Stanford's Elliott Heath, a junior from Minnesota, is one of many amazing distance runners on the Cardinal squad. After doubling the 5,000 and 10,000-meter runs at the PAC-10 Championships this past weekend, finishing second to teammate Chris Derrick in both while running 13 minutes, 45.22 seconds and 29:10.86, Heath and the Cardinals took third behind Oregon and USC in the team race. With top national rankings in the 1,500, 5,000 and 10,000-meter runs, Heath gets to picky about what he would like to pursue this outdoor season and it appears like he's going to go with the five. Let's see how he does!

Third at PAC-10s. Was that cool with you and your teammates?

We kind of knew that Oregon and USC were going to be tough. They were definitely the favorites going in. We knew, also, going in that it would be a real tough fight for another pack of teams like us and UCLA and ASU, which is how it turned out for third. Barring a major slip-up from Oregon and USC, we kind of knew how it was going to shake out. We kind had some ups and downs with mixed results throughout the day on Saturday and Sunday, then we finished real strong with our guys in the 400 hurdles and we scored a lot of points in the 5K. Coming back, we ran well in the four by four too. We closed out the meet strong and we were happy to seal the deal with the four by four and get third there.

It sounds like you were going in fighting for third. Being in that position for the team battle, was there a plan to not double and just run one event?

Going into the meet, I was for sure going to double. It was either going to be 15/5K or 10K and 5K. That was the major decision on what we were going to do there. Conference championships for us—even though we weren't necessarily favored—that's why you run the meet. You run it for a reason and anyone can slip up and have a bad day at any time. Things can change that way. The double is something that is tough on the body, but we'll have plenty of time to recover here as we go toward regionals and nationals. I think it's something that I was fine with and I was trying to help out the team with as many points as possible. For us, as a team, the difference between third and fifth or sixth...that makes a big difference of how we look at the PAC-10 results overall.

Is that going to be your last double of this outdoor season?

I think from here on out, we're going to be focusing on the five for regionals and nationals. I guess you never know and we'll have to see how we come off of this weekend and see how training goes this next week. You never know. I could have a meeting with coach here in a couple of days and examine things. I think the plan, going along from here, will be focusing on the five.

What about goals? Are you going to have a meeting to discuss your goals for this championship part of the season?

As far as goals, it doesn't really need to be a meeting with my coach and I about that. The goal for now, two weeks from now at regionals, will be to qualify. I guess it's “first round of NCAAs” now. I keep calling it "regionals". It's to qualify and move on to the next level. Placing high would be nice, but making it to Eugene is the number-one goal there. Then, once we get to Eugene, it's putting myself into the position of winning the race in the 5K or whatever race it's in. I've kind of been going at the season this year with my goal of putting myself in the race and being involved in the race with a lap or two to go when the race really starts. We've been focusing on finishing races really strong. I just want to give myself a chance to be in the race when it gets down to it and hopefully try to go for a win.

Do you think your 1,500-meter speed will give you an advantage in the last lap of a 5K?

Yeah. It's something that's very useful...regardless of the distance you run. Especially when it gets down to it in championship meets. You never know. It could be a fast one. It could be a slow race. It seems that championship meets always come down to competing hard and running well the last lap or two laps. Whenever getting down to the finish. It's something that I think is one of my strengths in the longer distances. But, being really fast in a short distance doesn't always translate to the biggest kick in a long race. There are guys—like my teammate Chris (Derrick)—who might not be completely confident with how fast he can run an 800...but he could have a really good kick at the end of a race, after running a 5K or so. Working on the 1,500 this year has been something that we've had our eyes on. We know we're going to have to close well.

At PAC-10s you and Chris ran close to identical times in the five and 10. Was that the plan going in?

In the 10, it was really slow from the start. We were just kind of hanging out and trying to conserve energy as much as possible in the beginning stages. We had a plan going in, that maybe with six laps to go, we would go to the front and make a move to string things out and wheel down the field a little bit. That ended up happening. Him and I and Jake Riley and I think two Oregon guys—Luke Puskedra and Mike Maag—were staying with us for a while. I think the five of us were away. Going into the last lap, Luke made a move to the front and we just followed him around until about 200 to go, then just kicked it home from there. Coming down the homestretch, we knew that we had it sealed up. It was a lot of fun to go one-two-three there. It was a similar-type deal in the five. There wasn't quite that kind of plan. Chris went to the front with 1,000 to go and I tried to hang on him as long as I could. I think we got a little bit of separation and I think he pulled away a little bit on me with 300 meters to go and he just finished a couple of seconds ahead of me. Then it was a couple of seconds back to A.J. in third.

It must be nice to have teammates up there with you at the end of important races like that. Is it competitive at practice?

It's definitely a huge help to have the guys in the race like that, even at the 5K at PAC-10s, there was one point where I was feeling a little tired and Jake went to front just to take the lead for a while. I was like, “oh, man! Jake's feeling good. This is a guy I'm training with every day.” That just made me feel better mentally. There's definitely a lot to be said about feeding off your teammates and training with them every day and feeding off of them in the race. At practice, things aren't crazy competitive. When someone has a good day, they'll push the paces a little bit more and that helps us all in the long run. That may not be your favorite thing at the time. You may get a little mad at the person or something like that for pushing paces here and there during the workout. But, then once you get done the work out, you usually thank them for pushing it and getting us through a tougher workout. I think that's something that really helps as the season progresses, having guys that push you each and every day in practice.

What about “opening up the play book”? Can you talk about mileage and training?

So, this year I've kind of progressed a little more. Since Jason's been our coach here at Stanford, my training has progressed a little more. What's allowed me to do that was staying healthy. My freshman year, I had a few injuries. So far, my sophomore and junior years it's helped me to remain healthy. I've upped up my mileage a little bit. This year I've gotten up toward—this past month, besides last weekend when I had a stomach flu-type thing that knocked me back down a bit—the mid 80s. 90 has been my cap. Mid to upper 80s is what I've been hitting this year through. How I'm training for this outdoor season—from mid 50s my freshman year.

Stanford is a Nike-sponsored school. What trainers are you wearing day in and day out?

I'm train a little bit in Asics. (Laughs) In high school, I trained all the way through in Asics. The Asics Kayano. That's what I had all through high school. For my freshman year, I made an abrupt switch to Nikes. I think I got the wrong advice and switched to the wrong shoe. I switched to the Vomero, which is a completely neutral shoe. I ended up having shin problems. Then, sophomore year, leading into the summer, I decided to switch back to my Kayanos from high school. I was fine—no shin problems or anything my sophomore year. Nothing major with that either. Just recently, I'm gradually trying to transition back into some Nike shoes. I think that they actually have things that work for me. I just want to make the switch more gradual this time and not totally jump into things with a totally different shoe. I'm doing the majority in my Kayanos still, but I'm working into some mileage with the...Lunar Glide. One of the newer ones. I'm mixing that in, but the majority I'm doing in the Kayanos.

We talked about competition in practice, but what about brotherly competition? How many of your brother Garrett's PRs are better than yours?

I think he's got me in the 1,500 and down. He's definitely got me there! He had a little bit more than I do. I've got his PR in the 5K and I think we're pretty close in the 3K where the middle ground is. I don't think I've beating him head-to-head. He's still got me!

When will you get a chance again?

I'm not too sure. We'll see, I might end up running the 1,500 this year at USAs...we'll see how things go. Maybe mix things up. Potentially there or next year. I'm sure the opportunity will arise again. I think last time we went head-to-head was last year at the Stanford Invite. He got me by maybe a tenth of a second. It's a lot of fun. It's a lot of fun to race now. Being in college actually brought us together. In high school, we would always toe the line together, but I think the three years more of high school made a bigger difference. We start at the starting line together, but it was like, “I'll see you at the finish.” My sophomore year of college, I was racing with him. Trading leads and just racing together was a lot of fun. There will be a lot of opportunities down the road. Hopefully I can coax him up to the 5K.

People love to hear Gabe Jennings stories. I was wondering if you knew any?

I've met Gabe a couple of times and watched him race. I'm never had super-long conversations with him. I heard that he—for a while, while he was on campus—was living on the roof of his dorm. I don't know if his dorm room wasn't working out or if he decided not to live there for a while. I think he was living on the roof for a while and maybe living out in a field for another while. Those are stories I'm not 100% sure of...they're kind of like legends that are passed around, but I've heard those. I heard he had to go through some poison ivy to get to his spot, maybe he's one of the people that are immune to that. Maybe he had his own path there. (laughs) That's some of the crazy stuff I've heard about him. Oh, that and running up this mountain at midnight at our training camp, just because he felt like going for a run. I think he's a guy that when he gets inspired to go out running, that's what he did.

You can't knock him for that!

That's right.

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

I'd probably have to go with my mom. Being in college for a while, I haven't been home in a while and had a home-cooked meal. My mom is a real good cook. I'd probably have some salmon and pasta from home from my mom. We've always ate pretty well around home. That was something that was understood. Every day we were coming home for dinner as a family. My mom made some really awesome stuff basically every day. It wasn't like we had a set-out diet every day. We had pretty good food on the table for us. I'm thankful for that and it kind of spoiled me throughout high school. We have pretty good food here at college...but nothing like mom's cooking.

Can you give me a crazy running-related story?

We've had many conversations throughout the team whether is possible to pee while running. I am convinced that it is not possible. There have been times out here where it's been dark and we were going out for a late-night run or something like that. Me and a couple of other guys would go out to the middle of the field and we decided that we were going to start peeing and then running from there. I've never been able to start peeing while running. Once you start running...it shuts off. I don't know if that's too much or not really what you're looking for. If you run into someone who can do it...let me know! For now, I'm convinced that it's not possible. We're always trying to do some research out here.

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