Maddi has been an impact kid from the first time she stepped on the cross country. She is one of the most decorated athletes in Francis Howell's sports history. For many of us in the running community, we watched Maddi grow from a little kiddo into a powerful young adult. Running is a sport of delayed gratification. It is my hope Miss Leigh has her best season yet. Maddi has been very generous with her responses going into great detail about her career. This is a MUST read for all other runners.
What were your first impressions of Maddi when you first met her?
Couldn't ask for someone with better work ethic and you knew she had a strong desire to be the best runner she could be. She came in as a freshman already headed in the right direction which told me she has wanted to be a runner for a long time. You could almost say she was perfect...if perfect existed.
When did you know she could be truly great?
Day 1 and that first season, as a freshmen, she became our top runner amongst other remarkable runners (Whitney Adams, Kristen Adams, Arnica Zitting)
When did Maddi make her biggest breakthrough?
Senior year, you really saw how far she had come. She has always run her heart out and sometimes she fall into the finish line literally. Gasping for breath...just completely gassed. But this year, you could see her strength and she knew what she wanted from the start of the season and she got it. That 3rdplace finish at state she couldn't have run smarter.
How does her weekly training look?
Right now she is on a slightly different training plan for track. I am only the head XC coach and I am not involved with track anymore because I coach boys tennis. I know right now her mileage is currently sitting at 434.7 miles after 12 weeks of winter running. Over the XC Season she started at 50 mile weeks and we tapered at the half way mark to keep her fresh. The weeks would always consist of 2 days of strength training accompanied with a workout like a progression, temp, or ladder run, 2 days of long runs with balance and stretching routines, and an easy mileage day before a race including yoga.
Is Maddi a year-round track girl? Does she have other talents in addition to track and field?
She does track and XC. She stopped playing soccer when she got to HS, but she was/is a phenomenal soccer player.
What do you think makes Maddi great as an athlete?
She is a role model for others, a leader amongst her teammates, she has a great attitude that is infectious to the team, her effort is everything you could ask for in an athlete, and she is always engaged in her work outs. She does doing anything half way, she puts everything she has and doesn't make excuses for herself or try to skip out on anything. And she is an all-around good person, friend, and student.
Madison what made you decide to do track and field?
As I entered into the summer before my freshman year, I was running early in the morning at summer running at the school, and then training a few days a week with my soccer team before state cup and then regionals. I knew going into this cross country season that it was going to be a lot, doubling up with soccer and high school cross country, but I also didn't know all that was entailed with the in and out training for cross country. Anyway, I did all of the high school soccer camps, and attended all of the summer running practices, knowing that I would run cross country in the fall, and play soccer in the spring. Although, I would become so exhausted from cross country practice that by the time I went to soccer practice that night, I would just sit on the sidelines watching my team play because I had a cross country workout tomorrow and didn't want to jeopardize the quality of the workout due to having soccer practice. I eventually just committed to running in the fall and then would commit to playing soccer in the spring. However, as the cross country season went on, the more I got closer with the team, especially Kristen Adams and Arnica Zitting, and the more success we had as a team and the more success I had as an individual, the more I was hooked. Once cross country season was over, my teammates had convinced me and I made my own educated decision to run track instead of playing soccer. Still to this day, the high school soccer coaches ask me every year to play, but I have never looked back at the decision I made my freshman year.
When did you know you could do something special?
I knew I could do something special when I ran the Frost Bite Series at Forest Park when I was in the winter of my 8th grade year. I ran against this girl that was amazing and I could just tell she was an amazing runner (maybe in high school). After we battled each other week after week, she finally introduced herself. I soon found out I was running against Sofia Racette. I had already looked up her credentials and realized she was an amazing high school runner, but also very nice. When I had my day to shine and beat her in one of the frost bite races, I knew at that time, I was something special, because she was something special.
I also knew I was something special when my freshman year I ran Forest Park. I was so nervous as I looked around at all the talent that I had only read about. Now, I was taking the line with them. I took 5ththat year and Jill Whitman - whom is a runner I greatly admire, shook my hand at the finish shoot following the race, and I had beat her by just a second if that, and she said that that day I had made her a better runner. I was in awe of that comment and as I was continuing to recover, I felt like something special.
How has your training been in the off season both summer and winter?
Training in the off season is mainly focused on base mileage. We limit speed to almost nothing until the season officially starts. At this break between seasons I focus on building relationships with my team, running with different teammates, and just enjoy what I love to do. I try to encourage my teammates to the best of my ability and try to show them what they are capable of and what our team is capable of. In the offseason I try to not be too serious yet, but the trill of racing and workouts always make me excited for the upcoming season.
What are your goals for this upcoming season and future in the sport of track?
I plan to train as hard as I can. I have a new head coach and I plan to work well with him and continue to build my team and help improve them and myself in any way possible.
My future will be with Oakland University in the fall running both XC and track. I look forward to the collegiate level of training, meeting my new teammates, potentially competing at the National level and seeing different parts of the country. I really admire the coach I signed with and I'm super excited to see what he gets out of me. #wearthebear is my future.
