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After
finishing a sick and weakened 242nd place finish at the 2003 NCAA
Cross Country Championships in Waterloo, Iowa, Bret Schoolmeester,
then a sophomore at the University of Colorado, went to head coach
Mark Wetmore's office to discuss what he needed to do to become
All-American. Three months later, he garnered his first All-American
honor indoors in the 3,000 meters with his seventh place finish
(8:04.84) at the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships. In
the spring, Schoolmeester PRed again in the 5,000 meters with a
time of 13:50.24 at the Mt. SAC Relays to finish fourth overall.
So
lining up for the NCAA Cross Country Championships last year in
Terre Haute, Indiana, Schoolmeester was primed for a good run, but
in the first few kilometers, he was "buried" in 50th place
on the muddy Wabash Valley Family Sports Center course. Running
the typical CU even-paced race plan, Schoolmeester and teammate
Brent Vaughn moved through the pack to garner fifth and fourth place,
respectively, for the Buffs who went on to upset heavily-favored
Wisconsin and capture their second team title in four years.
In
the spring, Schoolmeester tested the waters of the 10,000 meters
and came away with another All-American honor by placing fifth at
the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships in a time of 28:49.07,
just off his PR of 28:33.31, which he set at the Mt. SAC Relays.
So,
this year, the newly-wed Schoolmeester is gearing up for another
banner year. Four of his teammates return from last year's championship
squad and a fifth, Brent Vaughn, is on the mend. Add 2003 16th placer,
Billy Nelson, who will lace up his spikes for his senior year, and
Colorado is facing a similar scenario they faced last year, though
Coach Wetmore has yet to know how good his team is.
"It's
too early to tell how good we might be. We haven't done anything
particularly quantifiable yet." He adds, "But everyone's
showing up on time."
And
as for Schoolmeester, Coach Wetmore has nothing but praise. "Bret
is among the most businesslike, mature, college athletes I've ever
coached. He's so smart that he completely skipped over the sophomoric
stage, you know, when they say, 'Yeah coach, but don't you think...'
He's the battlefield general of the team — Vaughn and [Nelson]
are the peace time generals. When it's time to be serious; he reins
in the grabass. But he knows when it's okay to relax. He'll leave
a big hole next year."
MensRacing.com
caught up with Schoolmeester last week after CU's first time trial
where he finished fifth.
MensRacing.com:
Any thoughts about going into your final year at Colorado?
Bret Schoolmeester:
I don't want to do anything too drastic, but at the same time, I
don't want to leave any questions or doubts in my mind. I'm doing
everything prudent to make this a really good season and improve
on last season and take my shot.
MR:
You've steadily moved up in distance. Were you pleased with how
the 10K went?
BS:
Yes, I was really pleased with the 10K. I think I still have a lot
of improvement in the 5K. I didn't even PR at 5K last year. I've
been running for a long time and running a lot for a long time so
aerobically I've really developed to the point where moving up made
sense. I still have good enough foot speed to run a good 5K or even
3K or 1,500 meters. I just wanted to find out where I was at in
terms of the strength for the 10K.
MR:
Can you reflect on last year's NCAA Cross Country Championships?
BS:
We'd been training well all year. We had a pretty good season. We
just kind of showed up. We didn't have a whole lot of pressure,
and we went out there and did exactly what we were capable of. Coach's
plan doesn't really allow for much daydreaming, which is nice. Whether
you are picked to be first in the NCAA or 100th, his plan is just
to try to get you as fit as you are supposed to be. I think we really
did that last year. Getting there, we ran by how we were feeling.
Vaughn and I were only 50th at the 1K and we were buried for a long
time, but we were just running according to feel instead of according
to where we thought we should be in the race. It played out really
well because we passed a lot of people who were out over their heads
and probably should have beaten us, really. It was really good to
see how everybody rose to the occasion and did what they are capable
of instead of putting so much pressure on ourselves to overachieve.
We just did what we were capable of and ended up stealing it away.
MR:
The course seemed pretty brutal. It was wet and muddy. Can you give
us some insight into how you looked at the course while you were
running it?
BS:
It was pretty sloppy. Some of the tight turns toward the end were
really muddy. I remember once or twice in the last couple of kilometers
when I was supposed to be gunning people down, I felt like I would
almost come to a complete stop going around some of the really tight
turns. That really ruins your momentum. But at the same time, if
anyone was out over his head, they would be hurt even more than
I would to slow down and accelerate through the grass and mud. I
felt like everyone who decided to go up and show their nose up at
the front ended up coming back harder because every step you take
is harder when you are going through all that mud.
We kind of used the traditional CU plan and it worked out real well
because it was so muddy. We made up a lot of ground on people who
were coming way backwards. I don't even think I negative splitted,
but I passed a lot of really good runners in the last 5K of that
race so they were obviously positive splitting that last part of
that race more than me [ Schoolmeester split 15:26, 15:31 for a
final time of 30:57].
MR:
Did you and Brent Vaughn work off or talk to each other during the
race?
BS:
A little bit. We were together for a long time, maybe 5 or 6K. If
Vaughn and I were going to finish a race at the same time, we wouldn't
necessarily run the whole thing together, because he is more of
a strength runner than I am, really. He needs to make that push
at 6K and I am going to make up a lot of ground in the last 400
to 800 meters of a 10K. He really started pushing. He had fourth
place locked up for a long time, whereas I didn't get into fifth
until the last 50 meters.
We
worked off each other. It's kind of calming and relaxing mentally,
knowing that there is somebody right next to you who is one of your
best friends and has done every step of training you have, so you
have every right in the world to be right there. You're not doing
anything stupid. You're not too far back, you're not too far forward.
I think that had a really nice effect. That helped out a lot. We
really weren't competitive with each other at that stage of the
race, so it really kept me calm. You have thousands of people around
you screaming with bells ringing and [there is] this sense of urgency,
but we were calm, which was nice.
MR:
Last year, your experience was the best, but the year before you
had your worst experience.
BS:
Yeah. I improved 237 places over my 242nd place the year before.
It's a pretty big improvement [laughs].
MR:
What was the difference between those two races?
BS:
The primary thing was that I wasn't sick. I was really sick in Iowa.
I definitely wouldn't have been where I was [in 2003 if I hadn't
been sick]. I think I was a top 30-40 contender. The difference
was knowing my body a little better and knowing how to train it.
I knew to make the right efforts on each day. I probably ran a little
too hard my first two years of college.
MR:
You parlayed your cross country season into a successful track season.
Did finishing fifth at the NCAA Cross Country Championships give
you confidence that you could run with the top guys in the 10K outdoors?
BS:
Yes, it kind of demystifies the whole thing. It seems like every
year I [age], you kind of see the puppeteer holding all the strings.
It's not as big a deal as you made it out to be. I know my freshman
year, when I would go to Pre-Nationals or the Big 12 [Championships]
or anything else with Jorge [Torres], Ed [Torres], and Steve Slattery
it seemed like this huge accomplishment to be out in the front of
those meets. As you get older, it's not quite as big a deal as you
made it out to be, so it seems more within your reach and humanizes
the people you have to race against. Then, you realize that you
need to get up there and you need to not second guess yourself for
being in front at those races. A couple of times this track season,
it would have seemed that I was way out over my head, running with
the guys at the USA Championships [where he ran 28:37.56 for fifth
place]. Before cross country, nobody would have thought that we
would have been up there. Yes, it gave me a lot of confidence. It
gave me a lot of confidence knowing that I had made the correct
decision the season before.
MR:
How much has your training mileage changed over the years?
BS:
I ran a lot in high school. I would run 75-80 miles per week in
high school. Mark [Wetmore] was really good at taking me up incrementally.
My freshman year, I really didn't go up at all. My sophomore year,
I would run 85 every once in a while. My junior year, I really started
running. I ran 95 miles per week. Mark kind of changed a few of
the things that we did that he had done for a long time in training.
That gave us a little bit of an edge. That showed a lot of character
and good coaching on his part that he was able to improvise and
change from something that had [earned] him some success.
Last
year, it was 95 miles per week, but I would say it was a different
95 from what the older guys would have done 5-10 years ago.
MR:
Are you doing doubles?
BS:
Yeah. I run 10 to 11 sessions a week just so I can cut off my easy
days a little bit more. Running 12 miles a day at altitude is not
necessarily easy, no matter who you are. Just being out on your
feet for 80 minutes isn't always recovering. We ran a few doubles.
I like the doubles a lot.
MR:
I guess you are the eldest on the team this year.
BS:
Close enough. Austin Baillie, Payton Batliner, and Billy Nelson
are other seniors on this year's team. Jon Severy was one of the
fifth year seniors on the team last year and he's one of my best
friends; he's a really good guy. It kind of hurts to lose him [in
terms of] losing a good friend and training partner.
It
doesn't take a ton of leadership with our team because everyone
is really serious and everybody knows what is expected from them
and what they need to do. In terms of who is the oldest and who
is being the leader, it never seems to change much because everybody
gains another year and knows the expectations from the past and
what they are going to do this year. Mark is really good at orchestrating
that.
MR:
The men's and women's teams work out together. Did you have that
in high school and how does that dynamic work in college?
BS:
Yes, the men and women worked out together in high school, but our
team only had 9-20 runners on it at its biggest stage in high school
so it wasn't much of an issue. Around here, it doesn't really affect
us much. It affects Mark at the highest degree. That is really what's
the most impressive part of it . He can watch two national championship
caliber teams and know what's going on enough to stay in tune with
every athlete and writing it down to say this person hasn't done
well with this workout in the past and this person needs to be careful
today and this person has a bad ankle. I mean, he has to do that
like every other coach, but he has to do it for two teams. Then,
he does it at the same time because we practice at the same time
each day. That's difficult for him. On the athletes' side, we are
one really big group and one really big team. I met my wife [Kendall
Grgas-Wheeler] on the team, so it's not like we're oblivious to
each other at all. We're really interactive.
MR:
When did you and Kendall get married?
BS:
I was married this summer. I've been married two and half months.
I was married June 30, right after the USA Championships.
MR:
Any pleasant surprises from your team's time trial last weekend?
BS:
There are four returnees from last year right now, since as [many]
people know, Vaughn isn't around right now. So there's James Strang,
Stephen Pifer, Bradley Harkrader, and myself from last year's squad.
Then we have Billy [Nelson] coming back who was 16th two years ago.
That five is really solid and steady. We've known all along that
those were going to be the guys that we were going to count on.
They were all where we expected them to be.
The
big surprise was Payton Batliner. He's really fit. He's my age and
he's been running really hard. He didn't make the team last year
and he's a little upset about it. He's taken the right step towards
fixing that. He's gotten real fit and he's training his ass off
right now.
MR:
How did your summer go? Did you do anything differently besides
getting married?
BS:
Well, it was a busy summer because of the wedding. After the USA
championships, I got into the car, I drove to the airport and flew
to Dallas-Fort Worth first and then to Boulder through the night
so I could get back to take a test, because I couldn't afford to
miss more summer school. Then, I took the final of that class the
morning of the wedding. The wedding was that day and then, the honeymoon.
It was definitely a lot more activity than I'm used to. It was a
longer track season than I was used to, too, getting done at the
end of June. That was, in all reality, a bit of a selfish decision
for me to go to USAs. It helped the team in no way, so I really
wanted to make sure that I didn't sacrifice my summer of training
so I made sure that ascended my volume a little quicker than normal.
I was at 100 miles per week within three weeks. I started running
on my honeymoon and then ran 75 miles the next week and then ran
98 the next week in my wife's hometown. I got back to training a
lot faster than I would have normally, but I did it healthily so
it really wasn't that big of a deal.
MR:
Does [Kendall] have any eligibility remaining?
BS: No she's done. She graduated in May. She's closed the running
chapter of her life. She's been running for a long time and she's
ready for a good long break.
MR:
Looking down the road, is a professional career something that you
will be pursuing?
BS:
Yes, I hope to be able to do that for sure. The market is really
top heavy right now with guys like Dathan [Ritzenhein], Jorge [Torres]
and the other really big stars right now. I know what 27:38 gets
you, but I don't know what 28 gets you and I don't know what kind
of performances [I'm shooting for] will [pay]. I don't want to give
up on my dream, but at the same time, I don't want to postpone my
professional life for $10,000 a year.
MR:
What are your goals for track?
BS:
I really want to drop my times significantly this year. The 10K
was a little tricky this year because I ran one really fast attempt
and the other ones were championship type races so you aren't going
to run PRs there. I think I could have run a little bit faster had
I known the event a little bit more. I really want to get a lot
faster in that event because that will really show good potential
for the marathon, which is something that I'd definitely like to
try before I am done. In the 5K, I definitely want to drop my time
there, because that's kind of the glory event in America right now.
Everyone who is good right now is running the 5K. I'd like to show
that I am competitive there and in the 10K. I'd also like to show
my versatility by also running the 3K too.
MR:
Is everything where it needs to be right now as far as health and
training?
BS:
Yes. I'm definitely fitter than I've ever been at this time of the
year. I'm right where I want to be, really. I haven't been pushing
myself too hard, but I know we run a lot of the similar type courses,
and workouts. I keep a pretty good training log so I know where
I am at in comparison to years gone by. I know that I am a lot fitter
than I have been and that's always a welcome sign. I've been lucky
enough, knock on wood, to not have been hurt yet here at CU. That's
given me peace of mind so far. I've put in three and maybe four
solid years of training together here. It builds on itself and kind
of multiplies more than it adds when you put that many weeks of
good solid training together.
MR:
A lot of criticism comes down on Colorado when people get injured.
You've been injury free. What is your secret?
BS:
I honestly don't know. I think it's been that I keep telling everyone
that I'm not going to get injured and they keep saying, 'Don't say
that or then you will.' I've been taking the opposite approach [laughs].
It's just that I've been running a lot for a long time. Even when
I was in grade, middle, and high school, I was running a lot. I
wasn't afraid of it. My body has adapted to the point where running
isn't foreign to it anymore.
MR:
I read in you bio that you an avid horseman. Do you work [in the
stables] in the summer?
BS:
Yes, I am. My dad does most of the work at the boarding stable.
I go there to ride a lot. I live only a few miles away from my dad,
so I can go there and ride quite often. Shoveling horse poop doesn't
hurt anybody. I don't think it's why I haven't gotten hurt [laughs],
but it certainly hasn't hurt me at all. My dad has one of the best
work ethics I've ever seen, so [watching and emulating him] definitely
helps.
MR:
You've grown up in the Boulder area. What do you think of the community's
response to you and the Buffaloes in general?
BS: I think this is the best place in America to be if you are runner
right now. The community is very supportive. I work in a shoe store
in town and a lot of people are aware of what we are doing and they
respect us. They are runners themselves. This is one of the most
active communities in the United States. Even when they are not
the biggest running fans, they know what it takes to run a 28:30
10K because they are all out there running the Boulder Boulder 10K
and doing Sunday runs too. That builds their respect for us.
We
had a fundraiser road race on Monday that [helps support] the CU
track and cross country teams and there were tons of people out
there. They wanted to support us because they're into running too.
It's really nice to be in a place where people understand what you
are doing. I think anywhere else in the United States, they don't
understand what you're doing unless you are trying to go to the
Olympics or something.
MR:
I asked Christine Bolf this in an earlier interview, but is that
scrutiny too much sometimes?
BS: I don't think so. If running wants to become one of the most
popular sports, we have to let people criticize, poke and prod and
be angry, be positive or negative. Turn on any station analyzing
baseball or football. That's what makes them so popular. People
get to look in and scrutinize and be happy when their team does
well. Tell them why they did wrong. We have to be able to take all
the attention we get, whether it be positive or negative, to try
and make ourselves more popular.
MR:
You had a very successful high school career and a very successful
college career. What kind of advice would you give to someone coming
into college and jumping in to a pond with bigger fish?
BS:
It's a lot of different contrasts and you have to find the [middle
ground]. You definitely can't be too intimidated or you never will
get anywhere, but you have to be realistic. When I showed up on
campus, I didn't want to have the attitude that I needed to challenge
Jorge Torres in training every day. You have to have a mediated
approach to all that by saying 'I'm not as good as him, but that
doesn't mean I should kill myself. I should just bide my time and
take myself seriously and not be unrealistic.' I think the main
thing [to which] I would attribute any sort of success I've had
is that I've been able to stay healthy and I've been able to stay
serious. So, durability and attention span are two things that are
really important in college. A lot of people get sidetracked by
a lot of other endeavors and there is nothing wrong with that, but
this is the kind of sport that takes years of commitment to get
a lot better.
MR:
Is there anything that coach Wetmore has said to you when things
were not going your way that possibly made a difference in you progression?
BS:
It's really hard to pinpoint any one thing he's said to me. I talk
to Mark a lot. I guess it would be that he never quit on me. After
I had a pretty good season, I finished 242nd at the NCAA Cross Country
Championships. I think a lot of lesser men would have been really
disappointed and taken it out on me or taken it out on different
circumstances, but he was like 'Look, we've done everything right
here. We're going to figure out the formula really soon. Don't worry.'
And it worked! Three months after I had finished 242nd, I received
my first All-American certificate in the 3,000 meters because he
didn't quit on me. He didn't make me feel ridiculous for thinking
I was good enough to be All-American even though I had just been
beaten by all but 10 guys at the NCAA meet. You would think a guy
who finished 242nd at the cross meet went and told his coach he
wanted to be All-American in three months, he would laugh him out
of the office. But he said, 'This is what we need to do to get you
there. Keep doing some things though they didn't work and try some
new things and tweak this.' He just never really quits on you.
(Interview
conducted September 5, 2005 and posted September 15, 2005)
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