Blogs : NCAA Division III Blog

Jason Mayeroff of Centre College (Alumni)

You ran at Centre College, a liberal arts college in Kentucky.  You're still the 5000m record holder there in fact!  Describe your DIII running career—what made you choose DIII, how did you progress, what was your training like then, and how do you look back on that experience now?
At that time, 20 years ago now, I had no desire to compete in collegiate athletics.  I chose Centre College primarily for its high quality academic program.  I did not compete at all in high school, even though my high school, Reno High School, won the Nevada State Cross Country Championship all 4 years I was there.  I started running by myself during my Junior year of high school, and I was running 6-8 miles a day by my Senior year of high school.

My mother came to Kentucky with me for a few days when I started my first semester at Centre College, and she took it upon herself to find out where the Cross Country team meets for practice.  She convinced me to tryout for the team.  I really didn't want to go!  I just wanted to study and earn good grades.  So I decided to give it a try anyway.  The coach, Dick Burchett, sent us out for a 10 mile run that first day, and I thought that I was going to get blown away since the other runners had all raced in Junior High school and High School.  I had never timed myself running before that, so I had no idea what was fast and what was slow!  We started running and I couldn't figure out why they were running so slow, so I just took off and started hammering.

In my Sophomore year, I started reading a lot about training for high-level distance running, so I started running twice a day, about 130-140 miles a week.  I can still remember those cold, dark Kentucky mornings, waking up at 5am and just putting on the shoes and heading out.  Coach Burchett convinced me to try a marathon in my 2nd year of college, and so we went to Cleveland in May of 1989 and I loved everything about the marathon.

How has your training been going lately?  What are you gearing up for?

Right now I am nursing a calf problem. My first injury since my achilles operation in February. I've been out for 2 weeks since winning the Brussels Half Marathon on October 14.  I am convinced that I have a "Half-marathon Jinx."  I have some really great doctors here in Bangkok and I should be running again within a week.  Once I get rolling again, I will be aiming for a good marathon in Japan or Europe in February, March or April.

How did your experience running in Division III prepare and not prepare you for running as a professional post-collegiately?

The D3 experience, at least at that time, was very loose and casual.  I hardly ever trained with anyone in college, except for that first season of Cross country. I started training seriously in my sophomore year.  The training and racing at Centre was a serious or as casual as you wanted it to be, so there was no real pressure to perform.  I put a lot of pressure on myself to train hard, and I ran 2:23 for the marathon in my Senior year.  Post-collegiately, it would have been better to seek out the assistance of a great coach, but I am the type of person that needs to find his own path.

You still closely follow Division III running and the South region in particular.  What are your predictions for the South region for this coming cross country season?  Do you have any predictions for the National Championship as a whole?

I have some friends at Centre and Furman, as well as other schools, so yes I do follow their results.  Centre finished 4th in the SCAC Conference Championships last weekend.  They lost a few good runners this year due to graduation, but again, the main thing is to have fun and run as well as possible.  These are young runners with a lot going on outside of running, so I just want them to have fun and enjoy it.  Centre has a great coach, Lisa Owens, and they will improve.  They have some outstanding freshman runners, such as Sam Morgan, who I have known since he was born.  I am going to try to get back to Centre by the end of the year to cheer for the team and visit my good friends there.

The main thing I want for my fellow Centre runners, and all runners really, is to enjoy the running and stay healthy.  As I have found out the hard way in the last 14 months or so, putting too much emphasis on race results will really drive you crazy.

What about Division III running has kept you connected all these years?

D3 schools are generally smaller schools where the social environment is more closely-knit.  I think that everyone at Centre back in those days knew that I was the "Crazy Marathon Runner from Nevada"!!!   The D3 setting is perfect for a runner like me, just starting to compete, since the main goal is to have fun and put things in the right perspective.  You will never lose an athletic scholarship due to injury or poor performance, since there are no athletic scholarships in D3 at all.  I think that I remain connected to it because Centre is such a special place.  There were hard times there due to injuries and my lack of social skills, but I have a lot of fond memories of Centre.

The men's marathon Olympic Trials in New York are coming up in about a week.  This is shaping up to be perhaps the most competitive U.S. field ever for the marathon.  Give us your thoughts on how you see the race breaking down.  Hard as it may be to choose, who do you think will be in the top three and who would you like to be in the top three?

At the highest levels, American distance running has improved dramatically in the last 4 years, which is good to see.  Although I don't know them well personally, I hope that Peter Gilmore, Clint Verran and Brian Sell do well.  It will be very hard to beat Ryan Hall, Abdi and Meb.  I know Dan Browne well personally, even though our lifestyles and philosophies are very different.  I think that he will do very well.  He has been through a lot of challenges and changes in his life in the last 3 years.  I naturally love a good upset!!!

Due to the hilly nature of the course, I don't see it going out very fast, about 31:10 or so at the 10km point, just under 1:06 at the half.

[Editors’ note: Jason should be commended for being one of the only people to single out a strong performance by Dan Browne prior to the race.]

Do you keep an online running log that you'd be willing to share?

I don't keep a log of any kind.  I just have a general philosophy of training that keeps evolving, and I just "feel" my way through my training.  I don't record my workouts on my computer or on paper.

Are there any other closing thoughts or pieces of wisdom you'd like to share?

I would just like to wish everyone who reads this some happiness and healthy running, wherever you happen to be.

Thanks to Jason for a great interview.

Yay Cleveland!

2:34 AM, November 7, 2007 .. Posted by Johnny

He mentioned Cleveland, so I really like this guy. Its nice to see an interview about someone who is doing post-collegiate running after being in DIII. Its interesting to hear about people who are still giving it a go. I wish DIII had some kind of post-collegiate network involving those of us who are still trying to do it full go so that we could know that there are others like us out there (besides Rock, Symmonds, Sell, and a few others).

MAYEROFF

12:35 AM, December 8, 2007 .. Posted by txrunnergirl

I just stumbled upon this article. Go Jason!

Untitled Comment

8:42 AM, March 22, 2008 .. Posted by Eed

Do it the best as Jason!!1