Blogs : NCAA Division III Blog

Interview: Esther Erb of Case Western Reserve University

After finishing 34^th overall and helping her team to a 10^th place finish at last year’s Cross Country National Championship, Esther Erb earned her second All-American award by finishing 5^th in 5000 at the Outdoor Championships.  A relative newcomer to the sport, Erb won last weekend’s UAA Championship, leading her team, who finished second only to 3^rd ranked Washington University.  Case Western Reserve University is currently ranked 8^th in Division III Cross Country.

As is evident from your interview with Trackshark last year, you're relatively new to running.  In your short time as a runner, and as someone who's developed at a high rate, how has your understanding of training, racing, and running in general evolved?

My experience running at Case has provided me with lessons that I know I never would have learned in any other context.  Because of the unusual circumstances under which I was very unofficially recruited onto both my high school and college teams, I feel very lucky to have been given this opportunity to be on a team and to have been as successful as I have.  From all I've seen, I've learned that although hard work can take you a long way, sometimes luck has a lot to do with how far you actually come, and I try hard not take my good fortune for granted.

What was your training like this past summer?  Have you continued doing quick mileage like you did last summer? 

Well, at the beginning of the summer, I didn't take enough time off and I was still riding my peak from outdoor into July, when I was running solo mile time trials that were almost PRs.  I blame part of that on the fact that I was reading Paula Radcliffe's autobiography.  It put a human face and character to her robot times, and for the first time, I understood what real women are really capable of if they work at it.  I'm not saying that I have anything close to what she does, but nonetheless, it was very inspiring and got me pounding for those first six weeks or so, doing about 50 per week averaging 6:45ish pace or better.  After that, I started recognizing that I had tweaked my left hamstring pretty badly because it bothered me for about two months.  So, I backed off completely in August and rebuilt from there.

What are your goals for yourself and your team this season and year?

I want to do the best I can do.  I'm still not sure what that is yet because I don't think I've gotten to the point where I can tell.  For right now, I'm just enjoying my last chance to be on a true team.  I would like to see my team improve on our performance from nationals last year.  Hopefully our experience from last year and in some bigger races this season will prepare us better this time around and give us a little more confidence at the big dance.

At this point last year, you were thinking about teaching music at the secondary level after graduation.  What are your current plans, including running, after college?

Well, I've given myself a cut-off of 16:30.  If I run under that time, I'll consider training competitively after college.  If not, I'll just accept that it's not for me and train for road races, etc. on my own.  I still want to be a teacher and a coach eventually.  My first choice for next year would be going abroad with a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship position in either Germany or Austria, where I'd like to continue training but this time for marathons.  Upon my return I'd like to find a teaching job and start working toward my certification.  I'd really like to take a year away from academics, so the Fulbright is my top choice, and then if I don't get it, maybe I'll try to join a training team for at least a year, even if I'm over 16:30, if anybody will take me.

What's the relationship between the track team and the other athletic teams?  What's the athletic culture like at Case Western?

Well, there has been a lot of turmoil in the athletics department since I came here.  From what I know, a large part of the coaching staff has been there less time than I have, including the Athletics Director.  I don't really know any details about these changes in staff, but I hope that the coach turnover starts to slow down soon for stability's sake.  My experience with the athletic culture has been very positive over all.  Almost all of the coaches are very supportive of me and the cross country teams.  I also feel like most of the changes have proved positive in the long run, like the Men's Soccer coach, for example.  Campus awareness of varsity events is pretty poor, but over the past two years, we have been trying to do something about that through a student organization called the Case Association for Student Athletes.  As for the track team, the program has had a make-over since Coach Rubin started, so we'll see what the relationship with the other athletic teams is like once the season gets going.  I have a feeling that the track team atmosphere will be a little more serious/collegiate than in previous years.

How other do students (non-runners) and professors at your school view the track team and its members?

Most of my professors, even at Cleveland Institute of Music, have been relatively understanding of my absences for meets.  Some are more interested than others, but I haven't experienced any blatant disrespect for my involvement in athletics.  Some people on the team have had issues with professors trying to fail them for class assignments they had to miss due to competition, but for the past two years we have had a faculty member who helps us in these situations, and that seems to have made a difference.  Every once in a while, the campus e-mail news letter will post athletic honors, and I'm always surprised by the number of e-mails I get from professors and former professors congratulating me even on some of the relatively small accomplishments. As for fellow students, like I said, campus awareness of varsity events is pretty low, so most people in my classes don't really know anything about our sports unless I tell them.

There has been some controversy since the beginning of the school year at Case Western regarding the dismissal of the head Track and Field coach and 8 of his 9 assistants, save Kathy Lanese, the women's Cross Country coach and one the biggest influences in your running career.  How have these changes affected the dynamic of the women's cross country team, if at all?

To be honest, most of the cross country team didn't have any contact with the other coaches to speak of.  The other coaches left us to Coach Lanese, and we were fine with that because she did her job well.  I think the other coaches were probably intimidated by us because we are such a large group and are all very dedicated to Coach Lanese who threatened them because, on the whole, her athletes have been relatively much more successful than theirs have, especially in recent years. Cross country has always been its own thing at Case.  Coach Rubin has made it one of his goals to bring the track and cross country teams together.  I hope his efforts are successful.

Similarly, how has the team's self-motivation, which you saw last year to be on the rise, continued this year?  Have the coaching changes had any impact on this self-motivation?

It keeps on getting better and better.  I love being on this team.  At Calvin, we had our entire top five under my best time from two years ago, the same year I qualified individually for nationals.  Things have changed so much, it's unbelievable.  We've gone from 11th in the region my freshman year to 10th in the nation my junior year.  If the bar is raised, people will rise to the occasion.  A lot of the change is due to a few key juniors who weren't quite ready as freshmen, but have steadily improved since coming to Case, and I like to think that I had something to do with it, too.

Do you follow running at the collegiate or professional levels at all?  Would you care to confess to what extent you lurk on Letsrun.com or other message boards?I mostly follow collegiate and high school running.  The high school part is silly, but since I never ran cross in high school, sometimes I like to pretend like I could throw myself into those races now.  It made more sense a few years ago, but I also like to keep tabs on my high school team because I still go back and train with them occasionally when I'm at home, even though I never actually ran on a team with any of the current students.

I look into the big events at the professional and DI levels and sometimes keep track of other kids who went to my high school, but for the most part, I just scope out the competition in DIII.  I don't really use any message boards;  I usually just let the numbers speak for themselves.

Are there any other closing thoughts or pieces of wisdom you'd like to share?
Do what you love and love what you do.

Thanks to Esther for a fantastic interview.

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3:56 PM, October 29, 2007 .. Posted by Anonymous

Congrats,. Very nice interview. Good luck with the last 2 races.

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11:25 PM, October 30, 2007 .. Posted by Anonymous

C W-R U ready for some snow on the 17th?
Haha, go Case!

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11:27 PM, October 30, 2007 .. Posted by Anonymous

I like you. A lot, Esther Erb.

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12:55 AM, October 31, 2007 .. Posted by Anonymous

I met Ester at a track meet last year and she is very down to earth and nice-way to go, Ester