Latest / Trackside with Maddie Mooney / Jadyn Keeler - Episode 3 - Trackside with Maddie Mooney
Transcript
- RunnerSpace Productions: Welcome to Track Side with Maddie Mooney. I'm Maddie Mooney and today's episode is with Jaden Keeler. Jaden proved to the entire NCAA that you do not have to go to a Power Force school to be successful. She was an all American in cross country, an all-American on the track in the 10K. She's a 5K silver medalist at the Canadian Track and Field Championships, and most recently, she just won the Canadian Half Marathon Championships. Tune in to hear Jade and talk about why University of North Dakota was the perfect school for her success. And enjoy this episode. And here is Jaden. How are you doing today, Jayden? I'm doing well. How are you? I'm doing well as well. Thanks for ⁓ coming on the show today. ⁓ you're just telling me you just moved to Flagstaff a few weeks ago. How's that going for you? Yeah, it's been incredible. Flagstaff is just such an amazing community and such a great place to train. So I've been really enjoying my time here so far. That's awesome. I see you have your Adidas shoes hung up behind you on the back of the door. Do you are you Living with other runners up there, are you in your own spot? No, I'm actually in my own spot, so it's been good so far. That's so fun. I have some of my ⁓ old college teammates live in Flagstaff now too and I've heard that like housing up there can be so difficult and it's kind of when one runner moves out of Flagstaff, a new runner will move into their old place kind of thing. So that's good that you got you got your own place and it's set up nicely. That's fun. Yeah, it was definitely tough finding a place, but Yeah, I gotta get a little deal on this this apartment. That's awesome. So today I kinda wanna go back to high school Jaden and kind of have you talk about who how you who you were as a high school runner and how I just kind of where you were at in the sport and why you decided to go to North Dakota coming from growing up in Canada. Like where how did you end up at North Dakota, what was your what was your running career like at the time when you were making that decision? Yeah, so when I was in high school, kind of around grade ten and eleven is when I started kind of wanting to decide to go to the US to train, ⁓ for university. We do have a university sports system in Canada, but it's not quite as competitive as the N C double A. And for me, I just really wanted to go to a place where I could truly develop and just push my limits and see how good I can be in the sport of running. So that's kind of what made me decide to go Division One, ⁓ or at least pursue that. And I was being recruited during the COVID pandemic unfortunately, which made it pretty difficult in deciding between schools because the border between the US and Canada was closed at the time. So I wasn't actually able to take any of my official visits to see these schools in person. ⁓ So I had to do a lot of my recruiting over the phone and through Zoom calls. And the team at North Dakota was one that really stood out to me. ⁓ they always had their full team on Zoom to have calls with me, to answer all my questions, and just made me feel really welcome there. ⁓ I also really liked the facilities at North Dakota. They had a beautiful 300 meter indoor track, which coming from a place in Canada where I didn't have any access to a track, ⁓ was huge. You know, I had to do all my training in high school on the cold, snowy winter roads in Canada, sometimes in the dark and it could be a little dangerous at times. So having a great facility was something that really intrigued me and made me excited to go there. And even just a school as a whole, ⁓ they have great academics and they were kind of a medium or smaller to medium sized school compared to some of those other ones in the NCAA. But I thought it would be a good environment for me to have good travel opportunities to make sure I'm able to go to these fast races rather than potentially not getting on a travel roster at a bigger school. So it kind of just seemed like the perfect fit for me and ⁓ yeah, it was just the best opportunity I had coming out of high school. So when you were a high school runner deciding to go that you wanted to go D one, were there other Canadian runners who'd been who'd gone to the NCAA that you were ⁓ that you like looked up to or you were trying to follow in their footsteps at all or were you kinda just like this is my own path, I'm gonna like make it my own way? There definitely were some runners. ⁓ I know there was someone there was Grayson Larkin who was two years older than me at the time and was kind of from the same area of Ontario as I was and I saw she went that route and was being having a pretty successful career. So ⁓ yeah, she was someone I kinda looked up to but yeah, it was kind of also just a decision I guess I made more individually as well. I just kinda wanted to pursue that route. So were you would you be willing to share what other schools you were like zooming with and talking to at the time when you were making your decision? Sure, yeah. ⁓ one of the other schools, kind of my top two was North Dakota and then Bowling Green State University in Ohio. but I also looked at the University of Cincinnati, I looked at the University of Buffalo University of Central Arkansas, Syracuse. so yeah, those were some of the main schools. So cause some of those schools that you listed are kind of like Cincinnati is a bigger school. Like were you really leaning towards going to a smaller D one? I know you talked about wanting to make the travel roster, which honestly is a very smart thing to consider because when I I went to Wisconsin And I thought that I would make the travel roster like for cross country and I and I didn't for a few years because it's just it's hard, you know? ⁓ so that is something to consider. But were you was that like a big piece between some of the bigger schools you looked at and then choosing North Dakota? Definitely, yeah. That and then also just the financial aspect with what they were offering me was a big component as well. Right. So ⁓ what was it like at North Dakota? Like describe kinda I know you said they have great a great you told me the great track there. ⁓ but what were what was it like there? What were the facilities like? What was the what was offered to you as an athlete? Yeah, I mean that facility was huge. Just having a place where we can run and get our get our training in for the day no matter the conditions, whether it's a blizzard outside or pouring rain, ⁓ you know, that track meant we could always just get our proper training in for the day and was just a great place for us as a whole to kind of collect together at for practice. But for the school as a whole, I mean, we just I think one of the things that separated us was our team culture. I know that's something that a lot of coaches try to build, but that was something our coaches just from day one every school year really encouraged us to work on. and even just they they always kind of can wanted us to get to know each other outside of just being runners. They wanted us to like truly get to know each other as people. which was something that was pretty big in just building those relationships with one another. and then even just from an academic standpoint, our coaches were also just really focused on making sure that we weren't just good athletes, but also good in the classroom as well. And we consistently had some of the highest GPA ⁓ team averages across the country every year. So that was pretty fun to be a part of as well. Yeah, that's awesome. Honestly, it like The more people I meet in the h like who've been through the NCAA or in the NCAA, it is far and few between to find a coach who can train people at a high level and also actually cares about the academic side or like your growth as a human, which is like it's sad to say, but it's true, like there's so many coaches who are just focused on running and like being successful at running. So that's awesome to hear that you had such a good experience with your coach at North Dakota. Yeah, and it's especially ⁓ important considering that For a lot of people, I mean, after your four or five years in the NCAA, you're moving on to an academic career, not so much a professional running career most of the time. Right. So as you developed as an athlete and got better ⁓ through your college career, did you ever consider or think about transferring to a bigger D one? Especially given like NIL is very prominent now and like maybe there could have been like more NIL opportunities at like a big, you know, SEC school or ⁓ Big Ten school or something. Was that ever something you considered? Yeah, that's a good question. And that's one that I was actually asked a lot during my time, ⁓ after I kinda had my breakout season in my fourth year. But to be honest, I never really seriously considered transferring schools. ⁓ I think the main reasoning behind that was just I had been so successful that year. I had had a great season I was running great. I was feeling my best and fittest I ever had been. So I kinda thought, why would I risk losing all that? Why would I risk transferring and going somewhere where maybe that coach's program doesn't work for me? Maybe their style of training doesn't suit me very well and I could risk having a terrible fifth year. whereas at UND, you know, I had a great relationship with my coach. The training was obviously working and I absolutely loved going to practice, seeing my teammates each day. I was just having such a great time. So for me, I think that that wasn't really something I was thinking about. I do from the standpoint of NIL and potentially having more maybe connections to professional opportunities, that was something that did cross my mind. But to be honest, for me, running and the joy of it and just getting to be the best I can be was kind of at the forefront of my mind. ⁓ and going into our fifth year, our team also had an opportunity to win conference cross country if I stayed that year. and we were able to actually do that. We were able to bring home our ⁓ first ever conference title for out of any sport at our school. So I was really glad I stuck around and stayed that fifth year and stayed at UND and ⁓ I even had an even better fifth year, so I think I made the right decision. That's awesome. And it's so refreshing to hear you talk about just like being happy where you are because I'm such a proponent of like you will run better when you're happier. Or like you like the correlation is there. Maybe not causation, but there is correlation there for sure. ⁓ so that's cool just to hear you say like you enjoyed being at practice with your teammates every day and like the system that was working. ⁓ do you have a favorite memory of your time at North Dakota. Run it like it could be race related or not, but like what pops into your head when you think of like one of your favorite memories of being an athlete there? Yeah. ⁓ I mean definitely one of our favorites was as I kinda just mentioned, winning our first conference cross country title. That was just such a huge thing that we had been working towards for the full five years I've been at UN D. ⁓ we'd gotten closer and closer every year, so to finally get to do it my final year was huge. And I mean, another good memory that sticks out from a race was the Boston ⁓ Valentine Invitational five K, my fourth year. ⁓ which was honestly probably one of the breakout races that put me on the N C double A radar, I guess. ⁓ that's actually the race that qualified me for my first ever indoor nationals. But I think what stood out to me about that race was that I had been coming off of a really big personal best in the five K already. I went from sixteen forty down to fifteen fifty seven in that December. And then I was joking with my coach before the race that all I had to do to make NCAAs was chop off another thirty seconds and qualify. But in the back of my mind I did kind of believe that maybe there was a chance that I was fit enough to do it. And I just absolutely sent that race and sure enough I ran fifteen twenty eight and ended up qualifying. And I think just what stood out to me was that that sense of like sometimes it's good to have those big kind of maybe delusional goals a little bit that are actually possible. ⁓ you don't really know until you go out and try and I think that race just kind of made me give me a new sense of belief for what was possible with my career. So yeah, that's a that's a good memory for sure. That is so fun. Did you guys go out and celebrate in any sense afterwards in Boston? ⁓ there's a really good ice cream shop that we always go to every Boston meet, so we get our good ice cream afterwards. ⁓ that's so fun. ⁓ so when you go to that two those like bigger to tr like that you have to kinda travel far two meets at North Dakota, is it a small group of you guys going or were you going solo or is it the whole team going on those trips? We typically take a smaller group, so for a lot of the Boston meets usually it's like ten to twelve people running. ⁓ usually it's the people who really need those opportunities to maybe try to get a qualifying time for either a conference meet or a national meet. ⁓ and then yeah, usually our group splits up and then the other half of the team will maybe run at a more local meet in North or South South Dakota. Gotcha. Okay, very nice. Yeah, I feel like every team does that very differently, so I was curious how you guys went about those big travel meets. So obviously you had a lot of success across your collegiate career, especially at the end, and you did your name was g like more and more on the radar. But when I think about you as a runner, I picture you at NCAA Outdoors this past year. I and I was I was in person watching it. And for s you know, for whatever reason, like it never had met you before, but like you're somebody who's just so easy to root for. ⁓ but I remember you just taking the lead in this probably the most elite field in the ten K that has ever lined up at NCAA's and just being like if you know, if we're gonna do this, like everyone's gonna have to work for it. Like I'm gonna make you guys work for it. So I kinda want you to take like take yourself back to that starting line and like lining up against all of these, you know, big names, a lot of really good runners, l really good women on the line. And obviously you've run the you've you're one of the best, like you're one of the favorites to win. So What's kinda going through your brain? What was your race plan going into that and did you did you execute it the way that you wanted to? Yeah, so that was a fun race. I think lining up, I did feel quite confident in my abilities to run fast that day. that was my fifth consecutive consecutive NCAA championship I'd qualified for. So I think lining up, I wasn't that rookie in the field anymore. I was pretty experienced when it came to championship racing. And going in, I knew that I wanted to try to let someone else take the lead the first 2K. I wanted to see if anybody else would go up to the front and maybe make it an honest pace. Unfortunately, as with a lot of championship racing, that was not the case. So after it was either the first kilometer or two, I kind of realized, yep, we're just jogging here. And personally, that's not the way I like to run races. I don't wanna see who can jog for nine kilometers and sprint the last kilometer. I wanna see who can run the fastest ten K. So and if people are gonna beat me that day, I need to make them work for it, obviously. So I took the lead shortly after, probably around the two K mark or so, and I started going down to I think thirty two flat pace because I knew that that was beyond a lot of the ladies' personal bests in the race. So I knew if I started cranking out some laps at that pace that hopefully ⁓ it would help dwindle dwindle down the field a little bit to ⁓ hopefully top eight was what I was shooting for. And it ended up working out really well. ⁓ by the last couple laps, we kinda got down to that eight eight people left to go, which kinda secured a first team all American finish for me, which was great. but yeah, I just kinda knew I had to press the race and, you know, try to try to knock some people off and I mean, yeah, I was able to come six and win my first ever first team All American title, which I was really stoked about. so yeah, that's kinda what was going through my head. Yeah, that's that is it that's so fun. And I remember you took the lead and it strung out the whole ra the field immediately strung out and people just started dropping. So your plan worked very well and it was very fun to watch. It kind of infuriates me and obviously I run middle distance races, but it infuriates me when everyone lets it go so slow. And I'm like Like yes, it is important to believe in yourself, but also like you There's a little bit of luck involved in being like the person with the fastest kick. So like I I sometimes I hated tactical race and I so I appreciate it and I love watching somebody take the race into their own hands and just like send it, like to do what's best what's best for them. And obviously it worked out. So that's that is really cool. So this could be like bias question of somebody who went to like a larger ⁓ university. But do you feel like there was Like you were like assigned an underdog mentality almost even though you weren't an underdog just because you went to North Dakota instead of you know, at one of the power four schools, or is that not did that like I could be totally wrong and that was that not a thing at all? No, I absolutely agree. I think I definitely just had a natural underdog status being from a school that nobody really had heard of and not too many people are as familiar with the Semit League Conference as they are something like you know, the Big Ten or the SEC. So yeah, definitely I think when I showed up on the start line to a lot of those races, people kind of gave me that underdog status. ⁓ I do also th think it might have been partially because of just how late in my career I broke onto the N C double A scene and started qualifying for these national meets. ⁓ 'cause my first ever national meet was indoor nationals in my fourth or technically senior year of college. Whereas, you know, there's a lot of people who stars from high school will make it in their freshman or their sophomore year and by the time they're graduating they've been to so many national championships. So I think with me just having a later breakout, ⁓ it kinda made me gave me that underdog status as well. Yeah, that makes sense. I feel like like I r I won a race this season and a bunch of captions kept being like, upset win, like big upset win. And it like kinda you're DD me because I'm like, is it really? That big of an upset. Like I you know, like I've run fast already. So yeah, I can imagine that could have been I mean, maybe you liked it, but also maybe a little bit frustrating when people aren't giving you the credit you deserve all the time, like lining up on the start line. But you proved yourself time and time again th over your over your college career, obviously. So that's very exciting. For sure, yeah. It can be fun to prove yourself and just be from that smaller school that no one's heard of. Right. So Now you're done with your college career and you've signed with Adidas and joined the Golden Peaks track club. Right? Gol track club is what it's called, right? Golden Peaks. what made you decide to join this team? What was your decision process in moving to Flagstaff to train? Yeah, so I visited Flagstaff actually last summer to train for a couple of weeks prior to my fifth year of college. And I absolutely fell in love with Flagstaff. I knew that if I had any professional opportunities to come here and train, that I would one hundred percent this would be the place for me to go. and last year during my I think it was November during ⁓ N CAA Nationals cross country is when I met the coach of the team, ⁓ Terrence Mahone. And he introduced himself and his team a little bit. They had just moved from San Diego and were now being based in Flagstaff at altitude. I had quite a few calls with him. I stayed in contact with him all throughout last year and I really got just got to know his training philosophy more, ⁓ just how he approaches training and ⁓ got to know more about the team and the people on it. And I thought his group just seemed like a really good fit for me as a distance runner. I think one of the things that stood out to me about him was just his coaching expertise. ⁓ he's been coaching professionals for I think over twenty years now. And he's coached some big name marathoners like Ryan Hall, Dina Castor, and for someone like myself who aspires to be a top marathoner in Canada, ⁓ that was something that, you know, I thought would be a great fit for me as an athlete. He's also really big into the sports science side of things and like the biomechanic aspect. I like how he believes that, you know, making little improvements in your form can take you a long way. And I've been trying to improve my form ⁓ for quite a while now, ever since I was in high school, to be honest. So I'm really excited to get to work with him and kind of get to work on that. And yeah, and then even just the group as a whole, ⁓ there's some awesome ladies on this team. ⁓ Katie Yizzo is one of them who's kinda like my main training partner right now and she's someone who I've kind of followed her career for a while. So it's cool to get to be training with someone like her right now. And yeah, i everything just kind of came together and it just seemed like the perfect place for me. That is awesome. The team seems so fun. I know some of those girls from my time in the Big Ten. Olivia Howell and Alex Carlson both were in the Big Ten. So it seems like a great fit and a great group. The coach seems so awesome. and I'm really ha like I'm happy that you're like starting this new chapter. It's gonna be so exciting and I can't wait to follow it. When you look back at your college career, now that you're a professional runner, do you think you would have like also impossible question to answer in advance. Like this is all hypothetical. But do you think that your career would have played out the same way had you h have gone to, say, Cincinnati or a bigger school, or do you think being at that small program was a part of your success? I like to think that being at a smaller school was part of my success. I I just think it's hard to say, you know, if I'd gone somewhere else, like who knows what that training environment would have looked like, who knows, you know, if I would have lost my love for the sport or if I could have gotten injured with a different system. So I just like to think that it all worked out for a reason and ⁓ I do honestly think that just being at that smaller school, having those good travel opportunities early on, and just being in a positive environment each day where I I truly was happy and, you know, was just loving practice, loved my teammates and had a great relationship with my coach, I I think that really was key to my success and just really fundamental in my development over time. So you just won. Everyone needs to give give their kudos here, but you recently won the Canadian Half Marathon Championships. Is that, which congrats, by the way, I do want to hear about that race. Is that a little bit of a sneak peek into are you gonna be transitioning more to the roads into maybe more half marathons and marathon distances in your professional career? Definitely, yeah. I absolutely loved my first road experience ⁓ last month at the half marathon championships. ⁓ it was such a fun race and I definitely have more plans to keep running on the road soon and also hopefully make a half or not a half marathon, a marathon debut next year. you know, the Olympics are kind of fast approaching, so I kinda gotta decide whether I wanna try to maybe go the marathon route or maybe try to qualify for the 10K. So definitely we'll be staying on the roads for a while, but I will for sure dabble back to the track. Run some more five K's and ten Ks. I think I've got a bit of unfinished business on there too. So can you walk us through that championship win? Like can you take us through the race? Given that it was your first road race, that is crazy that you're winning your first road race. ⁓ how did that how did it compare to the track and how how was it in what ways did you enjoy it maybe a little bit more than track races? Yeah, I think one thing I enjoyed about it a lot more was just the atmosphere as a whole. was just insane. 'Cause it's it's part of a greater, you know, marathon weekend where there's all other runners of all ages and abilities, you know, starting behind you. ⁓ so it was an out and back course. So when we flipped at the halfway point, we kind of started passing all those other runners and they were just screaming and cheering you on. So it was just like nonstop cheering the whole way back, which was kind of something that's unlike any track race I had done. You know, obviously track can be pretty exciting too, but ⁓ this was just like a whole new level. And you know, there's just so many more people there and yeah, just just a really exciting atmosphere. Did the race feel long compared like compared to doing a ten K on the track, or did it not? 'Cause like in my brain, obviously I don't run t I don't run ten K's and I definitely don't run marathons or half marathons. But in my race a road race would or in my mind, a road race would go by quicker just because of the course and 'cause you're changing the scenery a little bit and there's different stuff going on compared to doing a Ted K on the track where it's it's laps. Is that is that true? Or is it like the shorter one feels shorter? Yeah, even though the half marathon was double the distance, ⁓ it did honestly feel almost shorter in a way. Really 'cause you're not you you kinda zone like you kinda zone out a bit on the track sometimes, like or or kind of when you see the lap counter, you think to yourself, like, ⁓ I've got Twenty laughs to go, nineteen laughs to go, but you're definitely right that on the roads there's a lot more change of scenery, there's hills and all the people. I feel like it made it go by pretty quick. That's awesome. So I know you mentioned the Olympics a little bit, but when you look at when you look at the next few years in your professional career, what are the main goals that you're that you're shooting for? Yeah, ⁓ I would say next year the main goal would just to be making a marathon debut somewhere and kind of getting a time down on paper and then from there I guess kind of assessing whether or not I wanna pursue that f as my main goal for the Olympics or ⁓ maybe try to do the ten K instead. I know there's also world champs next year, ⁓ so I'd love to try to maybe make a team for that as well. But I do think like LA twenty twenty eight is just the big goal for me. That's I've I've always dreamed of getting to the Olympics, so I think that's kinda the big goal on my mind right now. If you ⁓ qualified for the Olympics, would you get the rings tattooed on you? I don't know. I I some I talked to someone about that recently, but ⁓ I've never been a big tattoo person, but I have thought about it. If I did qualify, I feel like I would have to. Yeah, it feels it feels necessary for some reason. Like you like it's a requirement if you make the Olympics. Mm-hmm. Okay, so one last question here. If you were to talk to a high schooler now, today, who maybe was in a similar position, you were leaving high school, what advice would you give them if about going choosing a what advice would you give them about choosing a smaller school? Like what would you What would you tell someone who was considering going to a North Dakota or an equivalent ⁓ for their college career? Yeah, I would start off by saying, first of all, I think any smaller school can be just as good of an opportunity as any large school. you know, maybe they have less resources in certain areas, but I do think sometimes the smaller size can make up for it. And things like I mentioned, the travel roster being a big one. I think Part of developing as an athlete is getting opportunities to go to fast races where you have adequate competition to run fast. ⁓ especially paced races can be huge to just time trial and get a good time on paper. I think also figuring out a place, we kind of touched on this earlier, finding a place where you are truly happy as a person and an athlete. finding an environment where you have a good relationship with the coach. you know, you trust in their training, the training kinda works for you and you have a good team surrounding you where you can get in good work each day, ⁓ being happy, I think is kind of more important than anything. and yeah, I I think just kinda keeping those things in mind and just finding a place where you think you will thrive as an athlete, not necessarily what's maybe the most popular school or or what you're seeing all across Instagram or whatever social media you media you might be on. ⁓ you know, I think there's a lot of hidden gem schools out there where people could potentially be more successful than larger schools. Right. Well thank you. Thank you so much for coming on today, Jaden. This is a great great conversation and I know young girls out there and and boys, young people out there will definitely benefit from hearing you like Hearing your story, seeing all your success in like the advice that you give them. So thank you for coming on to share. Yeah, thank you so much for having me on today. Enjoy Flagstaff. I hope you love living there and have a great ⁓ great season coming up. I'm excited to follow you this next year. Yeah, thank you so much. I'm looking forward to it. Thank you so much for tuning in to this episode. If you want to watch more of Track Side with Maddie Mooney, tune into Runner Space 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.