Interview with Brad Lowery

By Shannon Martin

Brad Lowery, 25, who trains with Team USA Minnesota under coach Dennis Barker, has not experienced the sort of improvement he expected after college, though it now appears he is on an upturn. A native of Pierre, South Dakota, and a six-time NCAA Division II All American at South Dakota State, Lowery has personal bests of 3:42.44 for 1500 meters, 4:01.67 for the mile, 8:03.34 for the 3000, and 13:52.95 for the 5000.

After struggling with an inflamed IT band this spring, Lowery began jogging again in May and ran a 5000-meter personal best (by eight seconds) in June. This achievement set the stage for some fabulous summer road-race performances, including a third-place finish at the Falmouth Mile, and first-place finishes at the Grandma’s Minnesota Mile, St. Paul, and the Grandma’s Minnesota Mile, Duluth.

Lowery will compete in the CVS/pharmacy 5K on September 16, a race that doubles as the USA 5K Championships. Mensracing was able to speak with Lowery less than a week before this race.

MensRacing.com: Let’s start out by discussing your successful road races over the past couple of months. Your most recent race was yesterday, the Grandma’s Minnesota Mile, Duluth, which you won in 4:08. Tell me about this race and the competition; the field looked pretty competitive.

Brad Lowery : Yesterday’s race was part of a two-race series, both miles, that started this year [Lowery also won the first race, the Grandma’s Minnesota Mile, St. Paul, on July 11 in 4:10]. The prize purse was nice, so that attracted some pretty good competition. They were both good races for tune-ups. The one I ran yesterday was a great tune-up for the 5K next weekend.

MR: You also did well at the Falmouth Mile this summer. What are your thoughts about that race and your third-place finish?

BL: I was really happy with that. Seeing as I lost to Jonathon Riley and Chris Solinsky, I can’t complain too much. I am still on the edge of a four-minute mile, and I was hoping to take care of that there, but it didn’t happen. It was a fun weekend. I had never been out there before; it was nice to see how much the town gets into the race.

MR: It seems as though you are doing a lot of mile or 1500 races like you were doing in college. Are you leaning more toward continuing with middle-distance races, or are you seeking to move up to more 5K-type races?

BL: I’m planning on moving up to the 5K. I was more of a 1500 runner in college, but since college, I haven’t been able to improve at that distance, so we’re thinking that I don’t have quite enough speed to continue with the middle-distance. Hopefully by next spring, I can make a pretty good improvement in the 5K.

MR: Do you have any plans going into the winter with indoor track?

BL: I think I’ll work on the 3K a little bit, just to get a little bit more experience with that distance, hopefully that will give me a pretty good transition to run the 5K in the spring. MR: You’ve struggled with injuries the past couple of years. Things seem to be going quite well now. What are you doing to try to stay healthy and injury-free?

MR: You’ve struggled with injuries the past couple of years. Things seem to be going quite well now. What are you doing to try to stay healthy and injury-free?

BL: I’m trying to stay on top of the little things that matter, like stretching and strength training. I still need to work on that. I think sometimes injuries involve bad luck and that there isn’t a whole lot you can do to prevent them from happening. It’s probably a combination of bad luck and not taking care of my body the best that I can.

MR: Do you think that you are becoming more mindful of the little things that matter?

BL: I’m definitely paying more attention when I have a little ache or pain here or there. I try to take off a little bit to avoid the possibility of taking off for a long period of time if I continue running with the ache.

MR: Do you like the camaraderie of Team USA Minnesota?

BL: Yeah, I have great training partners, and Dennis is a great coach. It’s a diverse group of athletes from milers to marathoners, and I think it works out pretty well for all of us. As far as being in Minneapolis, I really enjoy it up here. I’m close enough to my family so I can go home pretty easily.

MR: What has been the most difficult change for you moving up fro the collegiate level of running to the elite level of running?

BL: That’s a tough question [laughing]. I’d say the hardest change has been not seeing the improvement that I was hoping for. I thought I would keep improving like I was the last couple of years of college, which was pretty rapidly. It’s also been hard because I’ve yet to make it to a national outdoor track championship. It’s been frustrating; I’m going on four years of trying to qualify for that meet. Hopefully, I’ll break that trend next year.

MR: Well, you’ve certainly been doing well the past couple of months on the roads. I think you can attribute your inability to qualify for nationals on the track to your injuries, wouldn’t you say?

BL: Yes, for sure. The past two years, I’ve been injured for the entire month of March, which leaves a really short period of time to try to run a qualifying time for nationals.And for me, I’d need to run a PR to qualify for my event.

MR: Back to the roads: Last year, you placed 23rd at the USA 5K Road Championships. Do you have any specific goals going into this year, in terms of place, time, or strategy?

BL: I’m hoping for a top-10 finish. I think that would be a pretty good result for me, and a good way to end the year. I don’t know exactly who’s going to be there, but I can say that I’d be happy with a top-10 finish.

MR: Sounds like a great goal to me. Good luck with the race this weekend and your training into next spring.

BL: Thank you.

Interview conducted September 10, 2007, and posted September 13, 2007.