Aaron Gillen - Yreka HS State Champ
Answers a few questions
Northern Section star of mid-1990's still active as Santa Barbara resident

Aaron Gillen (Yreka HS) was one of the State's top runners in the mid-1990's, earning a State Div V Cross Country title his senior 1995 year, then emerging as the State 3200 Champ that spring 1966 track and field season at 9:03.96. One time when traveling thru Yreka on the way back and forth to Oregon for some reason back in those days we stopped by to visit Jim Eckman, the Yreka HS coach at that time. Jim took us on a ride around town, and took us just outside town and pointed to some houses way down the side of some mountain, including that of his top runner, Aaron Gillen. They were a tad off the beaten path. Eckman described it as living "of the grid," which meant you were off the normal electricity grid for the area, and were coming up with power in innovative ways. Talk about "back to nature!" He showed me some of the areas where Aaron did his prep training, and while many in the state try to find spots off the cement to run, Aaron appeared as a prep to have somewhat the other situation, dirt roads and trails galore to train on!

Aaron headed off to Indiana University after graduation, and underwent some frustration during his first few years there. A coaching change that he describes below seemed to work well for him, and his final (2000) year he led the team into the NCAA championships in Cross-Country.

He showed up recently with some very good road racing results in the Santa Barbara area and we asked him to answer some questions for us. Always good to hear from someone who can lend some experience to this running thing and all, with some of the personal ups and downs he had along the way with their invaluable insight.

Indiana University Coach Robert Chapman adds comments below on Gillen after he led the team in the 2000 NCAA Cross-Country Championships with his 47th place for the 17th place team. Senior Aaron Gillen finished in the top 50 at 47th (36 points). Gillen’s time of 31:17.8 beat his last time on the Ames course (Pre-NCAA’s-31:53.5) by 38 seconds. Chapman added about senior Aaron Gillen, who has led the team in every scored meet this year, "I'm really proud of Aaron Gillen, who was just a few spots out of All-American status. The race results don't show it, but he was actually one of three guys to take a fall during the race. He came through, however, and gave a really gutsy performance to lead our team, as he always has."

1) Briefly summarize your successes as a high school runner at Yreka HS.
Man, does this question take me back. My four years running for Yreka were incredible. I had so much fun and had the opportunity to see so much of the state, which led me to see so much of this country later in college.
I’m the type of runner who just enjoys running/racing. I don’t pay much attention to the small details like a “track guru,” who knows every runner’s name who has won the 10K or 5K at the trials or the same events in the Olympics since 1964. I’m not good at that kind of stuff or maybe it’s the fact that I don’t really care. Even back in high school, I remember at the larger meets how it seemed so important to people to know who was in whose race/heat. It somehow predicted a good or bad performance from such a viewing. I never looked at those “things” (“things” being the meet heat-sheets or entries) until afterwards on the way home in the van/bus/or plane. I just enjoyed lacing up my shoes and anticipating how difficult or long a particular workout or race was going to be. Being out on the trails, hearing the rocks crush under my shoes as I poured more energy into a hill along the way as my quads were screaming at me to stop. That always seemed to fire me up!
My freshman year was fun training with our upper classmen. Just trying to hang on in workouts and feeling like I was going to throw up. I had climbed the ranks amongst our team. By November, I found myself in Clovis, and there I finished third in Division IV. I had an amazingly fun first x-c season. Just trying to absorb the information running has to offer (training, nutrition, health, race tactics, experiences, soreness, teammates, lactic acid, tempo runs, hill repeats, recovery, long runs and just good ole’ team bonding, the list can go on forever). In track I ran a 9:23 (3200m) at the Meet of Champions held in Sacramento. I made it to the state meet in the 3200m, but didn’t get to race b/c of…RAIN! I came back to race in Cerritos later in the month, but at the time was dealing with a left hamstring strain. In order to gain good experience racing at the state level, I chose to return to Cerritos a few weeks later. I think I beat only 5 people. I was already beginning to feel stronger and much more experienced by the end of my freshman year.
My senior year, having three years of experience under me and more importantly I think, was believing how much stronger I was (compared to my freshman year) and as the older guys had moved on (graduated) I found myself near the top of upper classmen. Being undefeated until the weekend after the state meet (Footlocker), winning the Division IV x-c championship at Woodward Park.
In track I ended my high school career at the Golden West Invit. in the 1600m (not my best event), but sure had fun, I had nothing to lose. The week before, I had won the 3200m down in Cerritos on that famous (well at least to me) big blue track.
I had made it to the state finals four years in x-c (finishing 3rd, 6th, 4th and 1st). In track I made it to state my freshman year in the rainy 3200m. I doubled in the 1600m/3200m both my sophomore and junior years (never made it out of the prelims of the 1600m). Concentrated on the 3200m my senior year.

2) Coach Eckman once drove me out of Yreka and showed me roughly where you lived. Can you describe your situation while living up there as a student and he showed me the mountain you made a yearly effort to climb (was it New Year's Day - bit of background if you have?)
I grew up six miles North of Yreka (three miles on state route 263 and three miles down a dirt road) and within a rocks throw, a river wound itself lazily past our property. On this dirt road, I had marked every mile and knew every turn on it. I remember doing the occasional 12 mile run on it. It had some good up hills and well…down hills on it too. We (my family) always had some dog who loved to run with me. I’d play this game, on the way out (3 miles) the dog would lead me, I would just try to relax, but keep within reasonable distance and on the way back I’d try to stay in front of the dog at least for two miles or more. Sometimes I’d be victorious, other times left in the dust. Either way, my run would turn into this game of boy chase dog, dog chase boy.
Our house was “off-of-the-grid” (meaning no city hook-ups of the sort). So, on our roof we had solar panels for electricity, a well for our water, two wood stoves to warm us in the winter, and lots of trees to shade us in the hot summers. I forget what year it was when we got our first t.v., but a 10 inch screen was enough for a party. Inviting our closest neighbors a half mile away to come over for the viewing…if one were to stare at the t.v. long enough or for me after a few months, I could make out the image perfectly on our one-channel t.v. But to an outsider, one would laugh and squint at our home entertainment center. I had enough things to keep me busy outside though; wood to chop and stack, I raised chickens and sold their eggs, $1/dozen. I sold walnuts (from our orchard) in the Fall to ladies in the school office for their cooking. I hiked around in the mountains nearby or worked in the orchard, mowing, pruning or watering. I was too busy to be bored or watch t.v.!

3) How did the choice to head out of state to University of Indiana work out - what did you achieve in your running for IU and how was the midwest running scene any different than out here in California?
Picking Indiana University for my collegiate career was a learning experience. During my high school years, I didn’t experience the true meaning of an “injury”. I was fortunate that I was relatively injury-free (not counting the slight muscle strains here and there). In college, it did not take long for my body to break down and by the first of September I was diagnosed with a stress fracture on the inside of my lower leg (missed the whole x-c season and red-shirted). I think it was a combination of running 65 miles (“base-running”) the summer after high school graduation thinking those miles would prepare me for a college cross country season. Then, arriving on campus and within the next three weeks, shot my miles up to 75-80 miles, which were workout miles, not the easy “base-miles”. Plus, the humidity just killed me on every run. I felt as though I sweat out all possible forms of liquid inside me, just trying to remain hydrated was not an easy task itself.
To make a very long story much shorter, I will basically say that my first two years in college were filled with injuries (mainly stress fractures). At times I felt as though maybe I was not supposed to be a runner at a D-1 school. It was like I could not handle the workload and it seemed as if I would feel better if I were to stop running and go home. Those first two years, when I did manage to race some, my race times were significantly slower than my high school times. Things were not going well for me and the thought of transferring out became real after my sophomore year. It was a difficult time, which really forced me to figure out who I was and what I wanted to do with my running and life too.
Good news did find me that Fall going into my junior year, a new coach. I had planned that I was going to transfer my junior year, but hearing a new coach was on the way, I decided I would give it another try. What did I have to lose? Run slow or not even run? Ha!
The next three years under Robert Chapman were amazing! I found my love in running again and for the first time since my 4:16 mile at the Golden West Invitational in June of my senior year, I began to run faster times than I did in high school. I was stoked! No more pool running, no more sweating in the weight room on the stationary bike, no more intensive therapy, I was part of the team again.
I think what coach Chapman built with the IU distance team is why I chose to go back east all along. A program which was legendary back in the day, which morphed to a “funk”, was saved. Coach Chapman believed in us and more importantly we believed in him and his “big-picture”. What I achieved in my running at IU was my love for the sport. Not necessarily the hardware, breaking records, and being in the spot light, but instead, I found my love for competing again. The team made it to cross country NCAA's for the first time, which was long over due. I completed my first x-c, indoor and outdoor track seasons all in a row (meaning I was injury free)! I achieved how much running means to me and how much of an influence it has had on my life. I think in order for me to see/understand “the big picture”, I had to first deal with some major set backs (my first two years at IU). These hard setbacks taught me to not take simple things for granted as I fear I was doing before entering college.

4) What was your academic major and what are you doing with that?
My academic major is “Environmental Management”. Right after graduation, I was employed in Arizona with the forest service working on an ecological study. The study included a locally threaten hawk species (Goshawk), logging methods and harvest techniques, ideal habitat management, prey abundance, juvenile Goshawk dispersal rates and their survival.
Today, I am not directly using my academic major. For the past three years I have been working as a special education instructional assistant at a juvenile court and community high school. I have been thinking about going back to school to get a single subject teaching credential. Teaching had always been in the back of my mind; guess I should have followed that little voice in college. I am also in my third year as an assistant track coach at a local high school.

5) How did you end up in Santa Barbara?
Well, my mom was raised here and as a kid, my family use to drive down to visit my grandparents during the summer. I always liked visiting Santa Barbara, always so nice and warm. My last two years at IU, my brother had transferred to and was attending Santa Barbara City College. Working in Arizona with the forest service was a great experience, but just not my bag of beans in the “big picture”. It was perfect timing as my brother’s roommate was moving out, I packed my bags and waved goodbye to the Grand Canyon and waved hello to the Pacific Ocean.

6) What are you training for, and roughly how much running are you doing? What is the philosophical basis of your training or do you have a coach?
Right now, I have been experimenting with marathons. I raced my first one up in Sacramento this past December 5th, ran a 2:36.34 off of relatively a conservative approach. I am taking some down time now, but going to start training for “The Boston” in April. So far I think my best successful races are anywhere from a 10K up to a ½ marathon, as I feel like a road-race junkie since I have done a handful of such races. Recently I have been able to keep 50 miles a week since July when coaching high school cross country began. I sometimes miss some miles b/c of a meet or just the time it takes to coach.

7) What advice would you have for high schoolers who may hope to have a running career go as long as yours has (or longer?). What would you have changed, if anything, in your approach to the sport along the way that you think might have helped you or would be an aid to young runners in high school?
For those younger high school runners hoping to have running be a part of their lives, make sure you have some “down-time”. For example, being able get away from running for awhile both mentally and physically. I have seen too many cases where a runner who has been running since elementary school and loses the desire to compete. Their fire is gone and they are just going through the motions. They feel as if they have always been a part of some cross country/track team and have grown accustomed to going to practice at 3:00 p.m. everyday.
I do not think I would change anything of my approach to the sport. I always had “down-time” in high school. I would spend it hiking, mt. bike racing/riding, and/or tennis sometimes to stay fit and not lose everything over the summer or winter months.
I think any high school runner before going off to some college to run needs to really sit down and think realistically what they want their running goals to be by their end of their college careers. It is on all of our minds to go to a big school and to qualify for nationals and run well there (well, maybe at least that was always on my mind since I thought I would make it there several times, but college had a different plan for me). Running in college, you will realize you are among a breed of people not many people can relate to or understand. If you are not happy in a current situation, learn from it or at least try to see it from a different view (it can be very hard to do).
Train smart and hard, but always have fun while doing it! Sleep! Get lots of sleep! One last thing piece of advice that I have found to be beneficial for my training throughout my entire running career, is to keep a runner’s log. This is an awesome resource to have when training on your own. A log is also helpful to you when you are injured because it allows you to look back at your previous workouts and piece together what went wrong. Hopefully, you are able to recognize any inconsistencies with your training and modify it so that it will not reoccur.