Virginia Tech's Tasmin Fanning recently ran a huge personal-best time at the Oregon Twilight Meet with a 15 minute, 47 5,000-meter run. She also got to meet presidential hopeful, Barack Obama.

How is your training going right now?

Training is going great. We're going to start working some more specific speed and paces working up to the end of the season, while keeping up on volume because we're extending the season a bit.

How do you feel about your 5K at Oregon?

I was pretty excited about my performance. I think when I saw my coach I started jumping up and down and he just laughed at me then I got a hug. I felt great, but how could I not? It was Hayward Field!

You got to meet Obama, what was that like?

Wow. I was already high on life because of the race, then as I was about to leave the track someone told me he was on the track. I sprinted back, grabbed one of his bodyguard personnel and asked if I could meet him. I got through the crowd of reporters and there he was. I introduced myself and told him I really supported him, that Virginia was pulling for him, and that I wished him the best of luck. I thought I'd be ushered off, but he started asking me questions and we chatted a bit. He was really nice and personable and we talked about the race, Oregon, and I can't even remember I was so overwhelmed with excitement. Then he said, "hey, how about some pictures?" So now I have a bunch of pictures of me and Obama! The race combined with meeting him definitely goes down as the best experience of my life.

Do you think it was an effective campaigning technique?

Considering the strong support for runners in the area, for him to go Hayward Field was smart in clinching that very vital, though under appreciated, runner vote. The people in the stands and officials were all over it. I mean, who but Obama could have held up a track meet at Hayward for 20 minutes? And, after all he is looking for a running mate. That was my dad's joke.

What are your goals for this outdoor season?

I guess my goals are just running as fast as I can and seeing where that gets me. Hopefully NCAAs and the Trials are in my future, but I'm going to take it one race at a time.

What's the running program like at VT?

We have a pretty structured program. Coach Thomas is very involved in our training and recovery. We have a checklist, "Commitment to Recovery," that he likes to send out periodically. We have an awesome team with a great work ethic who also know how to have fun.

What is the feel for athletes on Virginia Tech after the tragedy?

The athletes were very fortunate during the tragedy in that none of us were harmed. Following April 16th, the track team actually left to compete at ACCs a day later. We were pretty shook up, but went out and competed and showed our strength to bring home the title. A week later, softball and golf also won their respective ACC titles. I think we all knew that we were in the public light, and we could be sad and have people feel sorry for us, or go out there and show everyone that we were strong and did, in fact, "prevail." We went with the latter.

What's the hardest workout you've ever done?

The hardest workout is probably the mountain climb at Mountain Lake (where Dirty Dancing was filmed!), which is challenging mentally and physically because there is just no relief during those uphill miles with switchbacks.

When you're not studying and running, what do you really enjoy doing?

Take studying and running out of the mix, that only leaves time for sleeping and eating! I like to hang out with my teammates, watching movies and playing games like charades and Taboo. Sometimes the games get a little intense and we have amazing abs from all the laughing. I also am a big fan of food-themed parties. My personal favorite this year: chocolate. We had an awesome fondue station going.

Can you give me a wild story from college running?

Though this didn't start out as a running story, it definitely became one. A teammate and I decided to go cow tipping. It's not a nice thing to do, don't do it. Tech has a big dairy facility and we knew where all the cow fields were, so one night we went to those places with bad intentions. Only, the cows were nowhere to be found! While looking for the missing cows, we came across a barn that had lights on. My teammate thought he saw a farmer outside the barn, though I assured him it was a stump, and took off running across the field and I followed just laughing. Then we came to an electric fence. Over the fence we could see cows, so we had to get there. He tapped the fence to see if it was on, said it was safe, and he started to go over. Apparently it was a periodic zapper and he got zapped in the leg, but was OK. We found a different way in, crawled into the pasture and began to approach the cows. Unfortunately, they were all lying down. We then decided we should tap one on the bum. At this point, I noticed that the cows were now all beginning to get up. We picked our respective cows and started to go for the tap, but then they started to run at us. Quickly abandoning our plan, we ran around to the outside of the pasture looking for an escape route, jumped the fence, then ran back to campus.