Catching up with Mia Behm
April 2, 2009 Texas freshman Mia Behm understands the stage of the Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays presented by State Farm, because she competed in the meet as a high schooler at T.K. Gorman in Tyler. But on Wednesday, the opening day of this year's Texas Relays, Behm did her part to own the stage. She took second place in the 5,000-meter with a personal-best time of 16:53.78. It also marks the second-fastest time by a UT runner in the event since 2000. Behm recently talked with TexasSports.com about running, particularly at the Texas Relays. What kind of memories do you have about the Texas Relays? Well, when I ran last year, my future coach was here watching, and all I could think about was not screwing up. I was so nervous. That's probably the second-most nervous I've ever been before a race. What's the first? The high school state meet. Do you remember how you did with your coach watching? I remember that I ran a 5:11 in the mile. I think I was eighth or so. But I'm not sure. I don't want to say that I did better than I actually did. Dang, I should have that down. I should have that memorized. But you remember the 5:11. Were you happy with the time? Yeah, that was a PR for me. I wasn't a very good miler. I'm more of a two-miler. What is your best event now? Probably the 5K. When did you discover that you were good at running? It wasn't really me, so much as my friends. I played soccer before this, up until sophomore year of high school. And then they all shoved me in a corner and said, "You're getting on the track team." I had no choice, even though I didn't want to. I figured I'd go to one practice and then say see ya. But I guess I just liked it. What was your first race? The two-mile. Had you ever run that far before? That was probably the longest I'd ever gone, and for awhile, anything longer than that, and I'd wonder why I was still running. It was really hard to get to like running at first. I think I just did it at first because everyone else was doing it. I had a lot of good friends on the team. It was hard to develop a love for running. My senior year I just decided that I really liked it, and had a gift for it.
What do you think your gift is? I would say that most people could put up with it physically, but you really have to think through the pain. Mentally, you have to be tough enough. What do you say to yourself when you have just a few laps to go and the pain is overtaking you? Basically, my thought is, "You did not train this hard to give up right now." So then what do you think during training? In training, I just tell myself to finish so I can do well in the next race. It keeps you going, because you want to perform well. |
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