Being Katrina Drennen
3/10/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Indoor Track, Men's Track and Field, Women's Track and Field
March 10, 2011
On Friday morning University of Montana senior Katrina Drennen will wake up on one of the biggest days of her life and try to ... Find inner peace within the quiet of her hotel room? Come up with a way to calm her nerves before the magnitude of what's ahead sets in? Channel the spiritual energy of Nike, the winged goddess of strength, speed and victory?
No. She'll be searching for a bowl of Raisin Bran.
Drennen is one of the best milers in the country - she is one of 16 in that event who will be competing Friday in two preliminaries at the NCAA indoor track and field championships at College Station, Texas - but despite her sub-4:40 mile ability, she is a 22-year-old student-athlete who should be totally relatable to you, at least when you were that age.
She gives in daily to her addiction to candy, especially anything chocolate or anything sour and fruity.
She'd rather spend time cooking and talking with her friends than doing her homework.
And her boyfriend - Griz distance runner Collin Fehr - can drive her crazy when he spends WAY too much time obsessing about his running when Drennen would rather talk about anything but running.
At the start of the day, she puts her warm-ups on one leg at a time, just like you. It's just that she puts them on legs that are doing things no one else's in Montana history have done.
Drennen owns the outdoor 1,500-meter record of 4:19.36, an event that took her all the way to nationals last June at Eugene, Ore.
And since mid February she's owned the indoor mile record.
At the Husky Classic Feb. 12 in Seattle, Wash., she didn't just break the Montana record with an improvement that could be measured in tenths and hundredths of a second. She took Vonda Harmon's record of 4:45.69 from more than two decades ago and didn't stop running laps around it until she had finished with a time of 4:39.82.
To put Drennen's mile time in perspective, consider Haile Gebrselassie's current world marathon record of 2:03:59. If Gebrselassie kept a consistent pace from mile one to mile 26.2, Drennen, with her time from the Husky Classic, would come through the first mile just over four seconds ahead of Gebrselassie.
She would have just enough time (though maybe not the energy) to turn around and give the Ethiopian a high five and a "You're looking strong!" as he flew past.
Of course Gebrselassie would be holding that pace for another two-plus hours, so that's probably more a tip of the cap to his other-worldly talent.
How about something a little easier to relate to: Get in your car and drive down the street at 12 miles per hour. Slowly running past you would be Drennen, whose record mile pace is closer to 13 miles per hour (12.87).
And while she's passing, she might tap on the driver's-side window and ask you why you're not on your bike.
Friday at 3 p.m. (MT) Drennen will line up with 15 of the nation's top milers and fight it out for a spot in the 10-athlete finals, which will be run Saturday at 4 p.m. (MT).
(Race note: Each preliminary heat will have eight athletes. The top four finishers from each heat, plus the next two fastest times overall will advance to finals.)
(Coverage note: Live video streaming of the running races - via ESPN3, which may not be accessible to all internet users - can be enjoyed here. Post-race results can be found here.
Before Drennen and Montana distance coach Courtney Babcock left Thursday morning for College Station (via Salt Lake City, via Houston), Drennen provided a glimpse of how her next two days were expected to play out.
Thursday morning travel: "Our flight leaves Missoula at 6 a.m., and we get to Houston around noon. Then we'll have a two-hour drive from Houston to College Station."
Thursday afternoon at Texas A&M's two-year-old Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium (Note: Friday's forecast is for 78 degrees under sunny skies, something rarely seen during Montana's outdoor track season and hardly the weather for an indoor meet): "We'll go to the track and see what it's like. Typically the day before a race I'll run no more than 20 minutes. Then I'll do my warm-up routine with a few lunges and dynamic stretches.
"Then I'll do a couple of strides with my spikes on the track just to get a feel for the surface and facility and make sure my spikes are all in place. That will give me the mental image of me on the track and what everything feels like so when I go to bed Friday night I can more easily visualize the race. I'll be able to create the whole picture."
Friday night's meal: "I like to keep my meals (on the road) as consistent as possible to what I normally eat. I won't carbo-load. That's not necessary for the mile. I like to go with vegetables and a salad, with a small amount of pasta.
"I just want to keep it close to a normal meal for me and not overload on something that gets me too weighed down. The nice thing is the race isn't until late afternoon (the next day), so the meal the night before isn't that critical."
Friday morning's plan: "When I wake up I'll get out for a five- to 10-minute shakeout run. It'll be nice to get outside and have some great weather.
"Breakfast will kind of depend on what the hotel has, but I like Raisin Bran and some fruit, or maybe granola. Maybe a muffin and some orange juice."
The rest of the morning and early afternoon: "I don't want to be sitting around too much during the day, because that's not realistic of a normal school day when I'm up and walking around campus. I like to keep things consistent. I'll get ready for the day, then go sightsee with Courtney a little bit.
"I'll have a good, quality lunch around 11 or so, then continue snacking right up to the race. I like to keep up with the food so my energy level is constant.
"Some races I'll even have a bite of a Nature Valley bar within a few minutes of the start."
Friday afternoon, race time: "We'll probably arrive about two hours or so before the race. I'll watch some of the earlier events and try to get relaxed in that environment.
"I'll start my warm-up 50 minutes to an hour before my race begins, depending on how much time they need for staging.
"My general warm-up is to begin with a jog. I'll get outside and run for between 15 and 20 minutes at a light pace with some different paces thrown in to get any kinks out of my legs. Then I go into my warm-up routine that we do every day at practice. Lunges, leg swings and some other dynamic stretches.
"Sometimes I'll throw in some starts with my dynamic warm-up. It just depends on where they are with staging."
Post-race: "Right after the race, it will be really important to get in a 10-minute cool-down run right away and get in some nutrition. Maybe a protein bar. Then we'll start thinking about dinner.
"Friday night I'll focus on getting my legs recovered. Probably an ice bath and some stretching. It all depends on how I feel.
"And then I hope to be repeating Saturday what I did Friday, because that will mean I made finals."
