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Christine Babcock competes at the 2007 California state meet. (Photo by Margaret Gallagher.)

Interview with Christine Babcock

Posted on June 19, 2008, Interview conducted June 18, 2008

By Alison Wade

Heading into the 2008 track season, Christine Babcock was already an incredibly successful runner with two Division II California state cross country titles and two California state 1,600 meter titles under her belt. Because she had opted not to participate in post-season events such as the Foot Locker Cross Country Championships and Nike Outdoor Nationals, she was mostly known inside of California, and nationally among those who followed high school running relatively closely. Her performances in the 2008 season, however, have been virtually impossible to miss. On May 31st, Babcock made national headlines when she set a new national high school federation record of 4:33.82 in the 1,600 while winning her third-straight California state title. Among high school runners, only Polly Plummer's high school mile record of 4:35.24 from 1982 is considered to be superior, and only by a couple tenths of a second.

On June 15th, Babcock added the national high school federation record in the 1,500 to her resume, running 4:16.42 and breaking Kim Gallagher's 26-year-old record. The record was mostly an afterthought; Babcock was focusing on qualifying for the U.S. Olympic Trials, which she successfully did. She will line up against the U.S.'s best professional and collegiate runners in the quarterfinals of the 1,500 at the U.S. Olympic Trials in Eugene, Oregon on July 3rd.

Babcock, who turned 18 on May 19th, graduated from Woodbridge High School in Irvine, California on June 16th. She is coached by George Varvas, but will soon take her talents to the University of Washington.

Babcock is not the only fast runner in her family. Her mother, the former Kelly Spatz, finished 24th at the 1984 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in 2:38:45, and she still holds Michigan State's outdoor mile record of 4:49.56. Babcock's sister, Jessie, ran 5:02 and 10:41 for Woodbridge High School and now runs for Penn State. Babcock's father, Dan, is also a runner.

We caught up with Babcock by phone two days after her high school graduation.

You raced on Sunday (setting the high school 1,500m record) and graduated from high school on Monday, correct?
Yes, and then my grad night was Monday night—that was until 5:00 in the morning.

So you've had a lot going on recently.
Yeah, and I'm glad that it's kind of slowing down a little bit.

Do you have much planned for the next couple weeks?
I have a lot of graduation parties to go to, but other than that, not really.

What was more exciting, getting the Trials qualifying time or graduating?
Probably graduation [laughs]. It took longer to graduate, I feel like, than it did to get the Trials qualifying time, and if I didn't get it, it wasn't going to be the end of my life.

Can you tell us about your race on Sunday? It sounds like it was pretty challenging to run fast in that kind of environment (with very few spectators and little competition).
There were like five other girls in the race, and then I had the rabbit [Ysanne Williams] for the first 800 meters. I didn't really want to run, to be quite honest with you. I knew it was going to be pretty hard because there weren't many people in the race, and mentally I'm pretty tired from all the races that I've done. Since I took such a long break, it was hard to get back into the mental part of racing.

I guess the race was okay. It really helped to have the rabbit for the first 800 meters, because I've never really had anyone with me except for in the two-mile at Arcadia against Jordan Hasay, so that was helpful. It was a different race, since I'd never run 1,500 meters before.

How much of a break did you take after the state meet?
I took three days off, where I did absolutely nothing, and then distance runs for the next few days—so almost five days off without any hard workouts.

And then you got right back into it?
Well my coach was thinking that they were going to convert my 1,600 meter time, so we weren't planning on running any other races, but then they didn't, so I ran. [USATF requires that runners qualify for the Olympic Trials 1,500 with either a 1,500 time or, in certain situations, a mile time.]

It sounds like it was mentally difficult to get 'up' for this race, but do you think it will be a lot easier to get up for the rest of your training and the Trials?
I don't really mind training that much and I think, for the Trials, it's going to be so exciting just to even be there that it will seem a lot easier. There are going to be a lot of girls in front of me, which will help pull me along. And more fans, I guess.

What do you think your preparation is going to look like between now and the Trials?
I think this week and next week will probably include harder workouts, but after that I'll probably taper off to prepare. I don't know what it'll look like yet [laughs], I haven't talked to my coach. I'll probably do similar to what I did two or three weeks before the state meet, I would guess.

Do you have anyone to train with right now?
I do the repeat/track workouts, by myself. Sometimes I'll call some of the boys on my team to do distance runs with me, or my sister bikes with me, because she has a broken foot right now and can't run.

Is that what you do during the season—if you run with anyone, it's usually the boys?
Yeah. That's who I did my repeat workouts with during the season, and distance runs too, but my coach always goes on a bike with us, so he's always there [laughs].

What made you choose the Olympic Trials route over the Nike Outdoor Nationals route to end your season?
I've never done the Nike Outdoor Nationals before, and we weren't really focusing on that race. I think, to be quite honest, that my coach wants to go to the Olympic Trials [laughs], so he was kind of the one who talked me into it. I don't really care, to be honest.

So if it were up to you, you'd be happy to end your season?
Yeah, I'd be glad to be done. But I'm sure it's going to be a good experience. There are some days where I'm like, 'Uh, I'm tired,' but I'm sure everybody thinks that.

Are you going to be in Eugene for the duration of the Olympic Trials?
I'm going up on [July] 1st, and the first day of the 1,500 is on the 3rd, so I'm not going to be there the whole time.

Is your family going with you?
My parents and one of my two sisters are going to be there.

You've resisted competing in the post-season in past years, including during the cross country season. Does it make it any easier that you're done with school now?
I don't know… Normally, at the end of the season, my body feels more beat up than it does this season, just because I have a long season and I do more races than the normal top high school athlete, because I have a team that is relying on me also. In the month of May alone, I ran in 19 races, which I guess is a lot for most people. I was tripling at every meet, and sometimes even quadrupling. Normally my body is just kind of done and I can feel that if I continued on, everything would start getting injured. So far, I'm feeling good, so maybe that's why we decided to continue…and, like I said, my coach wanted to go to the Trials [laughs].

When you triple or quadruple at a meet, I assume that you're treating some of those races as a workout. You wouldn't need to run all-out to win most of the races, correct?
Yeah, most of them. When it got down to the bigger meets, I'd triple. I tripled at both the CIF prelims and CIF finals, so those ones are harder—especially CIF finals—where the temperature was like 105, so that was really hard. [Note: This didn't stop her from running 4:49.32, 10:42.56, and a 57.4 relay split.] Normally when I quadrupled, I wouldn't have to run fast in all four of the races.

Can you tell us a little bit about your coach, George Varvas, and the role he has played in your running career?
He teaches science at our high school and he's also the track and cross country coach. He's played a huge role in my running, because I never ran before I came into high school. Everything that I've learned has been from him. He's the one who has organized all of my practices and meets. Basically he's in charge of everything that's happened so far in my running career.

Was or is he a runner?
He ran up until this year, and he just had knee replacement surgery. So he used to run and wants to run again, but he doesn't currently.

What kind of mileage have you done throughout your high school career, and has it increased from year to year?
I've been doing about 30 miles [per week] since a little before the state meet until now. In the summer I normally do more; I guess it kind of depends what season I'm in. I was probably at 30 or 35 during cross country and then I did more during the off-season between track and cross country. I did about 50 in the summer.

Is that the highest mileage you've ever hit?
I think so. I don't know for sure; I'm not the best at keeping logs.

Do you keep a training log?
I do right now. My Washington coaches asked me to, so I've been getting better at doing it. But normally, during the season, I don't.

What would you say is the hardest workout you've ever done?
This year, I had to do eight 400s alone, which was pretty hard. But overall, one day I had to do this nine-mile fartlek run and the other girl who was doing it with me dropped off, so I had to stay with my coach, who was on a bike, alone. It was like 90 degrees out and it was really hot and miserable. I got heatstroke after that and it was the hardest run I've ever had to do.

Coach Varvas was quoted as saying that you'd run until you passed out if no one told you to stop. Would you say that's true?
I don't think so! When I do workouts, I try hard—I don't dog them—so by the end I'm tired. I've never run so hard that I've thrown up or anything like that. I try hard, but I don't kill myself. I normally can function fine after workouts, so I don't know what he's saying [laughs].

When you do a workout like 8x400, how fast do you normally do your 400s and how much rest would you get?
Well I just did it recently and I think I did like 62, 63, 64, 63, 62, 62, 64, and I think the last one was a 60. I probably had three minutes of rest maybe—I don't know for sure. That was probably one of the hardest track workouts I've had. And then I lost my contact, so I was running with only one contact, and that didn't work too well [laughs].

Your mother was a very good runner. Does she still run?
She runs for fun now, just recreationally. She doesn't compete at all.

Was she one of the reasons you took up running?
No. I probably started because my older sister was doing it and she was having so much fun that I decided to do it. My dad runs recreationally too, but neither of our parents pushed us into running. Up until we were freshmen, both my sister and I did soccer, swim team, and everything else. It was our decision to run when we went into high school. I chose it, but my sister probably had the most influence on my decision, because I went to all of her meets and saw how much fun she was having.

We read that you considered throwing the discus when you went out for the team.
[Laughs] Well my mom told my coach that she wanted me to do field events because she was worried that I was never going to be good at anything, and I'm not the type of personality who likes to fail or something. So my coach tried to make me do the discus and the high jump, but it didn't work too well.

You're pretty tall, right?
Yeah, I'm almost 5'10".

So the high jump might have made sense…
I'm not very flexible, so I couldn't arch my back. I couldn't even clear four feet! I wasn't good at it.

Were there not any indicators that you were going to be a good runner, based on your soccer or swimming ability?
Well when I came out for the team freshman year, I had some weight to lose, but during cross country, I think I was like the sixth runner on varsity. I ran in the 19-minute range, and for a freshman, that's not anything that's unheard of. There was another freshman girl in front of me at the time. Since our cross country team was pretty good then, we had a lot of milers. My mom was just worried I would never succeed or something.

How would you say becoming a runner has changed you?
Well, I've definitely had to learn how to manage my time a lot better. Coming home from practice, it's been really hard to get straight to work, but I've had to learn to make sure I get everything done before I go to bed and manage my time.

It's also taught me that with hard work and a positive attitude, you can pretty much do anything you want, I guess.

And I'd imagine that your success in running has helped you learn how to talk to the media and get more comfortable doing that.
I don't know…I'd say I'm still not the best at that. I always say, 'If I could just run and not have to talk to anyone, that would be great.' [Laughs]

What other schools did you look at, and how did you decide on the University of Washington?
I also looked at UCLA and the University of Oregon, and I just really connected with the coaches and the team when I was in Seattle. Everyone I talked to was like, 'You'll just know when you go somewhere and it's right. You'll just feel that it's right.' I was like, 'Well how do you know?' I was always wondering. But when I went there, I felt like it was the perfect place for me. I just fit in with the team, I got along with everyone, and I came home telling my parents that that's where I wanted to go. It was my first official visit, though, so my parents were like, 'You're just excited because you've never had an official visit and it was fun, so you have to do the other two first.' Even after the other two, I knew I wanted to go to the University of Washington. It was just the best trip I had, and I felt the most connected.

Do you have any idea what you want to study?
I think I want to work with kids with special needs. I don't know what, specifically, but they have occupational therapy, speech therapy, and physical therapy, so probably one of those three, but I'm not positive.

When do you leave for college?
I have to be there August 25th, but my school doesn't start until September 29th, so I'm there for a month before classes start.

So you still have a lot of summer ahead of you. Do you have plans for the summer from the Trials and on?
I'm going to go to Mammoth for a week with my high school team, because I have a little sister who's going into the program this summer—she's going to be a freshman.

So they're going to make her do the discus?
[Laughs] I don't know what she's going to do. We were all like, 'Molly, if you run, you just have to know that there's going to be a lot of pressure on you.' And I think my coach has been telling her, 'It's okay if you don't break all of Christine's records freshman year,' and all this stuff. But I don't know, we'll see about her.

Where do you work?
I'm going to be working at this place called ICEC—Intervention Center for Early Childhood. They have kids from ages one to three who have Down syndrome, autism, or other special needs. They come with their parents and the parents learn about how to further their child's abilities and they work hands-on with the specialists so they can maximize their child's ability. I'm going to be working with this mom who has triplets who all have varying degrees of autism. I'll be working with them two days a week, and then I'll work with a group of kids a third day each week. I won't be working that much, only three days a week, but it will give me something else to occupy my time with.

Aside from the cross country camp, do you have any plans to relax this summer and just chill out?
I'm going to a camp after the Trials—it's a Christian camp. I'm really excited for that. I told my coach, 'If I go to the Trials, I'm not missing this camp. We have to be back for it!'

On a different topic, this year's California state meet was one of the greatest days ever in high school distance running history, and you started that off with your 4:33 1,600. Did you watch the races after yours, and what did you think about the performances by German Fernandez, Jordan Hasay, and Laurynne Chetelat?
I did watch the races and I was very surprised by German because he had already run that amazing 1,600 and he came back and ran an incredible 3,200. In the girls' 3,200, at the mile mark, I thought they were going to be running about what Jordan and I ran at Arcadia, because they came through in about 5:02. I guess I was pretty shocked when they finished that fast. They had a very negative split. It's funny because the second half of their races would have placed them second and third in the 1,600.

You ran a similarly close race against Jordan Hasay at the Arcadia Invitational (with Jordan winning 10:03.07 to 10:04.03) in April. Does any part of you wish you could have a rematch over that distance?
Not really. I don't really care that I got second. I guess it would be fun to see what I could run now, because I feel like I'm in better shape, but I'm happy with what has happened so far, so I don't really care.

Do you consider yourself to be a competitive person?
I guess so; I'm pretty competitive. Running is not my entire life, so I don't really care if I lose. I ran a 13-second PR or more when I ran against Jordan, and people were like, 'You lost. You failed.' I was like, 'I didn't really fail. To me, I still basically won because I improved and I had never really pushed myself that hard or had that much competition.' For me, it was still a success even though, in the eyes of almost everyone else, it wasn't. This one reporter asked my coach, 'Are you going to go back to the drawing board now that she's lost?' And it's like, 'No, it isn't like she lost by a lot.' People had funny reactions, though, because it's not like me [to lose].

Where do you see your running going? Is it something you want to do for a long time, or are you just focusing on college right now?
I would say I'm just focusing on college right now. After that, we'll have to see. Who knows what could happen in four years. One day at a time, and then we'll figure out where to go after college, or if I'm even going to run.

Is there anyone who you're going to be running against at the Trials that you're particularly excited about running against, or anyone that you're excited to watch run?
To be quite honest, I don't follow professional running very closely, but I guess it will just be fun to run with people who will eventually be representing our country in the Olympics. Just to say that you could even run with them would be pretty exciting. Other than that, I'm excited because the University of Washington has three people in it, so the ones who aren't graduating will be my future teammates. That's pretty cool.

What activities do you like to do outside of running?
I like to hang out with my friends, like most high schoolers. I go to Disneyland a lot, because I live 15 minutes away. I go to church…and I do other fun things that are different from running.

Can you tell us a little bit about the t-shirts that you hand out at meets? Who do you give them to, what inspired you to make them, and what do they say on them?
I give them to anyone who asks for my autograph or a picture, or anyone else who I have an opportunity to give them to. Most people are surprised when I ask them if they'd like a t-shirt. What inspired me? I feel really blessed to be where I am right now and I just felt like I should 'give back' in some way. They say, 'Those who trust in the Lord…will find new strength…will soar on wings like eagles…will run and now grow weary.' -Isaiah 40:31.