Interview with Michelle Sikes

By Duncan Larkin

When doing research for my interview with former Wake Forest University standout, now professional athlete Michelle Sikes, 22, I had to reread the progress that she made in the 5000-meter distance in the span of two years. Were these times typos? No. In 2005, Sikes ran the 5000 in 16:29. A year later, she ran it in 16:07. Then there was this year, 2007. At the USATF Outdoor Championships in June, Sikes finished third overall, running a blistering 15:09—good to qualify her for the World Championships in Osaka, Japan that begin on August 25. She will race in the 5000-meter preliminary heats on August 29 and hopes to make the 5000-meter final on September 1.

Sikes graduated from Wake Forest last May with a major in mathematical economics and a minor in health policy and administration. As apt a student as she is an athlete, Sikes was recently named a Rhodes Scholar, and she plans to study at Oxford University starting in late September. While at Wake Forest, Sikes captained the women’s track and cross country teams where she garnered All-American honors in 2006 and 2007 in track and cross country.

On August 10, having recently returned to the United States after racing in the European summer track circuit, Sikes entered the prestigious Falmouth Mile. During that race, with about 800 meters to go, she boldly took the lead and held it for nearly a lap, but faded near the end. She ended up finishing sixth in that race.

Fast-women.com: I just watched the video on Chasingkimbia.com of you racing the Falmouth Mile. Tell me about the race. How did you feel?

Michelle Sikes: It was a learning race for me, but I think that I came away with more lessons on racing than I gained in my previous outdoor track season. I can’t tell you how glad I am that I went and did it, because I had left the collegiate track season and the U.S. Track and Field Championships with everything going exactly how I wanted it to go—perfectly playing into how I envisioned it all. So coming back and racing after that was a really good opportunity for me to get through the sense of almost like a fear of putting myself out on the line again and not having it be so magical. It taught me that I’m still the same person as before I raced it.

FW: It looked like you made a move with about 800 meters to go.

MS: Right. I’m glad that I attempted that. I got a little more taste with how aggressive it can be in a mile race as opposed to the collegiate level. It was an overall good experience.

FW: You are mostly a 5K runner. Is the mile too much—too fast or too intimidating for you? Is the leg turnover too much? Do you look at yourself as a better 5K runner than a miler?

MS: I would definitely say that the 5K is a great blend of speed and endurance for me. I can apply my strengths in speed and endurance in a nice mix. I really do enjoy racing the mile—this race notwithstanding. I haven’t changed. Four laps is so neat—so compact.

FW: It’s over quickly, right?

MS: [laughing] Yeah, it’s over quickly. I would never have missed the chance to race the Falmouth Mile, and that’s having come in last. It can only get better! Coming in last place keeps us humble.

FW: You just got back from Europe, correct?

MS: Correct. I just got back from Monaco.

FW: How did that go?

MS: That was incredible to have that experience. Monaco is like taking the top slice of Las Vegas and putting it down with mountains on three sides and the beautiful blue Mediterranean Sea on the other. And then add on 1,000 years of history and make your language French and there you have it. But the chance to get out there and compete against the top Americans and the top women in such a cool environment was just tremendous. I just loved it—it was great.

FW: How did you race over there?

MS: I ran an 8:44 [3000 meters].

FW: How did that feel?

MS: It was a 30-second PR so it was exciting! It was the first time racing in an international event and so the level of competition was breathtaking. The gun went off and everyone just flew. I just tried to keep up and let the crowd and the music and everything carry me to the end.

FW: So the race in Monaco was quite a different experience from collegiate racing where you have haphazard clapping every now and then?

MS: Yes! It definitely beats the 90-percent-empty stadiums that we have around our country. And it’s also the way that collegiate races tend to be: a one-on-one experience at the end of the race. This was a true race among many women all going incredibly fast.

FW: You talked about the crowd energy and the pressures of increased competition at the world level. Do you feel that all those factors will help improve your future running?

MS: To be honest with you, I think that same adrenaline rush is still there for everyone at every level of racing. I found that to be an unchanging variable of it. I did the same warm-ups, and felt the same level of pre-race excitement for this race as [I would] for a summer road race at home. Your approach to the race is the same. I would say that while I was out there and racing, to have that kind of energy to feed on, was a tremendous advantage for running faster.

FW: I’d like to go to your 5K PRs next. In 2005, your 5K PR was 16:29--

MS: Gosh. We really do have to do this, don’t we?

FW: [laughing] Yes, we do. In 2006, you took your 5K PR down to 16:06 and just a year later your 5K was knocked down to 15:09.

MS: [laughing] If you want to make it all the more dramatic, you could start with 2004. My 5K PR then was something like 17:20.

FW: Most people measure their 5K PRs in seconds or tenths of seconds. How did you do this? What did you do differently in training? If the answer is nothing, then is there maybe something that you can share with people who are reading this, that helped you from a more general perspective?

MS: I feel like what I did was very applicable to anyone who is trying to get themselves as fast as they can be. There were a couple simple things: First of all I was lucky enough having had the past two years of consistent, injury-free training. In the year that just passed, that was huge. I built on that in the years before—never having to red-shirt due to injury in four years of college. And I was fortunate enough to have a coach looking after me, making sure that my training never got above 70 miles per week. I was usually between 55 and 60 miles [per week]—even now. It’s a matter of finding the training range that you can complete successfully and stay injury free. But also this past year, what really is easily applicable to everyone, is that I finally really focused on getting good rest and good nutrition—sleeping eight hours a night. My focus in my first few years of school were on academics and experiencing college—just trying to grasp all of it at once. When I really narrowed my focus this past senior year of college to mainly running and staying up in the classroom, it’s amazing, the results that came. You just have to dedicate yourself and believe in everything you are doing and really put your heart into everything. I wish there was a magical formula. It’s just a daily commitment to the sport.

FW: You mentioned some variables that you changed up—rest and nutrition for example. Is there anything else specific to workouts that you implemented?

MS: My coach keeps the workouts constantly rotating. It’s not like we do the same workouts every week, so it’s never boring. I would say the combination of doing quarters—speed-type workouts—combined with your classic, longer tempo runs, has really worked for me. I do a long run once a week. It’s that speed and endurance idea: You got to work both ends of it. I try to maintain both sides of it.

FW: You talk about running injury-free. You’ve dealt with plantar fasciitis problems during your collegiate career, and you have talked about how you had success in treating it. I know a lot of runners have this problem. Is there anything specific that worked for you that you could recommend for runners who have this problem?

MS: By all means. Oh my gosh, I think I tried just about every ameliorative treatment out there. What really ended up doing the trick was using a night splint. About the same time that I used one of those, I went to a chiropractor. I still have maintained that twice a month, to get myself in alignment. I would recommend going to someone who practices Active Release Therapy [ART].

FW: Is ART painful?

MS: From what I’ve experienced, it’s brief. It’s pressing in certain critical areas of the body and then extending the joints and increasing the range of motion while pressing down and applying pressure to one particular spot. It’s pretty intense while it’s going on, but it’s really quick. I’m never in there longer than 15 minutes when I go to these appointments. It keeps my body in alignment. Another thing for plantar fasciitis is maintaining good stretching of the calves—keeping them loose. Those were my takeaways. It was a brutal thing to deal with. My heart goes out to all plantar fasciitis sufferers.

FW: Regarding your Rhodes Scholar experience, that’s in September, correct?

MS: Yes it is. Part of the Europe trip this summer involved spending a week not in Oxford, but in the town of Twickenham, England. I’ll start school there [Oxford] at the end of September.

FW: That is an incredible accomplishment, and so too are finishing third in the nation in the 5000 meters and qualifying to represent your country at a world level. Do you ever find that those high running goals and accomplishments got in the way of putting together a Rhodes Scholar package? Or did they go together?

MS: They worked together. It’s funny because the weekend that I interviewed for the Rhodes Scholarship, it was nationals for cross country. So I interviewed for the first day, raced, and came back in the next day. I guess that’s a good microcosm of the way that they can work together.

FW: The traditional challenges of a collegiate athlete are balancing the demands of training and study. Were you always the nerd on the bus, studying while you traveled to and from your races?

MS: To be honest with you, the Rhodes Scholarship in particular is more about your ability to interact with people. You have to have eight letters of recommendation from people that you’ve connected deeply enough with that they would write such an outstanding letter on your behalf that you’d be considered a finalist. From there, you still have to undergo rounds of interviews. One of them was formal. The other was relaxed where the panelists observe you interacting with your peers. My takeaway from the whole experience was that I was not by far the most intellectually brilliant, but I can communicate with people. Though I love Monaco, even if I had been in a cornfield in the middle of Kansas I would have had the same experience. For me, it’s all about learning from people—taking in their failures, their successes and applying them. What the Rhodes Scholarship will provide me is getting to go to Oxford and have a new cultural experience. I know I could have stayed at Wake Forest for another year and repeated the same thing that I did for the last four years. My love for people is how all this happened, more so than any academic or athletic endeavor.

FW: You’ve mentioned in the past that one of your heroes is Sebastian Coe. Since you’ll be over there, do have any plans to try and meet him?

MS: Oh my God, that would be amazing! I don’t even know. Yes. If I get lucky enough for that to happen, then sure!

FW: It looks like in 2005, you ran the steeplechase event and debuted quite successfully at it at the ACC championships. You don’t seem to have gone anywhere with it since then. If you did so well at it, why did you give up on it?

MS: I really found myself enjoying it. It’s a great event. I think it was a combination of me finding success in the 5K and the heightened chance of injury that is prevalent with the steeplechase.

FW: Do you think a lot of people opt out of that event because of the fear of injury?

MS: Yeah. I have to believe that. If I had to pick a distance, I think a flat 3K would be my ideal race. Running a steeplechase would be perfect. Just the pounding that your body takes in that event is pretty brutal.

FW: During your recent European circuit, you wore the Nike singlet, correct?

MS: Correct.

FW: Have you worn the USA singlet yet?.

MS: Not outside my bedroom yet [laughing].

FW: So, tell me how you feel representing your country for the first time and what your expectations are for Osaka?

MS: I cannot express enough how honored and tremendously excited I am to be able to put on that USA uniform and step out on a track. I would consider it wildly successful to make it to the finals, but regardless how it goes on August 29, I’ll race my very best and represent the USA as well as I can.

Interview conducted August 16, 2007, and posted August 23, 2007.