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Turgeon: All-American honors 'addictive'
Runner preparing for outdoor season
By: Danielle Trageser
Issue date: 3/23/05 Section: Sports
USD Volante Online
How are you preparing for the outdoor track season?
"Right now I am just starting back into doing mileage. I took a little time off after indoors and am going back into
base training."
What are the differences running indoors and outdoors?
"The biggest difference is the track itself. Indoors you run on the smaller 200-meter track, so you have a lot of
laps, and outdoors you run on the 400-meter track and you don't have as many laps."
What goals do you still want to accomplish at USD?
"There are always faster times to run, so I am always looking to better myself in that regard. But ultimately my
goal is to be a national champion."
Where do you look for inspiration?
"There are a few people who really inspire me: my coaches Rob Kinnunen and Dave Gottsleben, my friend Matt Hoyt and
my high school coach Kristi Rieger."
What are your expectations for the first meet?
"My expectations are for my team to go out and really get the season rolling in a positive direction right off the
bat. Hopefully the weather cooperates and some people get a chance to qualify for nationals."
What are your thoughts on now being an All-American?
"It's really addicting, I didn't become All-American and then think, 'wow, that was cool, I'm satisfied with that.'
It was more like, 'wow, that was cool, I wonder how many more I can get before I graduate.' You get hooked that way."
What are some of the things that go through your head while running a race?
"How much I want to quit? Am I on pace? How awesome I'm doing? How crappy I'm doing? Do I have spit on my face? I
wonder if there are any hotties in the crowd. This is the usual that goes through my head, and a bunch of random stuff that
I won't bore you with because my race is 10,000 meters long and a lot of random stuff goes through the old noodle."
Has running always been something you've enjoyed?
"No, there are days that I would rather eat dirt than go run and there are days that I cherish because running is
such a grind. It's not like basketball where you have a bad day at practice where you miss shots and look stupid. You have
a bad day in running and it is 10 to 14 miles of agony."
What runners have you looked up to?
"There are many pro runners that I greatly admire for their skills. Dathan Ritzenhein, Alitair Cragg and Tim Broe
to name a few. But there are local guys that I admire also like Kip Kinnunen, Matt Hoyt, Brad Lowery and all my teammates,
because you can relate to these guys and know what they went through or are going through."
What is your advice for current and future Coyote runners?
"Have faith. It doesn't matter what it's in as long as it something that is going to get you through tough times,
because there will always be unavoidable hardships and the people who get through them are the people who last."
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