57:26 she says a mean word about LRC
I listened to the entire podcast, it was worth my time:
The first 17 minutes are about her background and how she was noticed as a pre-HS success and her coach, parents, etc. encouraging her to run:
HS pressure talk starts at 19:06. She does not like the media, she does not like going through comments even though she is famous.
Emma said she's never seen that many likes/comments (30,000 likes). KT does not post much on SM anyways. She suggests that KT's teammates run the fan page.
KT does not like taking photos of herself either (20:16).
She has a secret Instagram (20:21) but it's her and a few friends. She likes it better than her actual (20:45).
She deals with pressure well. In HS she handled it well through her junior year, but she was oblivious. When she realized the pressure/expectations were on her she was stressed (21:22) and her parents suggested she quit. Same thing in her first year of college.
In HS, she didn't really cope but just ran through it.
Emma said on her pod that running is mental (22:14). She said KT was mature in handling pressure (22:28). Her inner circle knew what was up (22:53) with her struggles. She was competitive with herself (23:35-23:50) and said she'd beat herself up if she wasn't as good as she wanted.
There's a good story about winning the title:
Senior year at NXN regionals--24:21--her teammate Haley wanted to qualify individually. Race before Haley didn't run well but she did well enough for her and KT to run at NXN together. Haley is at Boston College.
Why NC State? (25:43):
Because a lot of people told her she went to the wrong school.
She liked the people and atmosphere and would be happy.
28:43--the world is too small in the running world and everyone is bored, so they make things up/gossip.
29:02--she switched to business from engineering. She was going to do biomedical engineering. Emma was in business, and it was a good option if you are not sure what you want (29:41).
HS to college transition (29:52):
First year was rough, she was injured. She had pressure/expectations. No running from June to November 2020.
Non-running transition was difficult due to online school; she came in during covid. She didn't have a set schedule.
She was only injured for first semester but improved her second semester freshman year.
It's nice having teammates vs. running on her own (33:02). She liked getting beat at college by more experienced runners, but respected them and wanted that challenge.
Winning the team title:
37:47--winning the team title, it's cool doing something bigger than yourself. We ran the race and finished with 5 All-Americans. 18 seconds was the spread.
Went to the bell tower after the race but they never had a moment as a team, until practice the next Monday. Letting it marinate (40:02).
41:11--even when Emma's team won nobody celebrated when their plane landed in Terra Haute, it was anti-climactic.
There was all sorts of food at 41:48 at the hotel, that was a cool moment at the hotel after they won. They don't really have hobbies (44:25) other than playing games and hanging out with the teammates.
Any runner doesn't have time to have hobbies (44:48), per Emma. She hates asking that question.
KT then asks Emma the same question, and she likes social media, and that became her job. She is good at knitting and making friendship bracelets.
Tough workouts:
In HS, she did the broken 300/300s, so a 300, then 30s break (do them in 45-47 each), then 300 (47:41).
Emma's was a 600-400-300-200 after injury. Last 400 of hers had to be cut into 2 200s.
52:02--burnout/plateau, every year at the end of XC or track she'd get burned out. She'd take a step away but she loves training (52:54).
Strength: Hard work
Weakness: Going over the line
(53:18), she makes her coaches mad. She'd run EZ runs at 6:xx pace. HS kids go too fast for EZ race. Coaches yell at her (54:43) for doing extra cross training.
She loves training and running and feels grateful (55:13), and love the act of running itself.
Even if she wasn't good she'd still run longer races like 26.2 and ultras (56:05-56:10) but if she was truly bad she wouldn't go to college for running. You just don't know, because everyone's PR is different (Emma).
Criticism she's faced (57:10):
People give unsolicited advice. 57:26 she says F that site (LRC). When you are doing bad it's bad (58:05) on your mental state. Emma agrees.
She struggled with pressure in HS (58:22) partially possibly due to LRC.
Advice to herself (59:26), don't take running too seriously. At the end of HS she started having more fun with it. Don't let criticism get to you.
HSers are so fast now and everyone wants to get fast, but HS should be enjoyed (Emma, 1:00:05), and they enjoyed their experience.
Conclusion:
Those girls probably had an easier time in HS than most though due to their fame, to be fair. But at least they recognize it.
Emma is a VERY good interviewer; she asks open-ended questions, she doesn't interrupt, and as a great runner herself, she knows the sport and how to talk about it.