Colgate junior Elise Deroo has compiled a stellar cross country resume this fall with huge performances at the Paul Short Run and, most recently, at The Penn State Invitational. Deroo's beat a handful of runners who earned All-American honors last cross country season and she will be looking to continue with her strong momentum. Watch for Deroo to make a big impact this championship season at this weekend's Patriot League Championships then at regionals and NCAAs!

How was your long run?

My hands were freezing. It wasn't really cold, but it's a little damp and clammy. It's going to get really cold soon, so I guess it's great compared to what's coming.

What's your typical long run?

It's probably 11-12 miles, as my average long run now.

Do you have a lot of your teammates with you?

No. A lot of my teammates run quite a few miles less than I am right now. I can get them to go with me for part of the way—at least on Saturday mornings. But, on Sunday, with my longest runs...no one really wants to come with me. (laughs)

You're the highest mileage female on your team?

Yes, I am. This summer I was peaking out at around 80-85 and now I'm closer to 70-75. I'm going to bring it down in the next few weeks and probably keep it at 70 for this week.

Is that comfortable for you?

Yup! I've basically been racing through the whole season on that mileage. I'm pretty comfortable with it and I've started upping my mileage pretty early in the summer. I feel pretty strong at this point, running those kinds of miles.

Do you see that going up even further your senior year?

I guess I'll just see how it goes, but I don't think I'd like to go over 90 at any point during my summer training next summer. I wouldn't be opposed to picking it up a little higher than I did this summer and just seeing what happens.

What are your thoughts on how your season is going so far?

It's been really exciting. I feel a lot stronger than I did last year. It's given me a lot more confidence in my races. I'm having fun out there and I don't have have a ton of big meet experience compared to some of these girls I've been racing against. Every meet has been more of a learning experience for me. I'm having fun exploring being a more confident runner.

When did your new confidence come?

It's been this year and on. I got a lot stronger over the summer than I was last year. That's brought a lot more confidence.

You've beaten a lot of girls this year who placed in the top 30 at NCAAs last year. That being said, where are you setting your goals for this season?

I'm just trying to take it one meet at a time this year so it's not overwhelming, because I don't have a ton of big meet race experience. I'm just excited to be here. Whatever happens, happens. I've put in the mileage, so I'm confident that I'll find myself being able to be a competitive person in the field.

Conference and then regionals next?

Yeah, we have the Patriot League Championships coming this upcoming weekend and then following that, we have regionals at Yale then nationals.

How are you going to attack Patriot Leagues?

I am going to bring my mileage down a bit this week and go into it like a big race. It's really important for us to do well. Our team stands a chance to do very well at Patriots this year, so every person really counts. I think our next few runners in the field after me are going to be extremely important in our success as a team at this meet. Judging by the training we've put in and how everyone has been performing in workouts, that is going to make this a very exciting weekend.

Do you think the Patriot League sometimes doesn't get the respect it deserves compared to other conferences around the NCAA?

I don't think it always gets the respect it deserves, especially with such a rigorous academic component. I think, at least from Colgate's perspective, we're starting to show that we can hold our own...and not just in the Patriot League, but beyond. Hopefully people will start to respect the Patriot League Conference a little bit more.

With the success you're having, how do you see this related to the upcoming track seasons? Do you have big goals?

I'm really looking forward to getting on the track and racing 5K again. That's one of the most exciting races for me. I'm looking to hopefully break into the low 16s in the 5K and I think it's going to be really something to look forward to.

What's your current PR?

It's 16:35. I'm hoping to get down below 16:20 early in the season.

Is there talk of you maybe heading out to the West Coast for some of those fast track meets?

I don't know if that's possible, but that's something that I'd absolutely love to do. We'll go out to Princeton for a couple of their competitive night meets.

80-90 miles a week is good 5K training mileage but will we see you in any 10Ks?

I think I'm a stronger 5K runner than I am a 10K runner. At least I was last year. I think my coach probably wants me to shave more from my 5K than 10K. I would be happy doing either.

Why did you choose Colgate in the first place? Do you mind sharing other schools you were looking at?

I was also looking at Dartmouth, The University of Michigan a little—and I know that's very different from Dartmouth and Colgate. I was also looking at some of the small, liberal arts schools in the North, such as Bates, Colby, Bowdoin. Ultimately, Colgate's academic program really worked for me. Also the coach was just absolutely great during the recruiting process. She was the only person that I talked to out of the coaches I'd gotten in touch with. She was excited about improvements I could make and not just what I could contribute to the team, coming right off of high school. Improving over the four years was her focus and that really pulled me in. I've really enjoyed my time here and I really made the right choice.

Do you help with recruiting now?

I do talk to new recruits as they come in, but our recruiting power has diminished a little bit. It's hard and we haven't had a ton of recruits lately, but hopefully with the success we've been having as a team this season we'll attract more runners in the future.

What are you studying?

I'm studying molecular biology. Yeah, why would I want to go to a liberal arts school for that? Colgate has a really incredible science program and I was up here this summer doing research. A lot of the science professors are really great. It's been a wonderful decision to go into the sciences at Colgate.

What is the dream job that you're looking to do with that?

I'm still undecided on whether I want to pursue graduate school. I guess my interest right now would be in cell biology or the other path is medical school or an MD PhD program. I definitely plan on taking one or two years off between college and whatever higher education I pursue thereafter.

No matter what there's going to be a break there. Could we see you pursuing running for a while?

That is something that I would not mind doing. (Laughs)

When you do have free time, what are you doing for fun?

A lot of my teammates and I really like cooking. We cook for each other and have team dinners.

Do you live in a team track house?

We don't have a track house. I'm living in an apartment with two girls from the track team. We're all spread out over a few apartments that are all centrally located next to each other. We're still pretty close.

How is the environment different from where you came from in Connecticut to Hamilton? How is the trail situation?

Where I am in Connecticut is pretty hilly and where I am in New York is pretty hilly. I probably do more pavement runs here than I do back home back in Connecticut. It's cool, though. We have really good long runs here and I couldn't ask for a better location to be a distance runner. You can just run for miles and miles on back roads and it's pretty safe. I'm enjoying it.

Have you had a lot of injuries along the way or have you avoided them pretty well?

I've been pretty lucky. I'm going to knock on wood over here. I've been very fortunate. I've never had shin splits, I've just had really minor pains in my knee sometimes. I feel like if you're running 80 miles a week or so, you're probably not going to feel 100% great. If you're training really hard, you're probably also not going to feel really great all the time. It's a matter of you saying, “OK, what's this little pain I have here? Is it serious? Is it something that I think is serious enough to merit taking time off?”

Did you delay jumping into training this past summer anticipating a long year with three seasons?

Actually, not really. I got very sick with a stomach illness right before regionals. I couldn't run regionals last spring. I started training right after I'd gotten sick because I was going to try to run regionals. Then I ended up just deciding that it wasn't the right choice after I ran a workout about a week before. Then I just kept running from then on and didn't take much time off. I kept my mileage pretty low in the beginning. One or two weeks in I started to raise it up.

You got over the stomach issues and got back into it?

It wasn't anything really serious. I think at that point, it was just being so frustrated with having been ill and not being able to run regionals that I didn't want to take any time off. I was determined to get back out there and make my cross country season the best of my life.

With that kind of terrible timing to end your more recent outdoor season, did that make you less confident going into a new one?

I think I was pretty much able to say, “forget about it” and just move on. It was good to be able to do that. I might have been a little bit nervous going into the first meet because I didn't take a whole lot of time off and I'm always a little nervous on how that's going to go, going into a new season. But I felt stronger than I ever have before right now. I've just been able to completely put that season behind me.

If you could have one meal, prepared by anyone, what would you have and who would make it?

It would be prepared by my mom and it would be: steak, potatoes and sauteed spinach. That was my favorite meal during high school and I don't get to get that good red meat anymore now that I'm really cooking for myself.

Can you share a crazy running-related story?

This happened last fall. Our course is up on top of a hill—really high up, actually. It's pretty exposed in certain areas. We're doing a workout up there. We're doing 800 or 1,000 repeats. It was pretty early in the fall, so it was pretty warm out...probably 70 or 80. It was really a beautiful day. On our last repeat, I think our coach was out metering the last repeat to make sure it was the full distance. The sky got really, really dark really, really fast. It dropped about 30 degrees—actually it had to be way more than 30 degrees. The temperature just plummeted. It just started hailing with lots of lightning. We're just on top of this hill, in a really exposed area, with my coach running around with a metal wheel. We were sprinting down the hill, trying to get back into the Field House. It was the most terrifying end of a workout I've ever done, but I think I finished the repeats because I wanted to finished the workout in its entirety. But it was just in the nick of time!

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