2008 Woodie Awards
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Hitting her stride
After suffering a pelvic injury, Nicole Blood is back at full speed for Oregon and will look to make up for lost time in the 5,000-meter race at Hayward this weekend
by Jeffrey Dransfeldt | Senior Sports Reporter
Blood took visits to three other schools than Oregon, including Villanova, North Carolina and Providence.
"I could have went to any of them and been happy, but when I came here, it's just the energy that surrounded running and just all the fans and the way the coaches were really optimistic," Blood said. "I really got the feeling that this is where I wanted to be."
Although Blood can be considered one of Oregon's promising young distance runners, she is transitioning to a whole new level of running - Division I - after being a dominant force nationally in high school.
"You're kind of the underdog again," Blood said. "It was kind of like when I was younger, seventh, eighth grade, no one expects you and then that one day you're just going to come out of nowhere. Until then, you just work hard for that one day so it's nice."
And that includes being teammates with sophomore Zoe Nelson, another nationally known distance runner during her prep career in Montana, and who met up with Blood at the annual Foot Locker National Cross Country Championship in San Diego.
"You think of them as kind of intimidating when you just build them up so much in your head so once you meet them and they're just really normal and fun and a lot like you, it's pretty funny," Nelson said.
The attention heaped on Blood during her prep days left her name mentioned with the likes of Mary Decker, a famous U.S. track athlete from the '70s through the '90s.
"It's a great feeling but at the same time I'm not in the whole cockiness (thing). I think that's what made me be extra competitive with the people who were cocky because it'd drive me nuts," Blood said. "You want to knock them down a peg a little bit."
High school athletes in New York are allowed to participate in varsity sports starting in the seventh grade, and it made a difference, Blood says, who couldn't imagine if she had had to wait until ninth grade, as it is in California.
"That stinks 'cause that's when you want to start really getting serious. Seventh and eighth grade I had a lot of fun," she said. "I didn't train everyday and did my own thing but at least I was running. My body's getting used to it."
"I could have went to any of them and been happy, but when I came here, it's just the energy that surrounded running and just all the fans and the way the coaches were really optimistic," Blood said. "I really got the feeling that this is where I wanted to be."
Although Blood can be considered one of Oregon's promising young distance runners, she is transitioning to a whole new level of running - Division I - after being a dominant force nationally in high school.
"You're kind of the underdog again," Blood said. "It was kind of like when I was younger, seventh, eighth grade, no one expects you and then that one day you're just going to come out of nowhere. Until then, you just work hard for that one day so it's nice."
And that includes being teammates with sophomore Zoe Nelson, another nationally known distance runner during her prep career in Montana, and who met up with Blood at the annual Foot Locker National Cross Country Championship in San Diego.
"You think of them as kind of intimidating when you just build them up so much in your head so once you meet them and they're just really normal and fun and a lot like you, it's pretty funny," Nelson said.
The attention heaped on Blood during her prep days left her name mentioned with the likes of Mary Decker, a famous U.S. track athlete from the '70s through the '90s.
"It's a great feeling but at the same time I'm not in the whole cockiness (thing). I think that's what made me be extra competitive with the people who were cocky because it'd drive me nuts," Blood said. "You want to knock them down a peg a little bit."
High school athletes in New York are allowed to participate in varsity sports starting in the seventh grade, and it made a difference, Blood says, who couldn't imagine if she had had to wait until ninth grade, as it is in California.
"That stinks 'cause that's when you want to start really getting serious. Seventh and eighth grade I had a lot of fun," she said. "I didn't train everyday and did my own thing but at least I was running. My body's getting used to it."
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