For those wondering what it takes to be a state champion runner, pay a visit to Ridgerunner Stadium on a 95-degree day in late August.
Despite the heat, Grove senior and three-time state track champion Michaela Werner was getting her speed work in on the battered track around the football field: 12, 400-meter laps, all under 90 seconds, with a one minute break in between. This was after a day that started at 6:15 a.m. with a run of several miles with her teammates, plus a core workout and several miles on the football field.
“Our motto is ‘Runners run’”, head coach Warren Brumley said. “She just leads by example. The others see the work she’s putting in and seeing what it takes and where it will get you. When they see success and they ask what’s the key: She runs, plain and simple. You want to be a runner you’ve got to run.”
All of those miles have added up to three state titles in track, where she’s won the gold in Class 5A in the 3200 meters twice, and the 1600 once.
But one thing that’s been missing is a state title in cross-country. Injuries ruined most of her junior season in 2012, with Werner finishing third at the state championships last fall. Stress fractures in her feet plagued her earlier in her career, but now healthy, she’s taking dead aim at the one title that’s eluded her.
“I feel good,” Werner said. “I definitely feel the pressure [to win]. I felt the pressure last year and feel like I should have won. But I was just lucky to get to run at all last season.”
“Honestly, I don’t think anybody can beat her, barring injury,” Brumley said.
A self-described “fat little kid”, Werner began running in middle school, but it wasn’t until girls track coach Richard Bassett “discovered” her during a P.E. class that she began to run competitively.
“In eighth grade I got into P.E. and I was just smoking everyone during in this mile run,” Werner recalled. “Coach Bassett came up to me and asked me where I transferred from. I told him I’d been here since kindergarten. So that was kind of how it all started.”
But getting to this point has required Werner to do something she doesn’t much like to do; get some rest.
“If I go a day without running – I know I have to take days off and everything, but if I don’t go run in the morning I feel horrible the rest of the day. I feel like I haven’t done anything. I plan to run until the day I die.”
Brumley has already proclaimed Sundays as a mandatory day of rest for Werner, who feels she’s finally learned to avoid the overtraining that has led to past injuries.
“I was just doing too many miles. A 14-year old girl can’t handle 70 mile weeks. I can now, but not when I was 14. That’s what led to getting injured. The very first time I ever got hurt was after a 60-mile week. But I just loved it so much that I just wanted to go run. When I’m injured all I can think about is wanting to go run.”
Next year she’ll likely be running at a Division I track program, as several schools have expressed interest. Before that, there are miles to run, and a state title to catch.
