Interview with Cack Ferrell

By Pat Goodwin

In a rare appearance on the roads, Catherine “Cack” Ferrell will be among the competitors at the NYRR Women’s Invitational 8K on March 15, which is part of the Central Park Challenge in New York City. Ferrell has preferred to focus on track and cross country since she graduated from Princeton University in 2006. In 2007, her only venture on to the roads occurred at Tufts, the site of the USA Women’s 10K Championships last fall, where she finished 12th in 33:57.

Her credentials since graduation include a spot on the 2007 U.S. World Cross Country team that went to Mombasa, Kenya, last March, along with a berth on the U.S. team at the 2007 Pan American Games last July where she competed in the 5000 meters. In Mombasa she led the American women and finished 30th overall and at the Pan Am Games she won the silver medal in the 5000. Also last year, she was 10th at the USA Cross Country Championships in Boulder, and finished sixth in the 5000 in 15:43.69 at AT&T USA Track & Field Championships in Indianapolis.

Ferrell grew up in Minneapolis and went to high school at Saint Paul Academy. While at Princeton, where she majored in history, she was a six-time NCAA All-American in cross country and track. Her personal bests to date include 4:20.11 in the 1500 meters, 9:00.37 in the 3000 (set at an indoor meet at the University of Washington on February 2, 2008), and 15:42.92 in the 5000.

Ferrell is one of four women out of 25 athletes who are part of the Eugene-based, Nike-sponsored Oregon Track Club Elite (the other women are Nicole Teter, Brianna Dahm, and Mary Jayne (Harrelson) Reeves). Coached by Frank Gagliano, she joined the group in the fall of 2006. Her focus will be the 5000 meters for the U.S. Olympic Team Trials – Track & Field, which will be held in Eugene this summer.

New York Road Runners: You’ve had a wide range of running experiences since you graduated from Princeton. First of all, what was it like at World Cross in Mombasa a year ago?
Cack Ferrell: Going to a place like Kenya where running is really important and valued was a surreal event. There were thousands of fans at that cross country meet. I don’t think I will ever experience something like that again. It was unique and I don’t have another experience to compare it to. We had a lot of security; there were embassy escorts and we were confined to our hotel. But that turned out to be a great bonding experience for everyone who was there. I finished 10th at the USA Cross Country Championships, so just making the world team was one thing and then running well when I was there was another. It is rare to exceed your own expectations in running but that was certainly the case. When I was sent to Kenya to run for our country it just had a whole other element of importance. We were there with a purpose.

NYRR: What about your trip to Rio last summer for the Pan Am Games?
CF: It was a great experience and Brazil was neat. It was so different from a World Cross Country Championships because all the sports are contested. While we were there we went to watch soccer and water polo. It was impressive, almost like a mini-Olympics. It was unlike something I had done before. The caliber of athletes the U.S. sends to the Pan Am Games is really impressive. There were 600 U.S. athletes there. As far as my event, I led most of the way in the 5000 meters and then I was outkicked by Megan Metcalfe [of Canada]. She was at West Virginia when I was at Princeton so we were rivals.

NYRR: Do you like traveling?
CF: I love traveling. Right after I graduated in 2006 my sister and I spent 10 weeks that summer traveling through Vietnam and Cambodia. During that time I really didn’t run at all, maybe just four days during the entire trip. There really wasn’t any place to run. It was a good trip but it was a hard way to come out to Eugene to begin my training in Oregon.

NYRR: You grew up in Minneapolis, lived in Princeton, New Jersey, for college, and now you are in Eugene. That’s quite a difference.
CF: Eugene seems pretty small compared to Minneapolis where I grew up and to where I went to school. But the running culture here is really amazing and with the Trials coming up there is a lot of buzz. The locals in Eugene know a lot more about running than the average person. We are lucky that we get to train at Hayward Field and use all the facilities here.

NYRR: Do you live near the other OTC-Elite athletes?
CF: I would say 90 percent of the team lives at the Chase Apartments, which is on the other side of the river. It felt like a suburb to me in a way, so I decided to live in a little studio apartment in downtown Eugene. I am a mile from Hayward Field and a mile from Chase.

NYRR: What attracted you to join the training group in Eugene?
CF: It was Gags [Frank Gagliano]. Honestly, I adore him. I came from an Ivy League program where academics is our focus and our coach [Peter Farrell at Princeton] understood that and we were as intense as we could be. I couldn’t have switched to a post-collegiate program that was super-intense. It is our job and that is what we do, but Gags is very levelheaded and very nurturing. He has tons of athletes to take care of and yet he makes you feel like he is giving you 110 percent of his energy. Since I was a naïve 22-year-old coming out of college, I sort of needed someone like a Gags to take an interest in my well-being. It has been a great fit.

NYRR: There aren’t many women in the program. Has that been okay?
CF: People are always asking if there are enough women here. There could always be more training partners, but it is rare that I do workouts by myself. Nicole Teter is in the 800 and I do the 5000. We have to work with each other so we hone different parts of our running. Gags does a good job of writing workouts that help us fit together. It has worked out surprisingly well.

NYRR: Tell us a little more about the team.
CF: We have a really nice team. There are a lot of guys in one event—eight or 10 of them are 800-meter runners, which I think is pretty remarkable. How many groups of women in the same event are training together in the U.S.? You just don’t see it. Our team gets along wonderfully. Gags is a very positive, upbeat, and loyal coach.

NYRR: You ran a 10-second personal best in the 3000 just before the USA Cross Country Championships and then didn’t seem to have a very good race at cross in San Diego (she finished 15th). Can you describe what happened?
CF: Cross country was simply awful, and I am trying to put it out of my memory. I was really excited coming off the PR in the 3K and I was feeling good. Then my grandfather died and I flew home to Minneapolis for the funeral a couple of days before cross. I was excited and confident for the race but when I started running I just felt terrible. I guess everything just caught up with me. The silver lining now is that I can focus on outdoor – no trip to World Cross – so there are some positives. But at the end of the day I was very disappointed with that race.

NYRR: How do you think you’ll do in the 8K in Central Park?
CF: I don’t really have any expectations. I wouldn’t even know what to say for a time. I would just like to run a good race. The 8K race seemed like it came at a good time of the year and I can go to New York so that will be good. I lived in New York City and worked there before my senior year in college, so I ran in Central Park plenty of times. I have tons of friends in New York so I hope they will come out and cheer for me.

NYRR: What seems different about road racing for you compared to the track and cross country?
CF: I have to admit the whole road-racing thing is strange for me. I wouldn’t say that I am destined for doing it. I remember warming up for the Tufts 10K last October and how different that felt. Track is so self-explanatory and cross has been all about the team. But the road is so different. It seems like it should be more recreational. But that makes it more exciting. At Tufts there was this throng of people doing the race and they were so excited to see the elites. You round the bend to come back on the course and they are all cheering for you. It is sort of empowering. That aspect of it is really neat but I haven’t gotten my hands around the whole road-racing thing yet.

NYRR: You plan to compete in the 5000 meters at the Trials and the event will be on a track where you train. Does it seem like the time has gone by quickly since you graduated and that the Olympic Trials are almost here?
CF: I can’t believe that the summer is nearing and that I have been in Eugene for 20 months. It has been crazy since I graduated but it has been a great experience. I am still trying to break the 15:40 barrier so I’ll be working on that this spring.

NYRR: How long do you expect to keep running and competing?
CF: I am contemplating running through outdoors in 2009 (USA Outdoors will be held in Eugene that year). That will be the last year of coaching for Gags so it seems like a good time to stop. I would love to continue to run but there are so many other things I want to do.

NYRR: What have you done besides running while you’ve been in Eugene and what do you plan to do after 2009?
CF: Last year I was working part time as a nanny for a family and I also worked at a culinary school my first year out here. I am a closet cook – not a very good one but I enjoy it. I took an accounting class at the University of Oregon in the fall quarter and I am thinking of taking another class in the spring quarter starting in March. I’ve also been working on applications for graduate school. Down the line I want to go to business school and get an MBA, but I would like to work for a while before that.

Interview conducted March 1, 2008, and posted on March 6, 2008.