Mary Cain talks about Alexa Efraimson and a possible American record in the 1000 tomorrow
by LetsRun.com
February 7, 2014
We caught up with high school senior Mary Cain today, who runs tomorrow in the women’s 1000 at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix.
We asked Cain about her thoughts on the recent great running by fellow high school runner, Alexa Efraimson, who recently broke Cain’s high school 3000 mark. Cain also talked about whether the American record might fall tomorrow and ended the interview by saying she’s not sure what her racing plans are this summer but said she’s willing to skip graduation to focus on running, but not her APs.
At the main press conference – video coming later, she said she’s most concerned about AP Latin where she said she could score anywhere from 1 to 5. Check back later for that video as Cain had the quip of the day in the main press press conference.
Our full 3 minute private interview with Cain appears below but here are the highlights for those of you looking to save some time.
Cain on Efraimson:
“I have to say the girls high school circuit has been amazing, like it’s been really exciting for me to watch. I feel that like all of a sudden there are all of these girls – there is a big pack of us – starting to make big changes on the circuit. Sarah Baxter, Elise Cranny, Alexa (Efraimson), when they were running in that NXN race, I mean that was a race. I’m just kind of proud to lead that pack and hopefully inspire more girls to do it. I think this is really exciting as we are showing, ‘High school girls can do it too.'”
Cain on the fact that given the weather the last few weeks her training has been “treadmill, treadmill” most of the time the last few weeks:
“I think it’s actually a good thing as I think it’s made me mentally stronger. If you can survived a 14 mile run on the treadmill, I think you can survive anything.”
Cain on whether she’ll take a crack at the 2:34.19 American record held by Jen Toomey:
“That’s the pace we are going out in,” said Cain who added that it was kind of a ‘fluke’ that the rabbit went out so far off pace a few weeks ago when she ran a world junior best of 2:39.25. “I think I’m physically capable of it so hopefully all goes well, but for me I can’t become too obsessed with times, because sometimes you know all of the sudden the pace falls off and people are like , ‘The race is over.’ For me it’s all about competing, learning and getting better at that – being able to run with the flow.”