Katie Engel, from the University of Illinois, has placed 64th, 58th and most recently 22th at the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships. With her stress fracture, she might not race indoors but should certainly rip it up in outdoor track.

Overall, how would you say your cross country season went?

I'm pretty happy with it. I didn't really know what to expect this cross country season at the start of the season. I don't usually try to have too specific goals of myself, I kind of just see how it goes. I definitely did a lot better than I thought I would. So I was happy about that.

You were happy with 22^nd?

I'm happy with it. But then again at the beginning of the season if I knew I was going to be 22^nd then that would have been really good...looking back I could have done a little better, but I've got to be happy with it.

Was it because of your stress fracture that you didn't run at the Canadian Championships?

I kind of didn't want to. I didn't find out about this stress fracture until the week after Thanksgiving break. I was kind of debating, “should I run? Should I not run?” My coach was telling me that if I was going to run then I should be fully invested in it. I figured if I really wanted to run then I would know it. I was really questioning myself. Next year, I'm definitely going to run because that's what I'll be training for all next year.

You said you didn't really want to set goals for cross country. Are you setting goals for indoor track? Do you think you'll even see much of indoor track?

I guess I set more like team goals for cross country. I really don't know at this point about indoor track. I'll probably...well, it's hard to say right now because I'm not even running at this point. I'm kind of looking more towards outdoor track.

So, what are you goals for outdoor track?

I've never made it to nationals. That's pretty much the big thing. I want to make it and score some points at our Big 10 Meet. Last year wasn't really the best, I was struggling with injuries. I don't think it will be too hard to improve upon last year.

If you were going to rank the three running seasons, what would the order be?

I like outdoor track. I never liked cross country until last year. It was pretty fun. Our team got really close last year. Everything with the new coach and everything, it was super fun. And cross country this year was absolutely amazing. Our team was so close and going to the meets...I just loved every second of it. I'm assuming track is going to be just as much fun. I'm more of a shorter distance type person. I definitely like the shorter distances on the track.

How did you choose the University of Illinois in the first place?

I really liked the campus when I came down for my trip. I liked the campus, I liked the team, I knew the coach was really great, I like the whole coaching staff. It just kind of clicked.

What other schools were you looking at?

The only other school I visited was Kentucky. I was kind of talking to Minnesota a little bit. I didn't really like the whole process, I narrowed it down kind of quickly. I'm happy with where I am, so it worked out.

At any point did you think about staying in the system up there?

No. Ever since ninth grade, I'd see the girls older than me graduate high school and come into the States for university. I decided that that was something I definitely wanted to do.

What's it like to have all those Canadian runners down here ripping it up? You must see them at every meet.

Yeah, it's great. I love going to meets. Every meet there seems to someone that I know from Canada. It's really fun to see someone—it's weird kind of—seeing someone that you know from home, here in your other life kind of.

How is your finals week going? Is it pretty standard?

It's pretty standard. I'm trying to make myself study, but it's not going so well. (Laughs)

Are you all set for Christmas?

Oh yeah, I'm ready. I can definitely do some shopping.

What kind of mileage do you usually run?

I'm kind of weird. This cross country season I did about 40 miles a week. I would do that in five days, then one day I would cross-train and then take one day off.

That's pretty low mileage—I'm not knocking your style—but, that's pretty low for top Division I runners. You have a great deal of success for running so few miles.

Well, I've had so many problems. Last year, it was just unbelievable. I've had really bad shin problems. In the summer I was doing about 40 miles. Then when we got into the season, at pre-season camp, I was running about 45 miles a week. I was fine with that. I did 45 miles for a few weeks. My coach was like, “we're just going to play it safe. You're just going to do 40 miles.” And I said, “OK.”

Specifically how is your week structured when you're running that amount?

It's pretty much the same thing ever week. Monday, I run six miles. Tuesday, we do a workout—which is usually around eight miles. Wednesday would be a mid-week long run...usually eight miles. Thursday, I would cross-train. Friday, another work out over eight miles. Saturday is off and Sunday a long run in like 10 or 11.

That's commendable to be 22^nd in the country.

I've asked my coach to do more and he said, “no.” We've finally go the shin thing under control. I think we finally figured out what's been going on, but somehow something else managed to sneak up on me.

Would you say that you're injury prone overall?

Yes. Very. Very injury prone.

How long has it been that way?

It wasn't that bad in high school, because I was running 20 miles a week in high school. It's been something in my shins ever since I got here. We finally figured out the root of the problem and I haven't had shin problems since last track season. I've been pretty good up until...well, I just had this really weird thing happen to me at the end of the season.

It's really weird. It started out that I had the bottom of my foot feel all tingly when I was running. I didn't think it was a really big deal and at the end of the week I told my trainer that my foot kind of tingles and my toes kind of tingle. He goes, “oh, your nerves are probably a little bit pinched or irritated.” Then it went from tingling to hurting. It really hurt the bottom of my foot when I ran. Every day it would change. The top of my foot would hurt. I think it got the worst around regionals. It felt like my toes were broken. My whole foot felt so weird. They thought I could possibly have a neuroma. They thought this nerve was causing all these problems. It was so inflamed that you couldn't see the bones on my feet, the way you usually can see them on a runner's foot. It started getting better four or five days before nationals. I had no pain running nationals. I took a week off. Then I got an MRI to see if I had a neuroma. They thought maybe/maybe not. They weren't sure. I get the results and they tell me I have a stress fracture on my fourth metatarsal. I guess where the stress fracture was, the nerve going over the top of it. I was having all those things happen in my foot and also a stress fracture.

You were definitely 100% at nationals after being in such pain at Regionals?

Yeah. I was 100%. I felt fine. I was really shocked that I had that going on.

Can you give me a crazy running story?

My senior year of high school, I was on the Canadian Junior Team. We went to World's for cross country. They were in France and the cross country course was on a horse racing track, on the infield of a big horse racing track. We were just going back and forth and back and forth on these loops. They put all these obstacles, like these hay bales and logs to jump over and stuff. I guess to make it harder they wanted to have mud for us to run through. It was pretty hot at this time. I guess if they just had dirt and water...it would just dry up, so they used cow manure. There was a huge stretch of cow manure. I don't how many people have ran by or through cow manure, but it's super, super-suctioney. It was horrible. Every time you got to this part of the course, it was like, “oh man.” People's shoes would suction right off their feet. It smelled so bad. At the end of the race there were all these shoes in there. And no one wanted to go get their shoes. When we were packing after the race, we were trying to clean up our shoes and get all the manure out of them. I just ended up leaving my spikes. I didn't even want them anymore, they were nasty. It was definitely kind of crazy I thought.