Interview with Brent Vaughn

By Duncan Larkin

University of Colorado senior Brent Vaughn, 23, has been tearing up the track this month. On May 4 at the Payton Jordan Cardinal Invitational, he smashed his school’s 5000-meter record by six seconds, running 13:18.46. (This time was also a 12-second PR for Vaughn and the second-fastest 5000-meter time run by an American this year, securing him the Olympic “A” standard.) A week later at the NCAA Big 12 Championships in Boulder, CO, in front of a home-town crowd, Vaughn won the 5000-meter event, smashing the 20-year-old stadium record by 12 seconds with a 14:13 clocking (at altitude).

A Colorado native, Vaughn attended Smoky Hill High School in Aurora, where he was the Colorado State 5A Cross Country champion. He was also a two-time state champion in the 3200-meter event. At CU, he struggled early with stress fractures. These injuries forced him to redshirt the 2004 outdoor season and the 2005 cross country season. Despite these setbacks, Vaughn was a 2005 and 2006 NCAA All-American in the 5000 meters. Additional PRs include 8:04.21 for 3000 meters indoors, 3:44.38 for 1500 meters outdoors, and 30:28.17 for 10,000 meters.

Vaughn is married to fellow University of Colorado runner Sara Vaughn; the couple has a 2-year-old daughter, Ciara Grace.

Up next for Vaughn is the NCAA Midwest Region Championships that will be held May 30-31 in Lincoln, NE.

New York Road Runners: You’ve had quite a month. A few weeks ago you set a school record in the 5000. Then last week you won the 5000 at the Big 12 Championships. How are you feeling about all this success?

Brent Vaughn: I’m pleased with how this season has gone. I feel blessed. I’ve been able to train harder than ever and have stayed healthy—feeling good the whole way through. I think [CU coach] Mark Wetmore has done a nice job. He built me up slowly and eased me into the workouts. I didn’t have any indoor track eligibility this season so I was able to hit base from the beginning of December. I don’t think I rested until that Stanford week. Even that week, I got a good week of training in. I need to train through the regional week this next weekend and get ready for the NCAA meet, and then I have the Olympic Trials two weeks after that. I’ve had some good races, but they don’t mean anything if I don’t finish it. I have to keep my head straight for the rest of the season.

NYRR: In the past you’ve talked a lot about patience in your running. Do you feel like now is the time that you are receiving the dividends of being patient?

BV: Yeah. I think that’s a huge part of it. That’s what Mark has always emphasized. When we go over my goals for the season, he’s always telling me to be patient. We build up very slowly. I started off my first two years here with stress fractures. It was very frustrating. After that I didn’t train very hard. Last training season I got up to 90 miles in one week. I felt good about that, but I was tired afterwards so I backed down. It took two full years to be able to train like I have this spring and this winter. It’s been a long time coming. I knew if I didn’t have the season like I am having I wouldn’t have a chance to run professionally once this ends. I got up to 100 miles finally, which I think has been one of the keys this season—to be able to run that kind of mileage.

NYRR: At the Cardinal Invite you finished behind [Bernard] Lagat. I think you were with him until the last 200 meters where you made a move and then he pulled a Lagat—dropping you, right?

BV: [Laughing] yeah, he made me look like a child.

NYRR: When you were up there running with him—the best American 5000-meter runner—what was going through your head? Did you learn anything from that experience?

BV: I guess I learned that I need to work on my speed. I’m 23 and I feel like I got a long ways to go to get to his level—obviously. It’s good to see, because it lets me know where I’m at right now and how far I have to go to get where I want to be. It was a good stepping-stone for me. It was great to see that first hand. It was world-class speed. I heard that he was going to be in the race a month or so beforehand. I knew that was where I was going to run my fast 5K for the year. When I was training leading up to it, I visualized being right up on his shoulder with a lap to go, and that was my goal. I knew that he was going to have a huge last lap. I wanted to go through the last lap feeling good.

NYRR: Before you ran the record-breaking 5000 at the Cardinal Invite did you know you had the Colorado record in the bag?

BV: I had thought that my fitness was going to be right there. I did a workout earlier that week that was pretty good. I thought that I was comfortable running 64[-second 400s] the whole way and then whatever I had the last two laps. I was feeling like I had a good shot at it.

NYRR: Have you talked to [Jorge] Torres [the previous record-holder] since you broke the record?

BV: Yeah. He was very nice and congratulated me after the race. I saw him before the Big 12 meet. We ran a few minutes together. He was really nice; he’s an incredible runner. He’s a guy who I really look up to.

NYRR: Did you talk to [Bernard] Lagat after the Cardinal Invite?

BV: No. I didn’t get a chance. We shook hands, though.

NYRR: Tell us a little about what it’s like running under Coach Wetmore. Maybe you could tell us a little bit about your workouts. How different is it since you are at altitude?

BV: I’ve been trying to learn a much as possible from Mark. At altitude your repeats are a little shorter in distance. Your rest between intervals is a little longer. You can’t run as fast as you can at sea level, so it’s a lot different. I think it’s something that Mark has mastered. The workouts are pretty basic. We will do a long run on Sunday and a medium-distance run on Wednesday and a neuromuscular workout on Tuesday and Fridays are usually the days when we hit it hard—usually it’s a few kilometer repeats. On some Fridays we will do 400s.

NYRR: You’ve got regionals, then the NCAA Championships, and then the Olympic Trials. You just ran under 13:20. Where is your primary focus and what do you think you need to do to take your times down to be competitive at these events?

BV: For regionals, I think my time is pretty safe. I think I need to be top five there. I will train through the regional meet. I don’t want to take my top-five slot for granted or anything, because in order to be ready for the Olympic Trials, I have to rest for the NCAA meet. That’s a huge field; it’s the biggest meet of the college season. While the Olympic Trials may be a bigger race, once June 11 [the NCAA Championships] comes around that will be the biggest race in my entire life. It’s my last NCAA meet. I have to rest and be ready. My goal is to win that race. I have to be peaked and then get back to training for a week and then rest for the Olympic Trials. The main goal is the NCAA 5000-meter event.

NYRR: So you are taking these races one at a time—looking at them sequentially.

BV: Right.

NYRR: Now that you’ve come in close with Lagat in a race, does that give you a new sense of confidence? Do you feel you have a chance to make the Olympic team?

BV: I think I got an outside chance. Obviously [Matt] Tegenkamp hasn’t run a 5000 this season. [Chris] Solinsky hasn’t; Adam Goucher hasn’t. I think Ian Dobson’s got a good 5000 in him. I have to go in with the confidence that I can run with those guys and when the move is made, I have to respond; I have to have a big last three laps at the Trials.

NYRR: Let’s talk about after you graduate and turn pro. Your wife, Sara, has a year of eligibility left. Does that mean you are going to stick around and remain under the Boulder influences or are you going to look elsewhere for a coach?

BV: I’m trying not to think too much about it. I really want to focus on this NCAA meet and once it’s over I want to start to make some plans. I’m not exactly sure. Sara and I love it in Boulder. Our daughter, Ciara, likes to too, I think. Mark’s coaching me now and that’s the main thing I’m concerned with. We’ve been working great together. Every workout he’s been giving me has been great. I’m focusing on doing what Mark says and running as well as I can for every remaining race of the season.

Interview conducted May 23, 2008, and posted May 29, 2008.