relative frequency, so he had helped me work through things and he helped me focus on the things I can control going into the race. So, rather than freaking out about the weather when I am warming up or who else I'm competing against, I really just focused on my race plan. So that's what I tried to do going into it.

So you felt the mental preparation helped you?
Yeah, it really just helped me to keep the world of the meet from seeming big and scary. If I am able just to focus on the things that I can do, if I just try and do what I can control to the best of my abilities, then that's all I can ask for. Then the outcome is out of my hands except for what I can really do to try to make it as best as I can.

I was definitely nervous and it definitely was a big deal, but I tried as best as I could to bringing it back to that.

Can you talk about what was going through your head during the trials?
In the trials, I was definitely just trying to qualify automatically for the finals, but expending the least energy possible. So that really was the plan for the trials, which is sometimes hard going into it. You know you have the ability to move on and that it shouldn't be too much of a challenge, but at the same time you are on a small little track with a bunch of really talented girls and you never know what could go on. I sometimes find the trials races more challenging than you would expect them to be. You have to run fast no matter what in order to move on. You go into it thinking, 'Oh, this shouldn't be too bad' and you finish it thinking, 'Oh, that was really tough!'

And the mile trial went smoothly?
Yeah, it went pretty good. It was kind of packed up and I ended up being in the back of the pack, but I was able to move up in the end and move on automatically, so all that was good.

Can you talk about how the final played out?
The final was interesting. Going into it, my coach [Kevin Jermyn] wanted me to get out at the beginning of the race and be satisfied with whatever position that I was in. Usually I go out and I'm in the middle of the pack, but this year the pace was kind of slow and everybody seemed to be wanting to be right in the same place in the middle of the pack, so I ended up pretty much last in the back. That was different for me. I'm not used to that strategy, but it was also kind of nice because I could stay out of the traffic of people moving around and I could see what was going on in front of me and really watch it and be ready to go when something happened.

I pretty much tried to relax in the pack and give myself good footing for the first 800. Then after that, it was just waiting for someone to make a move. It picked up a little bit and I just tried to stay with all that, but nothing really happened too much so I kind of stayed where I was until about the last couple of laps. It was weird. I was so focused on just trying to stay relaxed and keep good footing that all of a sudden there were two laps to go and I was like, 'Oh my gosh, the race is almost done and I'm still in the back!'

With about two laps to go, I was able to move up and get clear and go up into the lead with about 300 to go. Once I went to the front, I just wouldn't let myself look back. I just tried to keep focusing on the finish line and picking it up a little bit each 50 or 100 meters, trying to get to the finish line as quickly as possible.

Did you feel you had control of the race even though you were in the back?
I felt really confident going into it. I knew I was fit. I wasn't sure what my competitors would be doing, but I knew for myself things were going well and if I could just focus on doing what I needed to do I would have a good day. I think the only moment of panic I really had was when I realized that I was on the straightaway with two laps to go and I was still buried in the back and so I kind of had to get my butt into gear. But that was the only moment when I was like, 'Oh my gosh!'

What does the win mean to you, this being your last indoor season?
It was pretty amazing to have been able to achieve it. It was hard going into my last race of indoors of my last season. There was [the thought] in the back of my mind that if I didn't do it there, then that was it. I was really happy with myself to put it all together on that one day.

Even if I had done everything possible, I could have gotten a cold or something like that, so I was really happy it worked out well. For me, the best part of it was just that my parents, my boyfriend, my coach, and my teammates were there. Just being able to share it with all of them was really special because they're the people who helped get me to this point. I'm the one who physically crossed the finish line, but I had so many people supporting me along the way and helping me get there. It was really special to have something like that to be able to share with everyone.

So then you had the 3k. How much time did you have between the mile and 3k?
I think it was about an hour and twenty minutes between the time the mile started and the time the 3k started. By the time I got done with my mile cool down and the awards, I think I had probably 40 minutes until my next race was going to start.

How did you mentally prepare for the 3k?
My coach had to talk to me earlier in the day before we went to the meet and he [said], 'I am not going to talk about race strategy for the 3k now, but just so you know, whatever happens in the mile, whether it turns out good or whether it turns out bad, you need to bring yourself together as quickly as possible, change your shoes, start your cool down and finish off the mile portion of the day as quickly as possible.'

Basically, once I finished the mile race, I had to give people hugs and stuff like that, but I knew I had the 3k to do and so I went to my shoes and changed them. I was cooling down as we waited for the award ceremony to happen. They called me in for the awards and did that and then my coach had me go sit over in a quiet corner with my boyfriend, just to bring myself back down to Earth, so I could get ready for the race.

So then [my coach] talked to me just right before. He's [said], 'I'm not going to come back and talk to you until 30 minutes before your race.' So I went and sat there and kind of stretched and whatever. About 30 minutes before, he talked to me about strategy and basically was like, "I want you to stick with the leaders until four laps to go. I don't care if you have to fall off the track after that." So I was like 'OK' [laughs].

But it was good, I think, because the mile had turned out how it did. I was just so obviously very excited and didn't have any expectations on myself, which was nice. You know, if the mile hadn't turn out well, I would have probably had this feeling that I would try to have to do it here. But luckily I didn't have that pressure.

I think I was really excited by the chance and prove how tough I can be. I knew I was really fit and I knew mentally I was tough and a good competitor. So I think I was excited by the challenge to go out there and kind of show everybody what I could do and really show myself what I could do because I didn't really know what to expect.

In the race itself, with six laps to go, I was starting to feel pretty tired and falling off of the leaders, but I remembered what my coach had said, that I had to be with them for four laps to go. So I made a move and caught back up and then each lap I tried to stick with them as much as I could.

Then the race ended and I was just right behind the leader. It was awesome. It was pretty cool. I was pretty pleased.

I read on Duke athletic website that the 3k was a PR by almost 14 seconds.
It was an indoor PR, yeah. I think it was an overall PR too. I think I ran a 9:03 last outdoor season [Rowbury ran 9:03.61 at the adidas Track Classic on May 21, 2006]. So, it was an overall PR, but for indoors, it was a pretty significant PR, which was nice. I knew I was capable of running faster than what my indoor PR was, so it's always nice to have it on the record books, I guess.

You said you didn't really have any expectations going into the 3k, but you clearly raced very well and finished very close to the leader. That's pretty impressive. Were you surprised with your finish at all?
My coach had said to me, 'I want you to take the 3k seriously because it could be your best event.' I knew that Sally [Kipyego, first in 9:02.05] and Arianna Lambie [third, in 9:04.81] and other women in the race were all very talented, so I knew I was going to have to work hard if I wanted to do well. I think I knew I could place in the top five but I don't know if I really thought I could be that close to the winner at the end. I think after the weekend was over, that was the race I was more proud of because I really went out there and competed.

More generally, what do you think your best event is? You seem to have quite a bit range, and you did the steeplechase, right?
I did one steeplechase last year. We set up a race at Duke because I had been training for it and so I could have a time. That went pretty well, it was cool. I do really enjoy the steeple. It's a fun change compared to [distance training]...you get to do all these hurdle drills. I used to do dancing when I was little so it kind of reminds me of the dance training because you work on coordination and all of that. I enjoy the steeplechase but it's hard on the body. So that's the only thing that keeps me doing it as often because I'm always afraid that I am going to somehow hurt myself. That's kind of the one hard part about the steeple.

I love the mile just because it's really fun and everyone is always wondering what your mile PR is. I like it a lot for that reason. The 3k I like a lot too. I think, as far as my natural ability, the 3k would probably be a better one because I have foot speed but I also have strength. So the 3k is a nice middle ground for that. I enjoy the 5k, but I think it's going to be naturally a few more years before I am at my best aerobic strength, since that doesn't peak until you're in your mid to late twenties. So I have a little time for that one. My main thing is I enjoy doing a lot of different events so nothing ever gets stale. It's fun to be able to do the mile, but if I've been doing the mile a lot, it's also fun to do the 3k and maybe have a chance to PR in that. It's fun to always keep it fresh.

What do you think you will be focusing on for outdoors?
I don't know, it will probably be the 1,500 just because [in] the steeple, I don't think I will have a chance to do a whole lot of training and competition. And like I said, I really enjoy the 1,500, so I probably will stick with that. But you never really know, I thought when indoor started that I'd be doing the 5k, but that just wasn't really in the cards. So I ended up doing the mile, which turned out great, too.

Why did you consider doing the 5k?
I think my coach had thought it would work out nicely. We could do the 5k/3k double, which would be a little more manageable than the mile/3k double. So he thought we could start out with the 5k indoors and then get shorter outdoors because I think he figured I would be doing more 1,500s outdoors and wanted to keep mixing it up. But my first race in the 5k didn't go very well at all. And [during] my fall training, I had a sort of calf-strain thing that made my training touch-and-go for a little while. It just worked out that the mile was better for me to do. And I love the mile, so I was pretty happy with the thought of doing it.

Have you set any times you want to hit outdoors?
For this next year, I would love to be able to try to run the 'A' standard for the Olympics, because that would take a lot of pressure off my shoulders. As far as for the season itself, definitely to PR. I don't know what the races will be like because most of my races will be championship ones and a lot of times those end up being tactical. I'd love it if one of them could go fast and I could run a fast time. My coaches emphasize that I shouldn't focus too much on the times because sometimes you could lose a race because you're so worried about trying to run fast in it. Overall, for the next year, [my goal is] hopefully to run a fast PR, but as for the season itself, just hopefully to place well in all the big meets.

What is your training like in general?
I probably do anywhere from the mid to high 50s the week we have a meet and other times in the mid 60s or so. I probably average around 60. That seems to work pretty well for me. As for workouts, I really seem to enjoy VO2 max workouts, like 800s and 1,000s, that kind of stuff. I don't really know exactly why. I was talking to my coach about it recently—he thought I was crazy. He was saying that when I came in as a freshman, those were the workouts that he would always really emphasize as the hard ones, that we need to be focused and be tough. I think I saw it as this challenge [and I thought] 'OK, I'm going to get good at these workouts.' So by now, by my fifth year, I've really come to feel confident in them, so I enjoy those ones a lot.

Can you talk about your reasons for redshirting indoor and outdoor last year?
I was redshirting so I could come back this year, basically. I knew by that point that I wanted to be training for the 2008 Trials and hopefully the Olympics and I knew I wanted to be training with Kevin. So it worked out that by redshirting last year, it would give me another year to be a Duke student and not have to worry about how to pay for life.

Do you feel that extra time training helped you this year in your running?
Yeah, definitely. Last year I competed in some professional races and I think that really helped open my eyes to the world beyond college and the level of competition and how good I needed to be. I think that helped me set my sights even higher, so when I came in this year, I was working towards an even higher lever than I had been before and I had bigger goals for myself. It also got me excited about running after college, too, because I got a glimpse of what it was like and I saw that I really enjoyed it.

What events are you thinking about doing for the Olympic Trials?
Probably some combination of the 1,500, 3k steeple and 5k. It's a two-week event, so I'd probably do the 1,500 on the one week and then I would do whatever is happening on the other week, whether it's the 5k or 3k steeple.

So you would be sticking with your coach, Kevin Jermyn?
Yeah, he's great. He's just so dedicated to the sport and all the athletes. He's always reading to learn more. He's very knowledgeable as it is, but he always is trying to keep himself updated on the latest research. But the best part about Kevin is that he's really open to his athletes' input. He wants to know how we're feeling, he wants to know what we're thinking, which I appreciate because there are a lot of coaches out there that it's just their way or away. It's nice having that.

It also seems like you are involved in other activities besides running. Can you talk about your most recent project?
I did the Movie Making Marathon. It took place last weekend [March 24 and 25]. Basically I was the co-producer of it. It was an event aimed at getting Duke students interested in film and exposed to film. It was a 24-hour filmmaking festival. It was open to students from all majors across campus. Our idea was that if there was a student who is interested in film but has never had a chance because they're pre-med or something and they never had a chance to take a film class, we wanted to provide for them this one weekend period where they could be given the resources and they could come out of it with a film that they could add to their resume. It was also a learning experience to expose people to the film possibilities Duke has to offer because you don't think of Duke as a school that's highly artistic, but there's a lot of those sorts of things on campus. We wanted to help expose people to that.

And it was a success?
Yeah, it was great. I was so impressed with the students' films. We gave them a script to work on and then they had 24 hours to shoot and edit it. The films were limited by the quality of the equipment which we're hoping to improve next year, but as far as what they could control beyond the equipment, they did an excellent good job. We actually have a website. It's www.duke.edu/web/mmm. If you look up at the tiles on the top, there's one for the movies.

How do you balance all your activities?
I think I just set my priorities. Ever since freshman year, I just didn't really have that big of an interest in going out. I made running and school my priority. I knew I wanted to get good grades because I knew that was important to me and I wanted to do what I could with my running, so I made those my priorities. I think it's just about choosing what is more important you. If running is what's more important to you, then it shouldn't feel like a sacrifice to not go out. I guess that's how I looked at it. I didn't really feel like I was missing out on anything because for me, doing well in school and doing well in running was what I wanted to do the most. I definitely had friends and my boyfriend who I would hang out with, but they understood where I was coming from and they were very supportive of that. I would spend time with them but rather than going out late at night, maybe we would watch a movie or go out get dinner. I would find things to do that I enjoy but that are complementary to my academic and athletic interest...

If you try and force yourself to do something because you think that's what you're supposed to do, then you'll just become resentful. It took me several years to get to the point where I felt like that. In high school, I never did Foot Locker because I wanted to go to my winter formal and that was just my decision. Looking back, sometimes I think it would have been cool to go to Foot Locker, but I don't have any regrets about it because at that time I wanted to be a student too. It's been a slow process of gradually committing myself more and more to running and making the decisions that fit with that. I just try to approach it as this is my choice, this is what I want to do, and this is how I'm going to make myself better. And if the sport is not your priority, then don't try to force it. It's going to come, or it's not.

As for the future, are you planning on jumping into full-time professional running or are you going to work as well? What are your plans?
I still have two more classes left in my Master's, so I'll be finishing that up. I'm going to continue work on the Movie Making Marathon. It won't be a job, but it's more something I am passionate about and really want to help get established permanently at Duke. So for next year, basically I'll be doing running and finishing up school, so I'll have an excuse not to get a job [laughs]. Hopefully, after that, I can run and not have to get a job. But I can't do just running, I need some sort of mental stimulus, something to balance out all the athletics in my life. I think I'll always do something on the side, whether it's this Movie Making Marathon or working on a film or whatever. At least for the next stage of my life, my priority will be running and trying to get myself into the world of the Olympics.

What are your thoughts on the fact that your collegiate career and your time at Duke are coming to a close soon? Are you sad?
I think if I hadn't had the opportunity [to compete in professional races] last spring, I would be really depressed by the fact that Duke is over. But having had the chance to be in those professional races and being excited about the opportunity to race all over the world, I think that helps me keep thinking forward and not feeling sorry for myself that college is over. I'm definitely going to miss the team experience and everything about being in college and being at Duke, but I also am really excited for the next stage.