Latest / Trackside with Maddie Mooney / Aaliyah McCormick - Episode 4 - Trackside with Maddie Mooney

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Aaliyah McCormick - Episode 4 - Trackside with Maddie Mooney · Trackside with Maddie Mooney

• RunnerSpace Productions: Welcome to Track Side with Maddie Mooney. I'm Maddie Mooney and today's episode is with Alia McCormick. Alia is a three-time NCAA champion, twice in the outdoor 100-meter hurdles and once in the indoor 60-meter hurdles. And she's now a professional runner for On, joining the OAC Sprint Group in Los Angeles. Alia takes us through what this transition to the new team will look like and some of her best memories as an Oregon duck, as well as overcoming some hardship while she was there. Thank you for tuning in and I hope you enjoy this episode. And we are here with Alia. Welcome to the show. I'm so excited to talk to you today. Yes, thank you so much for having me. How are you? What's going on in your world right now? I'm so good. Life is so good. I literally say it every day to my mom and my boyfriend. E life is very chill right now. I am in the process of moving. I'm still in Eugene currently. I'm in the process of moving to LA, but it's kind of like before off season going into fall training. So I'm just trying to get pre in shape before actually getting in shape. Right. And that's funny 'cause we were just talking about this before it started, but I literally just ran into you on the bike path in Eugene, which is so funny, out for a run. I was like I was like huffing and puffing, like had my my AirPods in to block out how loud I'm breathing. And I was like, that that girl up there is wearing such a cute set. And then I got closer and realized it was you. So that's so funny. But that's a good segue into kind of where I wanted to start this conversation was with your recent signing with on and deciding to join OAC's sprint team, which is in LA. And I was gonna ask you if you'd moved to LA yet, but you're clearly still here and Eugene. what does the timeline look for for that? When do you move out there? I'm most likely moving there late November, early December. And that's right around the time we'll start really getting into training. So it's literally perfect. That's awesome. Do you so for people who don't know as much about the professional track and field groups, like what are some of the main other sprint groups and how did you come to the conclusion you wanted to work with on and join this sprint team? so I don't really know much about, you know, other sprint groups. I do know that there are some, but as far as like, you know, the names, like it really just depends on what fits best for you, you know, and this is also really new to me. So I just found out, you know, so many things as I was emerging from colo collegiate track to professional. what made me choose on it there's a company that genuinely cares about you as a person rather than like what you can do for them. And that's kind of what I was looking for. I was looking for kind of someone who appreciates me not just as, you know, Aaliyah the hurdle queen but also Alia McCormick. And And I just felt very comfortable and just being with on, I feel like it's just one of the the best brands that I've ever I you know, and I've just been introduced to them, so everything is also new. But their clothes are top tier, their shoes are top tier. Like I am immensely happy, and I'm just so happy that I chose the right, you know, company to work with. That's awesome. The photo shoot that was posted with the the announcement that you were joining this team, those uniforms were so. cute and and the three of you who were a part of that all looked so good in it. So definitely their gear is awesome, their shoes are awesome. the team is coached by John Bolton or J B, correct? did you already know him prior to deciding to join this team or is this a new relationship for you? This will be a new relationship for me. I knew that he coached at USC, but that's all I really knew about him. and after having an introduction with him and the whole on team, I was very intrigued and I really like his plan. I really like, you know, just what he stands for. And so I'm really excited to just work with him and, you know, see how I'll get better. Yeah, that is exciting. I've 'cause I run now after college as well. And the switch to a new coach post collegiately, I feel like can be kind of scary, but really it's just a opportunity to get so much faster and reach a new level and, you know, a new type of training. So I'm excited for you. Yes, thank you. Do you know personally some of who your training partners are gonna be or are like is this all gonna be completely from scratch new? I know 'cause I did when when I when I did the shoot I did it with Cameron. I know Cameron will be someone who I'll be working out with, you know, during fall and then we also got Kayla Jackson, so I'll be also working with her. As far as like any hurdlers, I'm not sure if they'll have any hurdles. I will be hurdling with Johnny Brackens, which I'm really excited for. But otherwise those those girls are really fast, so I'm just excited to be amongst them so that I can get faster and be an even faster hurdler. That's exciting. do you know where in LA you guys are based out of specifically? Where's train like where does training take place? training will take place in Mount Sack. it's in Walnut, California. Very nice. Yeah, I've been there for for a meet before. I it's a nice area. That's exciting. It's a really nice trap. So you're from or I guess you grew up in California originally, correct? Yes. How do you feel about going back to to your home state and being able to be based out of California again? I'm actually so excited. It's kind of like a bittersweet feeling because I have fallen in love with Oregon and how peaceful and how it's literally like it's become a home for me. Like I can see myself, you know, living here, in another life. Like it's just so amazing. And I forgot what it felt like to live in California. Like I was just visiting there this summer and I was like, my goodness, I missed, you know, how sunny it is every day. Because that's not something you get every day in Eugene. But Eugene and San Diego each have, you know, their their own great parts. But I'm so excited because I'm excited to be around good weather and not be around, you know, the potential of snow. I'm excited to be around just happy people and San Diego it's just well I'm not gonna be in San Diego, I'm gonna be in LA. So I was in San Diego, was like raised and born in San Diego and then I've only visited LA a couple of times but I'm excited because LA is just like it's so girl la la la and I feel like I'm girl la la la so I'm like so excited to just kind of live out my LA dream and just try all the foods and be an of the sun, be by the beach. Like I'm so excited. My family is really excited. My mom lives in San Diego. So two hours away I'm gonna be able to see her all the time and my boyfriend's really excited to come down and you know just explore LA with me. Girl is so such a funny way to put it, but so perfect because Eugene really isn't that at all. Eugene is so is like is granola and earthy and funky, you know, which is great. But yeah, very different vibe. that actually I was just about to ask you that if your boyfriend was gonna move there with you, so sounds like he is. Yes. Right now he is currently in his last year with Collegiate Tracks. So wherever, you know, his professional life takes him, I am you know always gonna root for him, but I hope and pray that it, you know, comes to LA. Okay. That's awesome. so thinking back to your early years as a California resident, I'm curious about how you got started in the sport of track and field in general, like just running in general to begin with. I started running when I was about nine years old and I was like racing kids at school and then my teachers told my mom and it was like the last sport that I decided to do because my mom had ran track and she didn't want to force it upon me. She was just like, I just want you to, you know, decide what you wanted to do. And I did every other sport except track. Like I was in cheerleading, well, all the girly sports. I was in cheerleading, gymnastics, tumbling. I never touched like, you know, soccer. Or basketball, that was just not my thing. But then I decided to do track and I was mostly just out there having fun and then I didn't start hurling until I was about fourteen and then it's just been history ever since and I've just been hurdling since then. Were you natural hurdler, like from doing some of those other like gymnastics and some of those other sports that that make hurdling come easy. I mean, I don't know, I never tr I mean I'm an eight hundred meter runner for starters, but I never even tried like steeple ch anything jumping was like I'm scared of. So like was it just a natural natural thing for you to to do hurdles? Yeah, I think so and it's it's definitely I think it's just became second hand now and it's definitely something that I don't even need to think about. But I think my flexibility from you know cheering and gymnastics definitely helped while hurling. So I'm curious about your relationship with your mom in the sport because I cut my both my parents were runners as well in college. and that played a big role, I feel like, on me becoming a runner, but kinda similar. I didn't start train I didn't do track at all until I was in high school. I was was I was a soccer player before that. But I feel like my parents I always trusted that they knew best kind of because they were my parents and they and they they did it, which is a good thing, but also could be like kind of a conflicting feeling sometimes when you have a coach as well. but I'm curious for s for starters, is does your mom give you feedback in s in that kind of stuff after your races or is she stay like hands off just supportive mode? So she's kind of a bit of both. Like she's always been very good at knowing what I needed in in that exact moment. In any moment. And at first when I started track, like she was a very hands off. She just was like, Do what you wanna do and then I came to her and I said, This is what I wanna do. I wanna be, you know, I wanna win. And that's when she like looked up all these things of how to hurdle and then she became she was my actual first hurdle coach. So she didn't know anything about hurdling. She was just She was a 100 and 200 meter runner and she figured it out so that I could be able to, you know, be the hurdler that I am today. And when I'm done with like races, she's always the first one to come and say congratulations to me. She's always the one screaming right by the finish line. and after I'm done, she'll just sit me down and ask me, walk me through everything. Like she wants to know how I woke up in the morning, how my mindset was, how did I feel before the race? race, if I remember the race, and then she'll just tell me. I think so I think first she's like mom. She's like, my goodness, I'm so proud of you. You just did amazing. And then she's like, okay, walk me through it. What can you do better? And yeah. That's so fun. Is she at does she travel to most of your races? Yes. She travels to like almost all of my races. She's always there. that's so awesome. That's so fun. Is she a part of your race day routine? Like do you go and get a coffee with your mom or something? Or like or lunch or something on race day, or not really? yes, she is a part of my race day. So every morning I'll wake up in the morning and I'll meditate and then she's like the first text that I you know hear or I text her or she'll text me. And she's always like Rise and Shine, my champion, and she's like, This is what you're gonna do today. Like she has dreams about what I I'm gonna do that day and she tells me or she doesn't tell me 'cause she doesn't want, you know, it to like jinx it or anything. And then I always wear like two braids in my hair, so she'll come Come that morning and she'll do my braids and then she just like prays over me and she's like, You got this, I love you, and then she'll leave the room and then I'll just take a moment for myself and then I'll head to the track. my gosh, that's so special. That is so cute. She comes and braids her hair for your races. I love that. That is so cute. Wow. My whenever my parents come to my races, I'm complete opposite of you. I'm kinda like, Okay, I guess we could get lunch, but it needs to be far enough in advance so I can like not be nervous and whatever. So that's that's awesome that you guys have that that bond. Are there any other routines or super s not superstitions, but things you like to do before an important race? Mm-hmm. I don't really have superstitions, but I like to at least like to get ready in enough time so that I'll have at least 10 minutes to where I just get to dance. And I like mostly dance to praise music. And I just kind of just let go out all of my jitters. And I'm like, I'm here for a reason. I'm having fun. This is something that I love to do. Just smile, have fun. And that's literally what I did before every like big championship race. So wait, that's awesome. I feel like I feel like I like to have music going, but I should add in the Dance component too. I'm usually doing makeup while or listening to music while I'm doing my makeup, but I should add in just time to let loose and really like shake it all out. that's so fun. So your time as a duck has wrapped up. When you look back at your time here, do you have a specific race that is was just the most fun? And I don't mean that was Like obviously you won NCAAs three times, so those were probably really fun and it could be one of those. But just the race you look back on and it was like a huge jump for you or it meant a lot because you were overcoming something. Do you like what race comes to your mind first? That was just the race, you know? Yeah. So I probably have two. So One that was like super fun and like so like free was Big Ten's Outdoor this past year, twenty twenty six and we had swept the meet boys and women and It was just so fun. Like everybody exceeded expectations. I you know, the pressure of me winning was gone and now I was just watching my teammates and we were watching the scoreboard and we had realized that we won and we stormed the track and had such a good time. We took pictures, we were out there for about thirty minutes. Like our coach and our manager of the team were like, Let's go, we have to get on the bus. And we were like, No, we don't wanna get on the bus. We wanna stay. And it was just amazing. and then another one that comes to me was something that I was overcoming was indoor nationals this past year as well. It was like my favorite race because before like a week before I was heading to nationals, I had cut my knee to the point where I needed stitches. And I know it was my first time getting stitches. I was so like baffled at the timing. I was like, I don't understand what is. going on. Like I was so scared because there was like it was just such a gory image and something that is unexpected right now. And the the people around me were just like so nervous and it didn't make me any it didn't make it any better for me because I was already like it was already happening to me. So it's like the last thing I need or you know, people being nervous. But in that moment I just was like trusting and trusted that all of my training and what I had been doing, I'm fine, like I'm still going to win. I'm still going to just trust and know that even though this outcome right now is terrible. I'm just gonna trust. And I went out there and at list at least like three days before the final I had taken I had given gotten my stitches out and I had won indoors and it was just so like like I just remember screaming because I was like what the heck? Like I just like it just everything worked out because I had trusted and I didn't freak out like everyone else around me was I just kind of was still and just let it be and the outcomes were on On my side. Wow. Did you have was there lingering effec like did you have effect was were you sore or did you have any like muscle problems from this was it a fall that that busted your knee open or? No, so my boyfriend had gotten me a hundred roses and so I was I know. I was I got specific vases for these roses and they were like cylinder long thick glass ones and I was putting them away And it a chunk of the glass broke and it sliced my knee. So luckily like no muscle was harmed or anything. I had never like cut myself that deep. So I was like unsure of what was going on. And I was like sore. Like I had to wear a band-aid. if you look at like pictures of me from indoors, I had to a band-aid on the entire time and my competition was like asking me, Are you okay? Are okay? And I was like, I'm fine, and I hated that because I thought it was Like a sense of like weakness, like they know I'm hurt, so now they think I'm not gonna run fast. But I was fine. I was I was fine. I mean, I just I was like, it may hurt for a second, but I'll be fine. It it's literally gonna take eight seconds or seven seconds. So that's an insane story. No more big romantic gestures until the season is over in the future. That's literally. man. Wow. But you know what's so interesting about about that. that and that being like a big a deal for you to overcome that is people who aren't actually doing the sport I feel like don't understand how your mentals can play into it so much. And something like that happening really can shake like totally shake you up. And even the competition thing, like it's crazy what you how you think your competition is perceiving you can affect how you race. so I like that story. That's awesome. Yeah. Thank you. Have you had other other injuries through your time in college? Yes, I have. my first two years, my freshman year I strained my hamstring. my right one, it was my lead leg. And then my sophomore year I tore my hamstring off my tendon. and both of those injuries were kinda like season ending where I couldn't, you know, go on to championship season. but those were the only injuries I've had, thankfully, and ever since then I've been healthy. You had a almost a a perfect arc like I'm I'm sad that you had injuries at all. But the fact that they happened in your your younger years and then you were able to overcome them and have really successful end to your collegiate career is pretty is awesome. Like much better than the opposite happening, you know. do you how how was coming back from those for you? Like was that a pretty big mental challenge? Yeah absolutely Yeah, it was. It was a very big mental challenge and that's why like I speak so heavily on, you know, just mentally being prepared before anything because if I'm not mentally ready then I'm not, you know, present at the line that I how I know I need to be. And, you know, it was just like Almost like a wave of depression. You know, my first year I was just like I was a freshman, so I had never been injured before and it was once upon a time a fear of mine to be injured. And then I realized when you're injured, that's when you grow more. Like you can't live in fear. And so going into my sophomore year, I'm like, Okay, you know, you've gone through this, let's, you know, try again. I tried again and it was another outcome. And I think that was just God saying like it's not your time right now and so I just needed to kind of sit there and be still with him and choose him in every outcome. And I am very big on faith and I share it all the time. And so when I came into junior year, I kind of was inspired by Maai winning the Olympics that year. And she had, you know, just, you know, came from college and she was, you know, going into her year and being able to, you know, dominate that field so quickly at such a young age. I was like, if she can do it, so can I, why not me? And so I just remember writing in my journal, one after she won saying I will be an NCAA champion. And ever since then I had just been working, I had just been working and you know, things happen in life that are out of your control. And so I realized like just because things happen or injuries happen, that doesn't mean it alters who you are, you know, like I had to separate myself from track because it almost became my identity. Because outside of this, I still am Oliam McCormick. I still am, you know, a bright individual person and I still can show my talent being Oliah McCormick. And hurdling has just become how I look at life, like sometimes you'll fall and that's okay. It's about how you move forward from that fall that makes you who you are. And I think that kind of shows my entire journey at Oregon from me not being present in the moments that I wanted to be present and then me being present in the times that it was, you know, right. So Right. It also sounds it sounds like you have a very good support system behind you with not only with, you know, immediate your mother and your boyfriend but also just the team you can tell when you gu you know, when you guys are celebrating a win or after after a ra I mean there's always multiple Oregon people, I feel like, at NCAAs in each event and stuff, but you guys all really care for each other and are there for each other too, which I'm sure is also helpful. Do you feel like you throughout your time, you know, having these injuries as a freshman and then becoming more successful as an upperclassman that you found yourself in a leadership role quite often? Yes, I was. When I was in my junior year, I was actually the team captain and then I was also the team captain in my senior year and I think for myself, like The only thing that I wanted to do was just inspire people, like my life was my testimony, is everything that I had gone through and what I'm going through right now, like this can be you as well. Like it's not just, my goodness, Ali and McCormick. No, this is I told all my teammates, like just as it's happening for me, this can happen for you. And I told them that all the time and they probably got annoyed at me. But every time we were done with the hard work out or if somebody was going through something that they didn't want to go through or they didn't run a good race, I said it doesn't matter. how fat who the fastest opener is, it matters who finishes strong. So and I always was just trying to be inspiring, trying to, you know, give those who, you know, wanted it a space to be heard and seen. That's awesome. And that's great at great advice. I mean, I I would take that and use that in my training today too. it's so easy to compare yourself in those beginning races to what everybody else is doing, but it's not re not what matters. Gonna keep make it through the season. Yeah. so as we look at your professional career and your move to LA and this upcoming this next chapter with on, what are some of your immediate goals for twenty twenty seven as a professional runner. Absolutely. My immediate goals are to be open minded because number one, I'm going into an entirely, you know, different environment, different coaching, different team. Everything is new and different. But when you're uncomfortable, that's when you grow the most. So I'm just trying to tell myself that to be open minded, to be grateful that you're even in this opportunity because you wouldn't be handed this opportunity if you weren't ready for it. I'm telling myself to be patient and to trust the process because once again Everything is new, your body's going to be going through new changes as well, so it's it may take some time for your body to recognize what it's going through, and that's okay. so to be patient to trust, and then my goals for the track are just to PR, you know, PR make a USA team, make a world champion team, and win worlds. That is for 2027. I'm trying to go one year at a time, but you Yeah. I love it. I love it. And I love that you just you put it out there too. Your advice is so you are so just well rounded and well spoken that as you're saying these things to me, I'm just excited for any like younger athlete who might tune into this episode to listen and take this in because you s like I feel like you just speak you speak so eloquently about how I guess an ap a an appropriate way to to wrap your mind around the sport and how like changes are hard, but you seem so excited for it and what is gonna prank, so that's awesome. Yes, thank you. when when will you what month will you be opening your season in? I'm not sure yet. So that conversation hasn't even been had yet, but I'm Whenever it happens, it happens. I guess that makes sense. We're still in in fall training right now. Which I know I saw you out on a run today, but what does what does your fall training consist of when you're just in this rebuilding period for the season? Absolutely. right now I'm trying to get my cardio up because I took a month off. So once I was done with USA's, I went from like August sixth or the seventh to September seventh and ever since Then I've just been going on runs. I've introduced my body to Pilates, and Pilates is my gosh, so hard. It's so hard. And as an athlete, like you think you can do anything, you're like, I'm good. Like, no, this is completely different. So, but Pilates is like humbling in a way, it's like, okay, this is something new. Once again, your body's going through something new, but it's working out the little muscles in my body that I feel like need it, and so I'm actually excited. Like I feel like I'm just such a cutesy girl la la la Pilates girl and it's so fun. So I I love Pilates and I'm running. And then once I get to LA, that's when we're kind of just gonna go into the swing of things. So I'm just trying to at least I don't want to be, you know, the one dying at the end out of breath. So I'm that's what I'm trying to prevent for right now. That is so funny that your Pilates experience is like that too, because I try like when I first moved to Oregon, I started Doing Pilates in my competitive nature came out immediately because I just like athlete ego, I just assumed that I would be better than everybody else in there and I was so humbled in Pilates. It's so hard. Are there any outside of sport things that you get to do in this time off that you usually don't do during during the actual season? No, n I mean, I'm just kind of loving life like my boyfriend said the other day, you just live such a free life. Like he's in school and he's training. Like so he's on that, you know, collegiate schedule. And I'm not. I'm just I'm I wake up whenever I want to wake up and I go to Pilates or I run and I stretch and I just I have more time for myself. I guess that's what I will say. I just I kinda sit here and I watch shows that I, you know, don't have time to watch when I am in season and I'm resting. Like although I am working out, like I'm resting my mind because I know as soon as that season starts, there's no stopping. So That's true. That is so important to give your brain the break from the constant go, go, go of the track season. Yes. one last question before we wrap things up, but I'm curious with Halloween coming up, do you have a costume planned for this year or will you be doing any anything for Halloween? I know you're moving and whatnot, but I actually haven't thought about a costume. I don't even know. And if I were I mean, honestly, I'm not even I'm still in Eugene and I still have friends that are here, so if they would want to do something, I'm totally down. But if not, I will literally be on my couch watching a scary movie of some sort. That's that sounds like great Halloween plans to me. Right. Kinda like hope no trick-or-treaters come so we don't have to get up and interrupt the movie kind of thing. Exactly. Well, thank you for joining to me to joining me today. This is a very fun conversation. I'm excited to follow you in LA and follow your training and ever in your first season and hopefully I'll be watching you at the World Champs. Yes, thank you so much. It was so nice speaking with you as well. Thank you for having me. Thank you so much for tuning in to this episode. If you want to watch more of Track Side with Maddie Mooney, tune into Runnerspace or Athletic online or check us out on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. If you or somebody you know would be a good fit for this show, email me at maddie.mooney at athletic.net. S.