Kellyn Johnson KWIK-E

February 27, 2009

Wichita State Shocker Kellyn Johnson, a transfer student from Cloud County Community College, has finished 26^th in 5000-meter run at NCAA Nationals. The senior has run 4:42 and 9:22 already this indoor season and hopes to pop at time that will get her to the NCAA Indoor Meet. She also looks for big personal bests come outdoor season.

What did you do today at practice?

Today we kind of did a little interval work. Not much though, because we have conference this weekend. It was kind of light. We did a 1000, 800, four 300s.

You're beginning to taper?

Yeah, because of conferences this weekend. I'm going to be tripling. It's kind of a lighter week.

What are you setting your goals at for your conference meet?

I'm doing the 3000, the 5000 and the mile. I'd love to win all of them. We'll see how that goes.

At this point, are you in or are you on the cusp to get into Nationals?

I've pretty much concluded that what I've run will not get me in. I ran a 4:42.49 in the mile and a 9:22 and some change in the 3000. And after looking at all the stuff, I believe that won't get me in. I'm excited to go to Last Chance at Notre Dame and run a good time.

And you'll be in the 3K or the mile?

The mile.

What kind of time are you looking to hit?

Well this whole entire year I haven't had any real competition. I'm really looking forward to having people to run with at Notre Dame. I hit a 42 while winning by 14 seconds, so I'm pretty confident that I can go under 40 and who knows...maybe I'll surprise myself.

You're just set on getting to Nationals, you don't have any certain time in mind?

I'm not going to set a limit to myself because I'm not really sure what I can run. As long as I get in, it's good enough for me.

How did the whole transferring process work when you went from Cloud County Community College to Wichita State?

I was at Cloud and the old coach that we had at Wichita, Randy Hasenbeck, he was a phenomenal coach. After going to visit Wichita I found out that I really, really wanted to have him as my coach, because I thought that he could make me the best runner I possibly could be. Come to find out that he leaves and goes to Alabama. He's their head coach now and we have a new coach, Marc Burns. I don't really know anything about the guy and it's coming down to it where I have to pick where I want to go. I met him at one of the meets that we had at Wichita, talked to him a little bit, he came down to my school, talked to me about everything and I figured it would still be a pretty good atmosphere for me to have a successful running career...so, I ended up here.

Would you say that there wasn't very much competition for you when you were at the community college level?

There were definitely people that were competitive in the JUCO level. Like Diane Nukuri, I used to race her all the time. There were kind of a few people that I related to. I'm from Wisconsin and it just reminds me of a track meet there. It wasn't that big of a transition from like high school to junior college. When I came to Wichita, I'd been here for a month and I did a time trial in the mile on the track upstairs and my time dropped like 10 seconds. I went from 4:58 to 4:47. I don't know where that drop came from, maybe just the training style or what...but I drastically improved right away when I came to Wichita.

You said you're from Wisconsin originally. Did you look at going to Wisconsin?

It really wasn't in my plans. I kind of wanted to go to place where not everybody would be. I wanted to branch out and meet new people. I thought that was part of the whole college experience. After going to Cloud, they recruited me a bit and I had a good amount of schools recruiting me and it came down to that I didn't have time to visit all these schools and look into it, so I just went with what I knew. And that was Wichita.

Aside from indoors, have you set any goals for the year 2009?

I haven't really set any goals. Obviously, I'd like to make to Nationals and become All-American. I'm not quite sure what my event is going to be. I know I'm going to be trying the steeplechase this year, so I'm pretty excited for that. Other than that I don't really know. I'd like to break 16 in the 5000 and 4:20 in the 1500.

Have you tried the steeplechase before?

I've done the steeplechase a few times. I competed unattached outdoors last year and the first meet, I ran 10:25...I believe. I think it's a really interesting race and it's different from everything else. It's hard.

You're engaged. With being a D1 athlete who has to train all the time and probably has to scramble to catch up on homework sometimes, how does that all work when you throw being engaged and getting married in the mix?

Obviously it's a little difficult. I have three dogs too—so that's another thing to throw into the mix also. But it's difficult. He has a life too. He works too. I'm at school, I have practice while he's at work. I'm at home and he comes home and we're together and I take care of the dogs when I can. I come home before classes and let them out and walk them. It's kind of a lot to handle, but I enjoy it.

You're good with scheduling your time then?

Umm, not really (laughs). I get by.

What is the hardest workout you can remember doing?

There's one that comes to mind that really sucks to do is a long threshold run at 5:40ish pace for six to eight miles. It's pretty intense and it's not like a quick little thing and it's done. It's recovering and you're going constantly for six to eight miles.

That's more during XC season?

We do it a lot more for XC, but we still do them during track. We did one last week, but it was only five miles.

What kind of mileage do you usually run?

I consider myself a relatively low-mileage person. I'd say I'm usually between 45 and 60 miles. That's saying that I actually hit my mileage. I'm kind of bad with consistency. But I've gotten a lot better.

What do you mean by that? Do you mind explaining that a little better?

When it's not structured and we don't have a structured practice, I get scatter-brained and other stuff gets in the way and it comes down to it and I just don't run. Sometimes on the weekend, I just won't run and I won't hit my mileage. It's kind of a goal that I've hit for this year and I've done pretty well with it.

Can you give me a crazy running related story?

I've got one that isn't really crazy. I guess it's more crazy-stupid on my part. In high school, I got lost in numerous XC races, I've missed a race completely and our team lost by one point. Then there was this one time—my senior year—at our sectional track meet, the one that decides if we go to states or not. I was getting ready to run the first race of the day, which was the mile, and everyone was getting ready to run and I was ready. We started to jog down to the starting line and everyone was taking off their sweats and I realized I didn't have my jersey on. I didn't really think, I just hurdled the fence and ran to the bleachers, grabbed my jersey and ran back to the starting line. Mom did a good job holding the officials, they didn't start the race. Anyways, I got to run—which is good—and I made it to states. Then I went on to win the only state championships that I had.

You can be a bit of a scatter-brain at times?

Yeah. I'm doing OK I guess.