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| photo courtesy of Elizabeth Conway |
Elizabeth: I think the focus of it will be the individuality and realness of each person, and how each person is real, and how vast and incredible that is.
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scrunners: When did you start running and what made you start?
Elizabeth: I joined the Boiling Springs High School cc team in 7th grade. Before that, I ran with the Spartanburg Striders since I was eight. My father ran varsity cross country and track for the University of Florida, so I kind of grew up around runners.
scrunners: Do you remember your first race, what was it, how did you feel at the start, throughout the race, and the finish?
Elizabeth: My first high school race was the Eye Opener. Back then it was at the Deaf and Blind School, and I had only been running one week. My time was 30:30.
scrunners: What made you start to attend Dorman after running for Boiling Springs?
Elizabeth: During the summer after my eighth grade year, my family decided to move, and the house they liked best just happened to be in District 6. Believe it or not, I didn't want to move. The previous year I had been the only girl on my team but I had recruited a lot, and the "team" meant a lot to me. That next year was the only year Boiling Springs has ever had a full team.
scrunners: What classification was Boiling Springs?
Elizabeth: 4A.
scrunners: When you recruited the female runners for Boiling Springs, what did you say to them, were you looking for a certain type of person, and when you had a full team, how did they do throughout the seasons?
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Elizabeth: I was pretty much looking for anyone who would listen. I recruited the girls who ran track, and thats mostly who came out that next year. That next year though, I was gone, and their coach left too, and the year after that they fizzled out, if that's even possible. I had big dreams back then though...
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scrunners: Well, talking about big dreams, what has happened in the recent years and what how do you set your goals and what goals are you setting for the future?
Elizabeth: I am quite the optimist, though the past few years I have added in a good dose of realism as well. Most of my long term goals have been downed by all the health problems I had this year, but I'm still hoping to have a strong senior year. For the team, I think it's not unrealistic to shoot for at least top three, maybe top two.
scrunners: When you started running in seventh grade what kind of mileage did you run, and explain how you built up, also what kind of workouts did you do, what are you doing now and what did you do from seventh grade through the present to prepare for your senior season?
Elizabeth: Well, at Boiling springs I didn't have much of a coach, so a lot of my workouts came straight from Jogger's World. The summer between seventh and eighth I tried to run, but it was hard on my own; my first real summer of training was before ninth grade. I ran 300 miles that summer and 500 the summer after that. A lot of that mileage included long runs and tempo workouts. My favorite track workout is 12 x 400 at ultimate goal pace goal for the 3200.
scrunners: If you want to discuss, what kind of health problems did you have, how did you overcome the challenges with the health problems?
Elizabeth: I had a bad reaction to Aleve that spawned all kinds of neurological problems. During the last cross country season I'd pass out, not know my own name, and all kinds of stuff doctors never could offer an explanation for.
scrunners: How did the health concerns end?
Elizabeth: Well, coach cut my season short. I went three months without running until the start of track season and I didn't have any real problems during track and the present.
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| Brittany French (left) and Elizabeth Conway (right) run side-by-side at the 2001 State Championships. |
Elizabeth: We meet as a team during the summer and we have weekly schedules that we run by. In the past I've run with Brittany French, also Lauren Culp and sometimes Stephanie Buffo, but obviously last year I fell a bit behind.. This summer I'm hoping to go 600 miles.
scrunners: Now to be a little more specific, what kind of shoes do you run in for races and also for training? Do you have different shoes for cross country and track? Do you like spikes?
Elizabeth: I've had four pairs of Brooks Hyperions and they were great, but they discontinued those, and now I'm in the Nike Pegasus. I have the Brooks Hyperion Racing flats, which I normally use for both track and cross country. I have cross country spikes and I don't normally like wearing spikes on the track.
scrunners: During the past 2003 track season, what was your most memorable event, meet, practice, and explain.
Elizabeth: The county meet was great for me, because I had my season PR by thirty seconds, was third, and it was just one of those magic days.
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scrunners: What event? The 3200? What was your time?
Elizabeth: I ran what I was running the season before when I was healthy.. 13:18 in the 3200.
scrunners: Do you remember what kind of tactic you took at the county meet in the 3200, how did the pace of the lead pack start out and how did the pace effect you?
Elizabeth: They always take it out unreasonably fast, so I just tried to stay sane but stay in contact, and it worked.
scrunners: When running, do you have a surface you prefer to train on?
Elizabeth: We have a trail on the Dorman campus that some of the boys cut out thats fantastic to run on. Also, we train once a week at Milliken, which is great.
scrunners: From when you started running or throughout your whole life who have you looked up to as a role model, what have they done for you, such as how did they make an impact in your life?
Elizabeth: Well, obviously my father has made a huge impact on my choice to start running, but my teammate Brittany French has been there since I started at Dorman and has been my constant running buddy. She's very intense and hardworking and that always inspires me to go the extra mile (quite literally) in workouts.
scrunners: What kind of tradition do you have before any race, such as the week of, the night before, meals, movies, and all the way to the warmup, cooldown?
Elizabeth: I always eat spaghetti, and if it's a big track race I may watch Chariots of Fire the night before.
scrunners: Does your team have a favorite place to go out together before or after meets?
Elizabeth: Well we semi-adopted the varsity guys tradition of going to Monterreys, and this past track season we'd sometimes go to Subway for dinner after meets.
scrunners: Now to the question that brings up talk, do you enjoy cc or track more?
Elizabeth: Cross country, definitely because I have very little short speed, so I'm naturally better at it. I think it's a better team sport, and I think the way it is scored is better
scrunners: Being that you are a rising senior, what are you looking to study in college, where would you like to go, and are you looking to run in college?
Elizabeth: I'm hoping to go to Furman. Right now I want to double major in Psychology and English, and I'd like to run but we'll see if I'm good enough.
scrunners: If there is one thing you can do in life, what would it be, when would you like to do it, and what made you choose to do this certain thing?
Elizabeth: I would most like to have a book published, because a good book can affect the way you see the entire world, and I would love to have that profound of an impact on people.
scrunners: Do you know what type of book?
Elizabeth: Probably fiction. Every writer has only one story, and that is their own.
scrunners: Being that you started running in seventh grade do you prefer to read Runners World or Running Times and do you have a favorite running book?
Elizabeth: Running times, and I love Once a Runner.
scrunners: Have you ever thought about going out in the wilderness and training alone such as in Once A Runner and how do you see that book (Once A Runner) relating to your lifestyle?
Elizabeth: That would be incredible, if I had the chance I'd definitely do it. It relates to me a lot with summer training; it really illustrates the run well, and puts into words the indescribable.
scrunners: Technology is becoming a major part of every sport. In track & field there are more sophisticated timing systems and new ideas come up every day. Do you feel that this technology is helping the sport without loosing the main roots?
Elizabeth: I think technology is great if it doesn't interfere with the purity of the sport. I love cross country and track both because of how objective it is, nothing matters except who gets to the finish line first. As long as technology doesn't give unfair advantages, its great.