2004 FOOT LOCKER CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS
Post-race interview with Andrew Bumbalough

by Ricky Quintana

Andrew Bumbalough (right) races Ken Cormier (center) and John McGuire (left) with less than 400 meters to go. (Photo: Alison Wade/NYRR)

Andrew Bumbalough, a senior at Brentwood Academy in Brentwood, Tennessee, finished second at the 2004 Foot Locker Cross Country Championships in 15:24, two seconds behind Ken Cormier. Bumbalough won the South Regional in record time two weeks earlier.

MR: How do you feel?
AB: Not really great right now. I mean I'm happy with how I finished, I couldn't have given more. I gave it my all down the hill and was trying to hold on. It didn't work out necessarily the way I would have liked it to.

MR: I heard you just didn't feel well at the beginning.
AB: For whatever reason, it just wasn't a day where I felt great. I felt great at the South Regional. I felt so comfortable. And here, I don't know what it was. Maybe the heat. I don't know. Maybe it was the competition. I just didn't feel that great from the get go. My goal was just to try and hold on and see what I could do not feeling 100%.

MR: When did you realize that you didn't have it today?
AB: Normally, I feel absolutely fabulous in the warmup. Today, for some reason, I just felt a little off. I tried to push that out of my mind and not let it affect my race. I don't think it was a mental thing. I just think for some reason, physically, I wasn't 100%. Earlier in the week after Foot Locker South, I got really tired for like three days and was on the verge of getting really really sick. I fought that off and got better and felt fine the rest of the week. It could have zapped just a little of my strength.

MR: You still fought. Were you just going on instinct?
AB: It's just my attitude. My coach teaches us never to give up even if you get passed in the last 100m. Just to fight even with 200m to go. But [winner Ken Cormier] moved with such strength that last 200m, I didn't have another gear left in me.

MR: I know that [John] McGuire was giving you a battle the whole time. Were you kind of surprised that a blonde haired guy blew past you?
AB: Yeah, I was really surprised. I saw a shadow behind me and I figured McGuire was behind me. He's big and strong. I figured he would just muscle his way that last 300-400m. It turned out to be someone totally different so I was like 'all right' coming into the last 400m.

(Interview conducted on December 11, 2004, and posted on December 14, 2004.)