Kari Hardt, an Arizona Sun Devil junior, has placed well at the NCAA Championships. She and her Sun Devil women look to find the podium this season.

You placed 88th and 50th at the NCAA Championships and recently won the Roy Griak Invitational. What are your individual goals this season?

I'd love to be an All-American at NCAAs.

Now what are your team goals?

Our goal is to win PAC 10s. We think if we did that we'd have a really good shot at winning nationals. Our team's really talented. We're just trying to get everyone healthy right now.

Do you think you can beat the Oregon women?

I think we have a chance. Anyone is beatable on any given day.

Are you happy with your preseason ranking?

Yeah, we're really happy with being ranked fifth. We think it's a really good spot to be ranked. We think we're a little underestimated, but we don't care. We think it's perfect.

Why do you say that you're underestimated?

I know I practice with these ladies every day and I see them and how much hard work they put in. I know that we are capable of being right up at the top.

And there's really good team chemistry on your team?

Oh, yeah. That's one of the reasons I love our team: because of the team chemistry. It's amazing. We're all really good friends. We're really encouraging and we really help each other out. We've got a really good training group and that helps out a lot.

Can you talk about your training?

This summer I had a stress fracture...actually this spring. I wasn't training all the way up until July. I started doing a little bit of running from mid to the end of June. I was still incorporating cross training and got back up to 60 miles a week in the last couple of weeks in July. Then I started feeling a weird pain in my femur. And we got an MRI and I had a grade-one stress reaction in my femur. About two weeks ago I came off cross training and started running again. After two weeks of cross training, I did a spin class.

Are you really susceptible to injuries or is that the only really serious one you've ever had?

Apparently I am. I'm having to take a lot of calcium now. They had me see a nutritionist just to see if it was something in my diet that I could fix.

I think with your win at Roy Griak, your body is telling you it's ready to race again.

Yeah, that was a really big race for me. It was actually a really big surprise for me.

Are there any time goals for you in the 1,500m?

Yeah, I'd definitely like to get under 4:20, which I think is very doable. If I do that then my ultimate goal is to get to 4:14.

What is some essential running gear for you?

My favorite pair of running shoes are the Nike Vomero. And I have really bad feet,

This isn't the first time I'm hearing about this shoe.

Yeah. I've tried all kinds of shoes and those have been the best. They're the most comfortable shoe I've ever worn. And they last a long time.

What do you mean when you say you have bad feet?

I just have really tight achilles tendons. And I also have an interior impingement in my ankles. So, a good cushioned shoe really helps me out. My feet tend to lock up after running in flats or spikes.

You qualified for Worlds a few years ago. Why didn't you end up racing there?

Most of the team had dropped out and Louie (Quintana) and I made the decision that it would probably be more of a benefit for me to stay here and train for the track season. We weren't going to have a full team and a few girls dropped out. I guess I didn't want to travel alone.

What's a typical day like for you?

A typical day for me is like: my alarm clock goes off at like 4:50 in the morning.

Damn.

...I change into my running gear. Get a quick breakfast, which is usually peanut butter toast or a banana. Some water or some Gatorade. I live about 20 minutes from campus, so I leave my house around 5:15, drive to campus, practice starts around 5:30. Do workouts and stuff, which are probably done around 8:00-8:15. Drive home, shower, eat breakfast, drive back to school, go to class until about 4:15. Some days I'll do a double run and I'll run right after class for about 20 to 30 minutes. Then go back home, eat some dinner, and do it all over again.

What time do you usually go to bed?

I'm usually pretty wiped out by 9:30. (Laughs)

What are your thoughts on your fellow statesman John McCain?

(Laughs) Umm...he's pretty old and white...I don't know. I'm not a big politics person.

Just checking (laughs). I thought I'd ask. Right now it's a good question to ask.

(More laughs) That's probably the worst question you could ask. I agree I should know more about him, but I don't.

What do you do when you're not running? Do you have to time do anything other then run and go to class?

We like to play sand volleyball. It's one of our favorite things to do. We watch movies. We do crafts...yup, arts and crafts.

Arts and crafts. What kind of stuff do you make?

I make t-shirts, paintings...(laughs). I know it's weird but there are a lot of girls on the team. We all get together and stuff like that is fun. We take a little trip to Joanne's.

Can you give me a crazy running story?

Last year, when we got to go to the White House, Amy Hastings, me, Ali Kielty, and (some other team members) went running. We were on a trail and we were talking and we were in a random forest in this huge city. We're running and kind of amazed. We're from Tempe, so we don't really run on anything but streets or specially made trails. And out of nowhere these deer start popping out of the bushes from all around. Like both sides of us. Me and Angela (Spadafino), we like drop to the ground screaming really loud, "Oh, my God!" Jenna's (Kingma) just like, "come on, guys, it's just deer!" We turned around to go back. We were so scared. The deer were attacking us and we convinced that we were being attacked by these deer. We turn around to run an opposite direction and they're coming from that way too. I swear there was like eight, Alli says there was only four, Amy said there was only two. It was a controversy, but in my head it was like the most traumatic thing that's ever happen to me on a run. I really thought we were getting attacked by deer. We took off running back to Louie and were like, "Louie, there were deer in the forest and they were just jumping over our heads." He's like, "girls, they're not going to jump over your heads." We were like, "yeah, we swear they were leaping over us." So, that's the weirdest run I've ever been on with deer just frolicking in front of us in Washington, DC. We were pretty traumatized. At least I was and I know Angela was as well. I mean...half our team is from California. We were in shock and shaking uncontrollably. The boys think we're sissies, but it scared us.