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| | True cross country fans know our sport is more of a team event than most outsiders realize, yet there are plenty of individual standouts as well. So, while honoring the tradition we have started at DyeStat with Interval Sessions, which introduced you to the top individuals in both track and XC, we launch Fall 2009 with "Star Squad Spotlight," giving you a chance to get to know not just the top individual runners in the country, but also the best teams.
| | | star | aisling cuffe
9.17.09
by SteveU, DyeStat Senior Editor
 Yes, it’s true that every year, there are girls who jump into the sport for the first time and do amazing things, but somehow Aisling Cuffe’s story – given where she really came from and started – seems just a little more amazing. In fall of 2007, Aisling was a freshman coming off the bench in soccer, literally getting kicked around by bigger teammates and opposition, and with just a smattering of middle school track experience – in sprinting. In January, 2008, Aisling was racewalking her way around a track, not running, and had done absolutely nothing to indicate future stardom. By June of 2008, the Cornwall Central frosh was running and winning, but with a 10:20 3k PR for the season was still far from national class. And, in September of 2008, Aisling ran her first 3-mile race in New York, the home to what many would argue is the best girls XC in the country.
Three months later, the Irish wunderkind would be running with most of the nation’s best in San Diego, a 12th-place finisher at Foot Locker Finals, impressing even the most jaded of fans, and by this past July was racing and winning silver in the Pan Am Juniors 5000, a member of the Team USA with just a year and a half of running under her belt.
But when you read Aisling’s words, it’s not hard to find how she got so far, so fast. She just had to find the right sport to channel an intense love of competition, a laser sharp desire to learn and ability to focus, and a gritty drive to be the best – traits that Cornwall Coach Dave Feuer agreed are the traits of this growing champion. DyeStat Senior Editor SteveU gets a few minutes of Aisling’s time a few days after she opened her season with a controlled, but very impressive 17:22 to win the Section VII Invite.
 Congrats on your first win of the season. How did you feel out there for a first race? Were you pleased with your effort and the time?
Thanks! I had been waiting for this day for a while, as I love running cross country. As I was racing, I felt very happy and excited, which probably got me through the first mile or so of the race without feeling like I was actually in a race. Throughout the race, I felt strong and in control of my pace, and seeing as it was a pace faster than any of my XC races last year, it is a good personal indicator heading into this season. I was definitely pleased and also a little surprised with my time.
Can you think about what you felt like in your first race a year ago? It's hard to believe you're only 12 months out from your first-ever XC race and you've done so much! What is it like now for you compared to back then?
My first race last year was very different from my first race this year. I knew practically nothing about cross country racing, and had been very curious to find out what my end result would be. It came as a shock to me when I won that race by the margin I did, but it didn't make me wonder what I could accomplish later on in the season. I had just figured I had gotten lucky.
Going into this year, I was figuring out goals and plans with my coaches well before the first race. Last year, my first race was to see if I could actually finish a 3-mile race successfully, and this year it was to see where I was with only a few weeks of cross country training accomplished. The biggest difference between this year and last is the amount of confidence and experience I have gained. I keep a journal of all of my races, and I find it quite enjoyable to look back on what I had to say about races one year ago, compared to now.
Can you talk a little about your sports background before running? I've heard you played soccer ... but that it wasn't a really great sport for you. Back then, did you have a sense that distance running might be in your future?
Before running, I had a very diverse background in sports. My passion had been for soccer since early in elementary school, thanks to the community leagues in my town. I also played basketball every winter, again with the community league. I even had a short (and dismal) experience with softball. As I grew to be too old for the community leagues, I tried out for the school team in soccer, and signed up for outdoor track (but back then, I was a sprinter, as I couldn’t run the painful 2-mile road runs that the other distance runners could).
Soccer began to be less fun and more competitive, and the opposing players got too rough for me. By the end of my freshman year, I was a bench warmer who was so scared of being run over by bigger girls that I knew after the first week of indoor track, I wasn’t going back. It’s not that I was good at running back then (I had switched to distance, but still had to take numerous walking breaks), but the atmosphere was a lot more inspiring than soccer. Back then, I had no idea that I had any talent in running, and everyone else probably felt the same way.
Tell us about your race-walking days the winter before last. Coach has talked about that and, well, it's also hard to imagine you race-walking when I've seen you run so fast. Think back to those days, what you thought about race-walking then. Was there a part of you that was saying, "If I can just get him to let me do more running, I could be pretty good!"
Race walking started for one main reason. In Orange County, all of the indoor track meets are held at West Point, only because it is probably the only place in Orange County with an indoor track. They have strict time constraints for the meets, and so all of the running/field events are limited to three people per school, per event. Race walking was the only event that was unlimited in entries. Even though I hadn’t shown any ability to run, I always had a desire to  compete. Therefore, the only event that would get me to the meets every weekend was race walking. At practices, I would run all of the workouts like normal, but would race-walk in the meets. It kept my fitness up, and my desire to keep training continued through the winter. I ran in about three races, and loved the feeling of running in a race. By the end of indoor, I was longing to see what I could do in a 3000m, or a 1500m, and knew when outdoor came, my coaches would have to put me in something running related.
When you finally started running races in outdoor track, was there a point when you started realizing, "I could be good at this, real good"? I heard you ran about 10:20 for 3k your freshman year. When did it really start clicking for you?
I improved a lot during my outdoor season. I was getting within reach of the school records, and became a part of the "A" group at practice. There were many points along the way when I felt like I was actually going somewhere with running, but just in relation to county prominence. In June, I barely qualified for states, and ran in the freshman mile at Nike Outdoor Nationals. At that point, I was really looking forward to cross country to see how high I could finish in the county meet, but that's as far as I thought I would go. I only started to realize how far I really could go during October of the cross country season.
Talk about the training and early races through the summer and early fall of 2008, then, what started to make you feel like you could really move up in the state and beyond. Were there some real turning points for you in the fall?
I didn’t do all that much last summer. My coach gave suggestions as to how we should train, and I tried to follow it the best I could. I attended a good cross country camp with my friend, and when I returned to school training, I felt strong and motivated. My earlier workouts never really hinted at any success I was to have later on, as I was barely beating out the number 2 and 3 runners on the team. I only started pulling away from the rest of the team during workouts later in the year, after I had won a few races.
There were 3 major turning point races for me last fall when I started to look at the end of my season differently. The first came at the Carlisle Invitational, where I had unknowingly beaten Neely Spence's course record by one second. The next race was the Manhattan Invitational, when I realized that I would have finished 9th in the Easterns race, seconds behind major contenders for state titles. The third race was the most important for me, and it was the Section One Coaches Invite, when I first raced the famous Shelby Greany, and won the race with a time in the top 20 all-time list for Bowdoin Park. I had heard a lot about Shelby, and had been looking forward to racing her. Since then, I have had very little success competing against her, but I will never forget that day.
Can you tell us about the road to Foot Locker last fall? What were your feelings going into Foot Locker Northeast, and what was your feeling when you crossed the finished so high up there? What are some of your best memories from your trip to San Diego?
When my coaches first suggested Foot Locker, I was very excited. Throughout the season, I had done a lot of research on the track websites to fill me in on what I had been missing out on the past year. I had found out a lot about Foot Locker, and I was very impressed with the names that had gone there over the years, and longed to become a part of the meet's history. At first, I was worried that I wouldn’t qualify, but my success at states and the Federation meet gave me the confidence to compete at the regional. On the day of the race, I was ready to take on anything. More than anything, I wanted to prove myself to the competition in the Northeast. The race went well; I led for the first two miles, but I was then passed by Emily Jones and Shelby Greany. After it was over, I was very happy with my time and placing, and was really looking forward to San Diego.
 Then I had a great time in San Diego. All of the competitors were really friendly, and it was nice to be able to get to know more about the runners you had only heard about before. I learned lots of tips from famous former Foot Locker runners. For me, it was an amazing racing experience. I finished 12th with a decent time. I wished that the race had gone a little better, but I can’t complain too much. The course was a little tougher than I expected, but then again I had imagined a really flat, fast course. I loved being able to wear the Northeast uniform, and being on the same team as the people I had been competing against weeks before. The awards ceremony after was very well done, and all in all it was a very well put together event. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Tell us about the highlights of your trip to Pan Am Juniors? Other than the race (which was basically you and Sarah), what are your best memories from the trip?
The Pan American Games were an unforgettable experience. First of all, Trinidad and Tobago was a place unlike anywhere I had ever been before. There were a lot of athletes that I had heard of throughout the course of the outdoor track season (including distance runners, sprinters, and field eventers). It was exciting to be on the same team as all of these people, while wearing the USA uniform. My race went off in very humid conditions, and it was tough going, but Sarah and I got through it, eventually.
I loved being able to stand on the award stand, and receive a silver medal for the USA team. I got to know a lot of distance runners really well, as we hung out together for the duration of the trip. Everything was organized very well, and I can’t wait to try to make another USA team in the future.
Now that you've been there before and everything is familiar this fall, what are some of your specific goals for racing in New York and nationally this year?
I hope to improve on all of my times by a lot from last year, so I can see how I am progressing. A major time goal that I have is to break 18 minutes at Bowdoin Park. Not many people have done this before, and I would love to be able to get a good, low time on that course. As for place goals, a major focus on my season will be the state meets. I hope to improve on my pair of runner-up finishes from last year. I plan on going to the Foot Locker regional, and hopefully qualifying again to go to San Diego, where I also hope to improve upon my 12th-place finish.
Finally, what is Aisling like when she isn't running? What classes in school motivate you the most? What else do you do for fun? What is something interesting, a talent or interest you have, that not too many people know about?
Outside of running and school work, I don’t have much time to do anything else. I am very lucky to have friends who understand why I can’t meet them every time they want to do something together. In school, I am quiet, but outside of school I am a little more outgoing, as the cross country team at Cornwall is very close knit, and everyone can relax and be themselves. I enjoy all of my classes, but I especially enjoy chemistry, math, and physics. I enjoy hanging out with my friends, and playing other sports for fun with them.
My interests lie in the running world. During most of my free time, I love to search the track websites for updates on other runners or races that interest me. I like looking up the history of meets to see who has run there before. I try to memorize as many stats as I can, and love going over them with my coaches the next day at practice. "Searching track websites" would have to be the title of my favorite pastime.
Photos (from top): 2008 Foot Locker Northeast headshot by PhotoRun, 2009 USATF Juniors by John Nepolitan, 2009 NY state track meet by John Nepolitan, 2008 Foot Locker Northeast by John Dye
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