Aug 9, 2026 · 35 min · 10 segments
Sometimes the athletes who go the farthest are the ones who never made the biggest splash at the start. Hunter Robbie didn't become a two-time Nike Cross Nationals All-American overnight. The 2026…
Hunter RobbieGuestNicholasHostI've always been so interested to hear the teams and the athletes who are the most successful talk about what it takes to be great, because I think there's a lot of teams out there who hammer like the athletes.
Like you hear stories of top NXN teams going like 80 miles a week, 90 miles a week, burying their athletes.
And some of that's myth.
Not all that's true, but it seems like NYWA, there's a lot more balance.
Like you were talking about coach Kelly, uh, encouraging you guys to go play basketball and ski in the off season.
What do you think is the balance between being super focused and really wanting to make the most out of the sport and being obsessed versus, like you mentioned, having a little bit of balance and knowing that this isn't all just about running? How do you strike that, do you think? Especially in high school.
Yeah, I think the best way is just to like, Yeah, show up every day, but at the same time, don't be super freaked out if you have to miss a couple days for an injury.
I think at the end of the day, you want to enjoy, especially in high school, you want to enjoy it, and you don't want to take away from other experiences.
with running so I'd say like the sweet spot is like don't be dumb and go do stuff that's like gonna really hurt your performance but at the same time like don't be afraid to do some fun stuff
Yeah, yeah.
And speaking of like fun stuff, I remember talking to Quinn Sullivan a couple months ago and he mentioned how at NXN, he said something about like how the teams, other teams treat it like it's the Rose Bowl, like it's some crazy thing.
And so there's some like super locked in teams while you guys at Niwot, you guys aren't like not locked in, but you guys do a lot more like I wouldn't say screwing around, but you guys take a lot more of a relaxed approach.
You guys have like cook-offs, I remember you said, some other things.
Like, if they were, if it was, like, within an hour of the race, like, you could not talk to them.
Really? But I feel
like, yeah, over the years, like, ever since then, I feel like we've just gotten, like, more and more relaxed like kind of realizing like if if one race goes bad it's not the end of the world and to honestly like kind of be loose and not not think about it is sometimes helps a lot and I definitely say like I didn't notice it like sometimes like we'll be at a race and everybody's like quiet and then like they'll they'll be like Rocco or Jude or Quinn just messing around and it's like it's like we're about to go race and it's it's definitely for me I think it helps because I get really nervous like and stuff before races but like when I'm just not thinking about it and kind of joking around it helps a lot
do you think people tend to take this sport too seriously
yeah I think I think A lot of people definitely like take it a little seriously.
I've always been so interested to hear the teams and the athletes who are the most successful talk about what it takes to be great, because I think there's a lot of teams out there who hammer like the athletes.
Like you hear stories of top NXN teams going like 80 miles a week, 90 miles a week, burying their athletes.
And some of that's myth.
Not all that's true, but it seems like NYWA, there's a lot more balance.
Like you were talking about coach Kelly, uh, encouraging you guys to go play basketball and ski in the off season.
What do you think is the balance between being super focused and really wanting to make the most out of the sport and being obsessed versus, like you mentioned, having a little bit of balance and knowing that this isn't all just about running? How do you strike that, do you think? Especially in high school.
Yeah, I think the best way is just to like, Yeah, show up every day, but at the same time, don't be super freaked out if you have to miss a couple days for an injury.
I think at the end of the day, you want to enjoy, especially in high school, you want to enjoy it, and you don't want to take away from other experiences.
with running so I'd say like the sweet spot is like don't be dumb and go do stuff that's like gonna really hurt your performance but at the same time like don't be afraid to do some fun stuff
Yeah, yeah.
And speaking of like fun stuff, I remember talking to Quinn Sullivan a couple months ago and he mentioned how at NXN, he said something about like how the teams, other teams treat it like it's the Rose Bowl, like it's some crazy thing.
And so there's some like super locked in teams while you guys at Niwot, you guys aren't like not locked in, but you guys do a lot more like I wouldn't say screwing around, but you guys take a lot more of a relaxed approach.
You guys have like cook-offs, I remember you said, some other things.
Like, if they were, if it was, like, within an hour of the race, like, you could not talk to them.
Really? But I feel
like, yeah, over the years, like, ever since then, I feel like we've just gotten, like, more and more relaxed like kind of realizing like if if one race goes bad it's not the end of the world and to honestly like kind of be loose and not not think about it is sometimes helps a lot and I definitely say like I didn't notice it like sometimes like we'll be at a race and everybody's like quiet and then like they'll they'll be like Rocco or Jude or Quinn just messing around and it's like it's like we're about to go race and it's it's definitely for me I think it helps because I get really nervous like and stuff before races but like when I'm just not thinking about it and kind of joking around it helps a lot
do you think people tend to take this sport too seriously
yeah I think I think A lot of people definitely like take it a little seriously.
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