What have been the keys to staying healthy, and then at the same time, like, what, were there turning points where you started to notice, like-

like-Fitness-wise, like, I'm kind of surprising myself in some of these workouts.

Yeah, I feel like just every, every month was like a big step instead of like, "Man, I made it through a month." Um, and then once, once I got rolling through the fall, I made it through the fall healthy, I was like, "Man, I, I, I know I can stay healthy and now it's time to like actually do some hard workouts, get it going." And yeah, I, I ju- I just think of like, I didn't even think about it until I finished a season like this, and I like look back and think, "Man, I made it through a whole year fully consistently healthy." Um, a lot of that was just strength training.

I think Coach Smith was really smart with just like planning out mileage, planning out workouts.

Um, and but once we got the ball rolling, keeping the momentum going, it was...

it almost just like, it just came to me, so.

Yeah.

... picked up on during the race, and you're like, "Oh, that's cool."

Uh, how'd you feel about that?

Pumped, man.

I mean, I think it was one of the, the best tactical races I've run, um, possibly in my life, but at least in recent, recent times of just like...

I just thought I ran it really smart and didn't waste a lot of energy, and I mean, Coach and I talked about it before the race, we're like, "Taking the lead doesn't mean you have to do anything with it, right?" Like, just 'cause you're in front doesn't mean you have to go run a 58.

You don't have to do that.

Um, take the lead and kind of just see what happens, and once I got up there, I was like, "Man, I, I don't really wanna be in the mess when it's this slow.

Like I'd rather be up here with clean track," and kinda just...

You gotta feel pretty good about this, right?

Uh, how'd you feel about that?

Pumped, man.

I mean, I think it was one of the best tactical races I've run, possibly in my life, but at least in recent times of just like...

I just thought I ran it really smart and didn't waste a lot of energy.

And I mean, coach and I talked about it before the race, like taking the lead doesn't mean you have to do anything with it.

Right.

Like just cause you're in front doesn't mean you have to go run a 58.

Right.

Right.

Yeah, it was right after ACC's.

I did the double.

So 10K, 5K double.

Felt good coming off and then kind of just had some foot stuff pop up in a workout and flew home to go get imaging to see what it was.

And it turns out I had a strain of my spine.

spring ligament, um, in my foot.

So what does it look like?

So do we have a sense of what other teams you'll be focusing on there? And do you guys know kind of strategy going into it? Like who's running first? Do you guys reveal that info or no? Is that a secret?

We won't reveal it yet.

We'll see on the start line.

But I mean, the big players are like Villanova, Oregon.

Washington.

I mean, it all depends on who actually lines up, but those guys all have hitters.

So it's going to be a good battle.

Right.