Nicole Schappert finished the mile last weekend at the Penn State National Invitational, sandwiched between her two teammates. Each running better than four minutes, 44 seconds in the mile. With this provisional-qualifying time, she looks to book her ticket to indoor NCAA nationals in the mile as well as on Villanova's Distance Medley Relay team.

How would you say your training is going right now?

My training is going really well. Easing into track season we kind took it slowly, but now were into the area where we're running a lot of the workouts at a pace that we're trying to qualify for Nationals in. We're doing a lot of 4:40 second pace stuff and 9:10 pace stuff. I'm also the 800 leg on our DMR (laughs) and jumping down with our 800 runners a bit. Other than that training is going really well. It's a great group. I don't know if you know, but I just transferred to Villanova.

Yeah. I was going to ask a question about that.

So, I've had a bunch of training partners from the 800 all the way up to cross country. That's been really good for my training.

This past weekend you finished the mile with three of your girls finishing really closely with fast times. Obviously you haven't been there that long, but are you a really close-knit group of runners...milers, I should say?

I would say very much so. Overall, the team is very close. It's definitely a very positive atmosphere. It can get a little competitive at times, just because there's a lot of milers on our team. But Gina (Procaccio) does a really good job of separating us into smaller groups based on our strengths and based on where we're at currently. It becomes really helpful. Frances (Koons), Sheila (Reid), and I have become a little training group. I would definitely say that we're close. It definitely helps because I know I can workout with them, because when you're in a race it's encouraging to have teammate next to you or ahead of you because you know, “hey, I can run with her too.”

What are your goals for this indoor season?

I'm definitely running the 800 in the DMR. The main goal of ours is to get the DMR to Nationals and see how well we can do there. Other than that, I guess I don't have any specific goals. Just see what I can do in the mile, see what I can do in the 3K, see what happens with our DMR. Then, later on in the season we'll reevaluate and see where we'll go from there.

Are you already looking towards outdoor track or have you not set your goals for that yet?

No, not so much. My only goal for outdoor track is that I just want to run Penn Relays (laughs). So, that's about all I have right now. I just prefer to see how it goes. A definite goal would be to get to outdoor nationals. I've never been to either indoor or outdoor nationals. I'm looking to that this year.

Can you go into why you made the switch from Wake Forest to Villanova?

I guess it was a really hard decision to make. I had to leave my teammates at Wake Forest. I definitely don't regret any of the time I spent there. I met some great people and learned a lot, but overall I would say that the atmosphere was not the best...for me. Luckily, at the end of the year last year I put in two options for transferring and Villanova just seemed like a great fit. When I originally made my college decision it came down to Villanova and Wake. It was really hard to decide between the two. So, I knew all along that Villanova would also be a great place for. It's worked out really well.

You're happy with the decision you made?

Yeah, very much so. The best decision I've ever made.

How did you get into the sport of running in the first place?

Well, my mom was a swimmer and my dad was a runner. Both from Villanova. I guess my older brother too who ran for the University of Tennessee. He was running when we were younger. And I essentially did anything he did. He started running in high school and he had an awesome relay team. They were national champions at Nike Indoor and stuff. So I guess I went through middle school watching them and getting really excited, so I just found running in high school.

What kind of times did your parents run?

My dad was the National Champion in the 800 and then my mom was an All-American swimmer (oops!).

Wow! Going back to the question before: why did you choose Wake Forest in the first place? I'm not ripping their program, you just seemed to have the perfect fit there.

I don't know. I guess my parents weren't really adamant about me going to Villanova or anything like that. They really gave me the full decision of where I felt I fit in. I guess I really liked the academics of Wake Forest. They were a big seller. I really liked the school and the campus. When I was on my visit to Wake Forest, I guess I really clicked and fit in with the girls who were currently on the team. At the time Wake Forest felt like the right place to be. That's really the only way to explain it.

If you had a weekend away from the sport of running and studying, how would you spend your time?

Oh, dear...

It's pretty hypothetical, isn't it?

Yeah. That's really hard. I'm from Florida, so I know that if I were in Florida that it would involve going to the beach or going out on a boat. But since it's currently winter in Philadelphia, it's a little harder to do. I guess it would involve hanging out with friends and teammates. Maybe going to the mall.

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

The hardest I can remember doing...was, I guess we did it during cross country season. It's kind of hard to explain. It's essentially a three-mile tempo. The first mile is all-out. Then you go straight into a mile and a half at six-minute pace, then after that you go straight into an all-out half-mile. I was definitely comatose after that workout.

Well, you are in 4:40 shape right. So, that's not bad for pace either.

That's exciting. That's like an eight second PR. I crossed the line and was like, “really? Did I really just run that fast?”

Do you know that you have the 4:30s in you right now?

I think I do. Frances, Shelia and I all agree. It kind of didn't even feel like a race. It felt more like a workout. I think we all feel, and this goes with our DMR too, that in a competitive environment we've got more in us. Hopefully.

Is there any kind of essential running gear for you?

Not really. I use an Ipod if I'm running by myself, but we've got a fairly large team and there's always people to run with. I much prefer to run with people and talk the entire time. I don't have any superstitions or anything lucky like that. Although, I have learned—the hard way—that I should be wearing two pairs of socks and our coaches are particular about covering the area between on your ankles and your socks and your tights. I've learned to wear a longer pair of socks because it's so cold here.

It's a little different than sunny Florida.

I do get made fun of because I tend to wear bright, colorful clothing when I'm running.

Was getting used to the weather a tough transition?

It wasn't quite as hard as I thought. The days when it's really cold and raining tend to be a little bit harder for me. I've gotten used to it. My teammates have been really helpful with saying, “you need to wear more clothes than that” or giving me other helpful tips. It hasn't been quite as hard as I anticipated. I also love the snow.

Have you picked picked up any winter sports like skiing?

No. I've gone skiing before but I don't tend to be the most coordinated of people. I'm going to go ahead and stay away from that while competing. I'm pretty sure Gina wouldn't appreciate that.

I shouldn't be encouraging that.

(Laughs)

Can you give me a crazy running related story?

Yes. Actually a few weeks ago there was this thing called the “Nova Numb Run.” It's on-campus at Villanova. The first day that there's a substantial amount of snowfall, there's a mile race around campus. It's open to all the students at Villanova. I guess the idea is that you race and you wear as little clothing as possible. So, me and a bunch of members from our team dressed up and wore sports bras and butt-huggers and speeds suits and other ridiculous garb in the race. The guys team showed up for it and the girls team showed up for it. We have a huge track team draw. We mixed in with regular students. Of course we all got competitive and started running fast. It was really fun but there was like five inches of snow. Of course I loved it because I'm from Florida and love anything involved with snow. It makes me really excited.

What kind of winning times are we talking about?

It was around campus, so it's not on a track. The mile may not be the most accurate. They didn't really get an accurate time. At first we heard we ran 5:12. And we were calling ourselves “idiots” for running that fast when there's no reason that we should have. Then we heard we ran more like 5:40. The guys were in the upper four minute range, like 4:50. We just wore trainers in like five inches of snow.

Did your coach know about this?

Not exactly. We ended up making a video of the event, which we think we'll present it to her in that way.

At the end of this season?

(Laughs) Umm, we're not really sure where we're going to insert that. The video is quite entertaining.

Post it on YouTube.

It's on Facebook. (laughs) Frances had some good commentary and we had a few race interviews. We all had a really good time with it.

I don't like the sound of that. It sounds like if you're doing that then you're going to put Flotrack out of business.

Yeah. I most certainly should not have spent the five hours that I did making this movie. I'm sure it would have been put to better use doing homework or something productive. It was worth it.