Blogs : NCAA Division III Blog

Interviews: Tim Finnegan of Calvin

Finnegan at the UW-Oshkosh Invitational

(Photo courtesy of DePauw assistant coach Linda Skaggs)

Finnegan is a senior at Calvin College.  Last year at the 2005 NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships he finished 3^rd individually helping his team finish as the National Runners-Up.  This past weekend Finnegan won his second straight Great Lakes Regional Cross Country individual title helping Calvin win its 11th consecutive regional team title.  The men's team is currently ranked 1st in the latest Week 7 Division III National Poll.

By: Derick Lawrence (11/08/2006)

Tell us a little bit about yourself (where you’re from, what high school you went to, how you got started running)?

I was born and raise in Los Alamos, New Mexico, a little town in the Southern Rockies.  As far as school goes, I was home schooled for my whole life until I set foot on Calvin’s campus, and I loved it.  It meant that I never really got to compete until I got to college, but schooling was tailored to my needs and was more flexible so that I was able to learn better than I would have in a public school.  I was a really high energy kid and would have really struggled in a public school setting, but instead I was able to learn in a way that engaged me and that fit my personal learning style and needs.  I got started running through my dad- he would pull me out the door to run with him every so often starting when I was pretty small because he loved running and wanted to share it with me, and thought that I could end up being a decent runner.  I was never really very motivated to work at it until about the time I was a junior in high school, which was probably aided by the fact that I wasn’t allowed to compete with the schools in New Mexico (in NM you have to be enrolled at least half time in a public school to be eligible to compete in high school sports).  My dad and another home school father, Jesse Taylor (NCAA D2 All American at Adams State) organized a time a couple days a week where a few home schooled kids would get together.  My junior year, Jesse decided that we should train a bit harder and fly out to the Footlocker West Regional, since any high school student can compete there.  So, starting at the end of September 2001 I upped my mileage and we did a few workouts on the track (the first I’d ever done) and flew out to California.  I did decent, and started enjoying it, so I trained a little harder the next year, a little earlier, and did well enough at Footlocker my senior year that I actually considered trying to run in college.  I never ran a track race in high school- my very first one was the summer after my senior year when I joined a track club and ran 2 or 3 slow club meets.

What were your PR's in high school (cross country and track)?

Somewhere around 10:15 in a solo time trial 3200

16:11 road 5k

16:23 XC 5k (footlocker west regional)

What are your current PR's (cross country and track)?

3:56 -1500

14:30 -5000

24:14 -8k XC

30:06 -10000

What was your training like this past summer (mileage, workouts, etc.)?  Did you train with any of the guys on the team this past summer?

This past summer I worked up my mileage fairly slowly after a bit of a rough track season to make sure I actually recovered from it, and got up to about 75 miles/week, which is pretty typical for me.  I didn’t really do any organized/planned workouts over the summer, though I would generally have one faster paced run and one harder hilly run each week.  I did almost all of my training solo, since I was at home in New Mexico and none of my teammates are close by.

How has your training progressed over the years from high school to now (cross country and track)?

My training in high school was pretty minimal.  I would run a couple of miles two-four days per week my freshman/sophomore years, running a 5k on the road every once in a while.  My junior year, I upped my running to 5 days a week, and actually did a few track workouts starting late in Sept. maxing out at probably 20-25 mpw, and ran a PR by more than two minutes (17:21) at footlocker West.  My senior year, I was more motivated, started training earlier and doing a few more miles.  I maxed out around 30-35 mpw which ended in my PR at Footlocker that year- I also ran my 10:15 time-trial 3200 as a fitness test going into footlocker.  My freshman year in college, I worked up to about 50-55 mpw during the summer, then got up to 60 during the winter before I got hurt and ended up not running the track season.  Soph. year, I got up to 60-65 mpw during the summer, got hurt during the winter again and only did about 45-50 during track.  Junior year I got up to 70-75 mpw during the summer, and 80 during the winter.  This past summer, I got up to 70-75 mpw again.  All of my mileage is done in 6 days.

What has your training consisted of over the past two weeks (mileage, workouts, etc.)?

I’ve been at 70 and 65 miles for the past 2 weeks (still in 6 days).  We did 1000’s 2 weeks ago, and had our conference race on the weekend, and then we had mile repeats and 800’s last week.

With a meet each weekend from September 16-October 14, how often each week did the team perform intense workouts during this period? 

Depending on the week and on the importance of the meet, we did 1 or 2 hard workouts each week.

Last year at the 2005 NCAA Division III Cross Country Championships you finished 3^rd individually helping your team finish as the National Runners-Up.  Tell us about this race and what you learned from it that has carried over to this season.

Personally, I ran a good race.  I got out and got in the race and competed, and was able to cover moves and make my own and finished it well.  The team on the other hand, did not have a great race.  We were really just a young team, and we learned a lot.  The experience last year was invaluable for us, especially since it was the first national meet for a lot of our guys.

What’s the team’s attitude like heading into regionals and nationals?

Start of the Great Lakes Regional Cross Country Meet

(Photo courtesy of DePauw assistant coach Linda Skaggs)

We are extremely excited.  We’ve had a very good season, and our team has come together very well.  We’ve built a lot of confidence in each other and in the team as a whole.  The consistency that my teammates have shown all season long has been awesome and so exciting. (Editor’s Note: Tim captured the individual title this past weekend at the Great Lakes Regional Cross Country Meet helping his team win the team title with 17 points)

How does this year’s team compare to other teams in the past?

It will be interesting to see how it stacks up at the national meet compared to previous teams.  It’s hard to compare teams until you see the end result, but I think this team will stack right up with some of the best we’ve ever had.

Do you walk, bike, or drive to class and/or practice? If you bike or drive, what kind of bike or car do you have?

It depends on how late I am running for class- if I’m on time, I’ll walk (its about a mile from my appt. to campus), but if I’m running a little later, I’ll drive (my bike is incapacitated currently, and it’s cold outside), which tends to happen more often than not.  I drive a 1990 Subaru Legacy sedan.

What's your major?  Favorite professor?  Most memorable class?

Aerial view of Calvin College

(Photo courtesy of the Calvin College website)

I am an Electrical Engineering major.  My favorite professor would probably be Dr. Steve VanderLeest who is one of the harder profs I’ve had, but I learn well from him because his teaching style fits me.  Most memorable class is probably Senior Design class, which I am in right now and will not be done until the end of the Spring, but I’m working on a really awesome project with a great team of engineering majors.  We’re working on designing a power generation/ distribution system (power plant basically) for a university that is being planned for Cambodia.

What are the dining options like at Calvin College?  Does most of the team eat together?

We have 2 dining halls on campus, and a small store + coffee shop.  Freshmen and Sophomores live in the dorms and have to have meal-plans, then juniors/seniors can live either in on campus apartments, or off campus, and most don’t have meal plans, so generally the people on campus will eat together, and us upperclassmen will join them in the dining halls every so often.  The upperclassmen go out for breakfast once a week or so, and we’ll have a group go out for dinner a couple times a week.

Who has been the biggest influence in your life and/or running?

The biggest influence in my life and running both would be my Dad.  If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t be running, and I wouldn’t be at Calvin.  He’s been an example for me in both being a Godly man and father, as well as a dedicated runner.  He’s been running 6 days a week almost every week for as long as I can remember.  He gets up early every morning to go out and run and he used to pull me out with him.  He’s 50 and is still running 50+ mpw and I think is planning on training for another marathon in the future.  He also put Calvin on my list and made me look at it because he wanted me to have a team that I could run with.

What are your plans after college?  Do you plan on running competitively post-collegiately?

I don’t know exactly what I’m going to do after college yet.  I would really like to continue training and competing after college if I can get my times down enough.  I’m hoping to do that for a few years, and then go into an engineering position.

Do you have a pre-race routine (certain foods you eat, songs you listen to, warmup routine, etc.)?  If so, could you describe it for us.

I don’t have any really specific routine.  I generally get up and make sure I eat about 4 hours before I race, but I generally don’t listen to music before races- I will sometimes before a big meet.  We warm up for 15 minutes an hour before the race and then we are on the line doing strides at least 15 minutes before the race.

What do you like the most about Calvin College Cross Country?

The team.  We are like a family and we spend a lot of time together.  The whole program is built around a cohesive, close-knit team centered around using our talents to glorify God.  If you were to ask any guy on the team what their goal is, the first thing you will hear is to do their best to help the team.  God has blessed us immensely with great guys and we are really close.  I would not trade these guys and the relationship we have for anything.  There is no one I would rather have standing on the line with me at Regionals and Nationals.

What's the running environment like at Calvin College?  Where does the team train? 

Calvin College cross country course

(Photo courtesy of Dan Vos)

We run on a lot of pavement- there aren’t a lot of trails close by.  We do a lot of our workouts on our course though.

Any parting words for readers?

Work hard, push yourself and use the gifts you have been given.  Things that take work to achieve are always worth more.  It’s about the journey, not the end, so do the work and enjoy the journey because these 4 years go so fast.

Thanks to Tim for a great interview.

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