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Mercer Island (WA) junior Sophia Rodriguez looks to finish on the podium at WMTRC SundayPublished by
by Ricky Quintana Photos Courtesy of The Rodriguez Family Canfanc-Pirineos, Spain - You would think Sophia Rodriguez (Mercer Island, WA), currently this season’s fastest US high school cross country runner, would have made her start on the comfy confines of a road race or track. However, growing up in the mountains of Pennsylvania and having a mother and father who trained on mountain trails and competed in mountain trail races, that wasn’t the case.
Sophia and Perla Rodriguez in first official mountain trail race “When we were in Pennsylvania, Gaby (Sophia’s father) used to do a lot of trail racing and we took the girls (Sophia, Victoria and Madelyn),” remembers Sophia’s mother, Perla. “Sophia was five or six, maybe. We entered them in the mile trail race. I was waiting at the finish line and Madelyn and Victoria both finished. I kept waiting and I thought, I guess Sophia just took her time. Twenty minutes went by, then 25 minutes went by and I started to panic. I thought ‘Where is she?’ I finally saw her. She had done the 5k! She went off course and just followed the rest.”
Sophia and Gaby Rodriguez Sophia remembers the experience vividly. “There was a sign that said one mile and 5k and I don’t know why, but I thought one mile sounded way longer. I saw the five and then the ‘K’ so I thought that must be shorter so I went left on the trail. I remember crossing a river and seeing my dad coming down the hill and running with him a little. I remember crossing the bridge most. I knew I hadn’t run the right distance when my sisters told me there wasn’t a bridge on the one mile course.” A mountain runner was born!
Sophia traversing the bridge Sophia will be competing in the third World Mountain and Trail Running Championships (WMTRC) U20 8K this Sunday, September 28, as part of the five-woman U20 team and 48-member Team USA delegation that will compete in five different events. Other high schoolers on the team include Ruby Ihmels (Century, Bismarck, ND), and Asher Oates (Independence, Thompson Station, TN) and Cadel Ruthven (Fort Collins, CO). It will be her second trip to Europe in the past month. The first was as part of the Nike ACG team camp in Chamonix, France, in early September. She was able to watch the top athletes in the world compete in the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB), a legendary and prestigious ultramarathon. Her training took on a different approach this year. It all began in the summer. “We had to prioritize mountain training. We planned this out since the summer,” said her father, Gaby, on Sunday of her training before leaving for Spain. “The week of The Mook High School Cross Country Invitational, I told her she had one chance to run a super-fast time for the season. When she was a freshman, she ran 16:49 on that course so we knew that would be her best opportunity. We had to be fit enough to run the mountain race the next week and not be trashed and miss out on three weeks of training during the high school season. Thursday before The Mook, she did a two-mile mountain run right here on Tiger Mountain and then raced Saturday and she nailed a big time. Now she’s going to race at worlds.” Sophia isn’t a novice at competing in mountain trail racing in Europe. Last year, she competed in the U18 Mountain Running Cup in Montana Palencina, Spain. The trip in itself was like a mountain race as she had more ups than downs in getting to the race. “She was on the track all season and didn’t have any trail workouts. After the Nike Outdoor Nationals, we came back to Seattle, flew out the next day to Spain, and she basically got on the line,” said her mother. “I thought, oh my gosh, this is going to go really well or really bad because she didn’t have any training.”
In the WMTRC U20 women’s race on Sunday, there will be 70 athletes from across the globe. Her preparation began in the summer and she feels she is in shape to compete with the best in the world. “In the summertime, it was a little easier because I had flexibility in my schedule and didn't have school. We mainly tried to do at least two mountain trail runs a week. My dad would pick a course to do a race simulation that would get the legs up and down and get used to the switchbacks and steepness.” She was able to get additional training in during the ten-day camp in Chamonix in early September. She ran on the mountain trails that have steep inclines and descents. Her dad is great at the climbs and Sophia has followed in his foot steps. Her mom is a great descender, but Sophia hasn't quite mastered that skill. The Europeans are great descenders so Sophia will have to have push herself to open a gap and hope that is good enough to podium. One thing in her hip pocket is her 16:10 performance at The Mook Invitational. No one in the field has that type of speed. Sophia feels her preparation has gone well. “Fitness wise, I think I’m in a really good spot. I’m definitely looking to represent Team USA well. I just plan on giving my best and executing my race plan. I’m looking to podium and get some hardware.” You can follow Sophia's European adventure as she takes over the NSAF Instagram feed starting today, Thursday, September 25.
Picture from the race site. Her race on Sunday will be live streamed on The World Athletics YouTube channel. She will run first on Sunday starting at 2:15 a.m. eastern time. It will be followed by the Men’s U20 at 3:30 a.m. [The races are six hours ahead of eastern time]. Schedule Saturday, September 27 Sunday, September 28 |
