Keeping Up the Momentum
Talking Track with MRun's Anna Nagelhout & Thea Johnson
If you've been keeping up with Reasonably Speedy's coverage for the past few months, then you'll have heard of the University of Michigan Running Club (AKA MRun). One of the nation's leading collegiate running clubs, there were any number of athletes I could have reached out to for an interview (and plenty I still hope to talk to sometime!). It was, however, Thea Johnson and Anna Nagelhout to whom I eventually reached out for an interview.
Coming off an incredibly successful cross country season, Anna and Thea made names for themselves this indoor season, running fast times in everything from the mile to the 5k. In my assessment of the 2022 indoor season, Thea was chosen as the champion of the mile, and Anna earned herself #1 spots for both the indoor 3000m and 5000m. At the Illinois Club Relays, Thea took first in the mile (followed closely by Anna) and Anna took first in the 3k (just ahead of Thea). I reached out to them a few weeks ago about setting up an interview, and I was thrilled when they obliged.
Our conversation was held via Zoom as I wrestled with an uncooperative laptop charger. I was calling from the front porch of a cabin in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, where my friends and I were staying for our Spring break. Thea and Anna were quite gracious about my Boomer-esque struggles with technology and the not-too-distant bustle of my roommates making lunch inside (not to mention one of friends shouting "ask them about the Arb!" every few minutes). Despite their kindness, I immediately put them on the spot, asking them how they would summarize their journey with running so far.
Anna: I believe I did my first race when I was eight or nine years old. We had a program at my elementary school called "Girls On the Run." The whole objective of it was to help these young girls get passionate about a sport and, eventually, run a 5k at the end of the season. I honestly don't know if it was my choice to do that, or if my parents just kind of said, "you've got to meet some people and get social at some point in your life!" But I remember absolutely loving it. From there, I did cross country and track in middle school, continued to do so in high school, and then senior year, I had a decision: would I like to attend a larger, Big 10 University - knowing that I wouldn't be able to run for the [NCAA] team there - or maybe run at a Division II or III college and get that experience? I ended up just deciding to go to Michigan — absolutely no regrets. Love it here.Â
And of course, I found out pretty early on that there was a wonderful and pretty competitive club team with a ton of individuals (who I've since become great friends with) so I began that... yeah, I think, like, right off the bat, first week of my freshman year. And then here we are! Still doing it and enjoying it just as much!
Thea: I started running a little bit later. I played soccer in middle school and then decided to start going out for runs in the summer going into my freshman year. And then I just kind of fell in love with it and, like, realized just how cool of a sport it is. I went to a small high school, but the running program was pretty established at my high school. We were blessed with pretty amazing coaches, so they helped a ton, and I had some amazing teammates that I ran with in high school and got pretty fired up about running. And then yeah, I did cross country and track throughout high school. Going into college, my first year was a little bit interesting. I ran for the [NCAA] team here a short time, and then [because of] COVID they made cuts, so I was no longer on the team. So I was kind of training on my own for a year, and then this fall like came across MRun. So I joined that and have really been blessed with getting to race with some really cool people - especially like Anna! We've been able to race together a lot this indoor season and it's been so much fun. I'm very grateful.
RS: I've never been to Michigan (not even the state!), but it's been very cool seeing what y'all are up to out there. It sounds like the team culture out there is pretty great, but I'm curious how would you describe the team culture at MRun?
A: I mean, oh goodness, there's no denying that it's an incredibly welcoming environment. And the thing that I enjoyed about it is the opportunity to make whatever you want out of it. I mean, you can go to every single practice, you can go to none of the practices, do as many races as you want... there's a lot of flexibility. But regardless, whenever I've gone to any practice or race, there's just this general feeling that everyone's so excited to see you and they're very encouraging, always cheering you on. During races, I know I can count on my teammates to be around me screaming, which is really nice. It's just a great group of people! And so, I think as a result, whenever somebody joins, it's kind of been a domino effect of like, "Hey, this is a lot of fun, might as well try it out!" And from there, it's grown and grown over the years. I don't know how many people we officially have now - it's like, in the hundreds in our group chat, so it's debatable - but there's a lot of us out here having a good time. It's grown into quite a large club here.
Is Ann Arbor a good town for running?
T: Personally, I always kind of miss running in my hometown because, like, I grew up like in like a pretty small town. So there's more... I feel like there's more open space, we had a lot of trails and stuff. So I really liked that. This was kind of a little bit of a letdown coming to, like, kind of more of a... it's not even that big of a city, but more of a city area. But it's not bad at all. We're definitely blessed.Â
A: I'm the complete opposite! I also came from, not a super small town, but it was primarily, like, flat. Just sidewalks. And then, coming here for the first time, I had pretty easy access to a lot of dirt roads and trails. I mean, you sometimes have to kind of go out of your way to reach them, but they're not hard to find at all if you want them. Some nice hills as well! So I was like, "Oh my goodness, this is so exciting! So much more than what I was used to."
In Williamsburg, it's pancake flat, and there's horse poop everywhere in the historical areas, so I definitely envy y'all with your dirt roads (and lack of horses).
A: Yeah, we don't have those around here!
So I was doing a little research before this. Y'all had a great Cross Country season in the Fall - I saw that the MRun women had the second-lowest score ever at Nationals (39 points, which is pretty mind-boggling) - and, obviously, you've had quite an indoor season. What are your thoughts on the outdoor season now that we're rounding that corner?
T: Well, I don't know, I'm pretty excited! Indoor season was so much fun, we were racing basically every weekend and we got to like race with each other in a lot of events too, which was really cool. I'm excited to do that again during outdoor and to kind of go off of that momentum from indoor season, and it'll be fun to run on a longer track, too!
A: I am more than pumped for outdoors, for sure. My freshman year, COVID hit, like, directly before the outdoor season started. So this is the first year that I'll actually get to do an official outdoor season with MRun. A lot of us, fortunately, were still able to enter a few outdoor meets unattached, which was nice, but definitely not the same. So yeah, this will be almost brand new in a way, but like Thea said, the 400-meter track will be nice! Hopefully, we'll get some nice weather, but whatever comes our way I'm really excited!
Yeah, I'm in a sort of similar boat! I didn't even start running until I was a sophomore in college, so I'm very new to all this. This was my first indoor season, and then I just ran the first real outdoor race of my life. I was shocked by how much fun people were having. One guy ran the whole 3200 juggling, and he didn't drop any balls1!  I'm appreciating the opportunity to figure out how to run a track race in such a fun, relatively low-pressure environment. I think we've already talked about this a little bit, but what led y'all to club running?
A: That's a good question. For me, as I said, I was trying to decide whether I wanted to run at a smaller school or do club here. And the high school complex that I went to was fairly large, I think there were 6000 students in total, so I was fortunate to know a couple of people who had gone to Michigan and then joined MRun. They all raved about it and said, "oh, yeah, you definitely have to try it out." And especially at a larger university, it was something that I valued keeping up and hopefully meeting a new group of people, so it feels like you've got a nice group within a school that's so large.
I was also fortunate in that I actually got to try an MRun practice my senior year of high school - I think it was over our Winter break? Spring break, maybe? I don't remember exactly. But everyone was super sweet. And I was like, "okay, you know, I can see myself doing this! We'll give it a shot." And then in the summer leading up to freshman year I got to go to the MRun camp and make like 60 new friends there. It was really nice going into the first week [of freshman year] and already being able to walk around campus and say like, "Hey! I don't remember your name, but I recognize you from camp!" So yeah, after that, it was kind of never a doubt in my mind that I want to continue on with [MRun] and see where it goes.
So y'all have a "camp" before classes start?
A: We do, yeah! It's usually in mid/late August or so. We'll go up north to camp together, do some runs, hang out. It's a lot of fun. Great way to meet some new people!
Thea?
T: So it's been kind of an interesting few years, [in terms of] running. It's been quite a journey. Basically, my coach from high school, he's been helping me train like this. He started helping me train this past summer. And then he was trying to get me to find opportunities to race. During cross country, I was trying to find some unattached races and that kind of thing. And then a friend of mine, Lauren Jenkins (she went to my high school, but she's a few years older than me, so we never ran on a team together. But she's a graduate student at UofM), she told me about MRun and that they, like, go to cross country races and that kind of thing. So I'm like, "huh," and I ended up joining to like get an opportunity to race. And then I find these wonderful people! That's something that has continued - it's allowed for an opportunity to race, especially like during indoor.Â
So even if none of us have a ton of NIRCA (ie club-specific) races under our belt, what would you say your favorite race memories are? Any race - high school, MRun, whatever.
A: Probably one of the first ones that comes to mind for me was NIRCA Cross Nats this year. Just getting to do that again - I was fortunate that I got to go my freshman year, too. And as you kind of said, prior to that, I'd never really known that NIRCA existed, or I had no idea what to expect from that meet. So going and seeing that there were so many club teams, and there were people who were incredibly talented runners who were taking it seriously, but then also some running around in, like, costumes. It was just a great opportunity. So I was really looking forward to doing it again this past year, after COVID. And, obviously, it went better than anyone could have expected, so getting to share that moment with six other girls was super special.Â
As far as track goes, this past track season’s Illinois Relays was a blast. That's probably like the largest and one of the only club-affiliated meets that we go to, but it's always fun seeing people do the goofy relays, with like costumes and different items for batons and such. And Thea and I got to race a 3k together for the first time in the same heat, so that was a blast!
Yeah, that was that was fun to keep up with! Y'all went 1-2 1-2 in the mile and the 3k.
A: Couldn't go much better than that!
T: Yeah, I would totally agree that that honestly. Getting to race with you in the Illinois Relays, those two races really stood out in my memory. And in, like, two really different events, too, that was just really fun.Â
I also have a lot of memories of favorite races from like high school because I was really close to my teammates then as well. I can't really think of any off the top of my head, but relays were always fun with them. I got to race with my sister 'cause she ran track, so we would do the do relays together sometimes. Yeah, a lot of good racing memories.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Y’all have already been racing hard and running fast this Spring. Keep sending me photos, results, race recaps — whatever you feel like sharing — and keep your eyes open for a full breakdown soon!
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Thea and Anna were just as impressed by this display of long-distance dexterity as I was.