Saturday, December 28, 2013

Catching up with Nevada Union HS runner, Garrett Migliozzi...

Today we chat with Nevada Union HS senior, Garrett Migliozzi (pictured to the left with his coaches courtesy of The Union).  This past season, Migliozzi finished 2nd at the Stanford Invitational Division I race, won the Rough Rider Invitational and won the Division I race at the SJS meet by nearly 30 seconds.  At the CA state XC meet, Migliozzi raced courageously to a 6th place finish after collapsing 10 yards from the finish line.  You can check out the finish at this link courtesy of Bob Rush and Hank Lawson's website.  At the recently posted All NorCal XC teams, Migliozzi was voted 1st team All NorCal and SJS runner of the year.  Last spring, Migliozzi finished in 3rd at the SJS Masters meet in the 1600m. running a lifetime best time of 4:15.80 and qualify for the CA state track and field meet.

1)  How did you get your start in running?  What was your first success?
I started running in 6th grade on the XC team, I didn't run XC every year from 6th grade on, but I did run track every year. As to when I had my first success, I can't really remember. It depends on what you quantify success as. To me success is pushing yourself to the limits with the situation you are given, whether you win or lose or set a new record. So in that case my first success was when I ran my first race in 6th grade. I think I was 6th or 7th in the race, but I remember vomiting and not being able to walk back to the car when it was over.

2)  Tell us a little about your freshman experience in high school in both sports (XC and TF).  Highlights in both sports.  Who were your mentors or runners that you looked up to as a freshman?
 I did not run XC as a Freshman. I did run track though. The highlight of my Freshman year was probably breaking 5:00 in 1600m, nothing else really stands out in my memory about Freshman year. The main person I looked up to my Freshman year was Dominic Castro-Wehr. He was a Junior at the time and I remember watching him have some close kick finishes in the 1600m that really inspired me to try to do the same in my races.

3)  What about your sophomore seasons?  Highlights in both sports?
Sophomore year was my first year of High School XC and I remember the first 5k I ran in the summer was around 23:00. I kept at it and by the beginning of the XC season I was in the high 18:00s. The race that stands out the most was at the Stanford Invitational where my goal was to break 18:00. I remember just moving up the entire race and I finished with a 17:26, way above my expectations. My best race, however, was at Folsom when I got down to 17:04(I think) and on that course that was a really good time for me at the time. In Track that year I remember breaking 2:00 in the 800 for the first time, and that was really big for me. My goal for the 1600m that year had been high 4:30s and I ended up running a 4:28, coming in behind Dominic Castro-Wehr at a dual meet. I was really surprised when I heard my time. This was towards the end of the season and I ended up taking a nasty fall while trying to qualify for the 800 at Leagues and I never got to finish my season.

4)  What do you feel was your best race during your junior cross country season?  What about during track season? 
Junior year of XC my best race was definitely at Sections where I ran a 15:59 on the Folsom course, which I think is better than a 15:42 I ran at Clovis earlier that year considering the course. In track my favorite(not necessarily best) was at Leagues in the 1600m. I really wanted to beat Trent Brendel, a Senior at the time from Granite Bay, because I knew he was, based off the evidence and my own observations, the best guy out there. I followed him for the first two laps and I believe I was in 6th and he was in 5th. The first 800 was slow, about a 2:18 for me, 2:16ish for the leaders. Trent started to really pick it up on the third lap, and I went with him. By the fourth lap it was him in first and me in second going at a pretty fast pace. It seemed like we both just kept going harder and harder all the way till the end. I ended up passing him in the last 100m to win with a 4:17. We had run about a 1:59-2:00 last 800, which I thought was pretty insane considering that just a year from then that was my PR in the 800. Trent ended up beating me at Sections and Masters, and finished his season with a 4:13 while I had a 4:15.

5)  What did you do differently in preparation for your senior cross country season?  Workouts?  Typical mileage per week?  Races?  
There wasn't much difference between preparation for my Senior year of XC as opposed to my Junior year. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. I was running faster on my easy runs and long runs than I was my junior year, I just wasn't going much farther. Same thing with the workouts, they were scaled to be harder time wise, but they were along the same lines as what I was doing my junior year. I was doing around 60 miles a week.

6)  Looking back at this past cross country season, what do you feel were your best races and proudest accomplishments?
The best races I had were probably at the Rough Rider Invitational (Woodward Park course), Sections (Folsom Course), and State(Woodward Park Course again).  At state I was in about 10th for most of the race, and I began to move up at the mile. I had moved up to 6th and at the 800 there was another kid about 30m ahead of me. I went harder. I passed him, and kept going. I saw Blake Haney about 20-30m ahead of me in the last 100m and I was going extremely hard, but then my legs started wobbling. For about 50m I felt like I was just dragging my left leg and trying not to collapse and then 10m before the line my legs couldn't go anymore and I fell. I tried to get up to sprint and not let the guy in 6th pass me, but when I got up I could barely even walk, so I just dragged myself across the line and fell again, he got me by one second. I think that was pretty cool to push my body to the point of collapsing. Another thing I was/am pretty psyched about was winning 6 races in a row before state, they were all hard races and I've never been on a win streak in XC before.

7)  What did a typical week look like for you during this past cross country season in terms of training?  
Monday/Wednesday/Friday were always workout days. Tuesday/Thursday were always easy runs at about 8-10 miles, 6:20-7:00 mile pace. Saturday would be my long run day where I'd go about 12-14 miles and Sunday I would usually do an easy 4 mile recovery run.

8)  Tell us about your coaches and how they helped you develop into the runner you are today.
I've had a lot of coaches over the past few years. However, the most prominent ones were Sara Freitas, Herve Pastre and Angela Marino. All three of them helped coach for my senior year of Cross Country. They have always been supportive and have listened to what I have to say. They helped me to make sure I didn't injure myself or push too hard on easy days, and they helped me to understand running and how it works to a much higher level than before. My biggest problem is probably going too fast when I shouldn't be going fast, and they've helped me to tone that down a bit... although today I did go a little too fast on my run... I'm definitely going to slow down tomorrow though.

9)  Favorite XC course?  Favorite XC invitational?  Favorite XC workout?  Favorite distance run?  Favorite opponent(s)?  Favorite TF event?  Favorite TF invitational?  Favorite TF workout
Favorite XC Course: Woodward Park  Favorite XC Invitational: Rough Rider Invitational...  Favorite XC Workout: 5x1 Mile LT with 6x200m at the end... Favorite Distance Run: Don't have one... Favorite opponent(s): Trent Brendel, George Miao, Abdul Hamid, Paul Zeiss... Favorite TF Event: 1600m... Favorite TF Invitational: Arcadia Invitational... Favorite TF Workout: 8x300m with 100m jog rest in between...

10)  Peaking ahead to the track and field season, what are the meets that you are really looking forward to and what are some of your goals?
I'm looking forward to the Stanford Invitational, the Arcadia Invitational, Meet of Champions, Leagues, Sections, Masters, State. One of my goals this year is to run more than just the 1600m all the time. I want to set a record in the 800, the 1600, and the 3200 at my school. The 800 record I'm pretty sure is 1:53.1, the 1600m record is 4:13 (but I want to go faster than that, more like sub 4:10), and the 3200 is 9:04. These are big goals but my main one is just to break 4:10 in the 1600m, the other ones would just be the cherry(s) on top.

11)  Looking back at your high school career, what was the race that gave you the confidence that you can run with the best runners in CA?
There never really was a race that gave me that confidence. After all these years of running when I'm behind some of the best guys in California they look the same way to me as the kid that beat me in 8th grade with a 5:20 1600m did, a target. I will get to as many of these targets as I can, not just in High School, but for the rest of the time that I run competitively. I will probably never reach the highest target, but I will get as far as I can with what I was given, wherever that may be, my biggest fear is that I will not be content when I reach that point. One thing I've realized with running is that it's never enough, after every goal achieved, the next day that same goal is now unsatisfactory. I realize of course that one day I will start to decline, but that day has not come yet, and I guess I'll have to change my way of thinking once it does, but for now, I will do my best to keep climbing.

Thank you very much for your time Garrett!  AJC

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Good Article. Migliozzi really nutted it out those last 20 m at state. Very impressive to watch. Hope to see the rest of NU's team show up next year as it's been like 20 years since they dominated at Sections with Corey Creasey and Mike Gregg.

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