After runner-up finishes in both the mile and two-mile at New Balance Nationals Indoor in March, Westford (MA) senior Abby Hennessy has her sights set on the top step of the podium at New Balance Nationals Outdoor later this month. The University of Washington signee has had a season full of wins and PBs, ranging from 400m to two miles, from Penn Relays to Arcadia.

Hennessy sat down with CITIUS MAG to detail what she’s taken away from a season spent mostly at 90% effort, adding new skills to her toolkit, and how the lessons learned at NBNI will impact the final races of her high school career.

The following interview has been edited lightly for length and clarity,

CITIUS MAG: Abby, you’ve been putting together a really strong outdoor season. As we’re moving into real postseason racing right now, how are you feeling?

Abby Hennessy: It’s definitely feeling surreal. I’m done with school now and just focusing in on all my workouts—the taper’s gonna start. It just feels surreal, this being my last high school nationals as well, I’m just really excited to see what I can do and try and enjoy it all.

When do you graduate? I guess you’re kind of able to get a glimpse of pro life right now with just needing to worry about training.

Exactly, that’s what my coach has been saying. It’s been nice to work out in the mornings. I graduate Friday. I was on a capstone internship for five weeks and that ended a week-and-a-half ago, so this week has been crazy because there’s been absolutely nothing going on. I feel so free! And then next week it’s crazy again with school events, and then I’m flying out to race in St. Louis, and then I fly back the morning of my graduation, and the next day is All States here in Massachusetts.

Focusing back on the track, it’s been an incredible season for you. You’ve picked up a win at Penn Relays, you ran 4:35 a few weeks back to win the mile at Track Night NYC, and you also crossed the country to take a 3200m win at Arcadia. Which race this season is the one that gives you the most confidence as you enter the postseason?

This season, I think I’ve walked away from all those races you mentioned and everything I’ve done this outdoor season feeling like I’ve maybe given 90%. Just knowing that I have another gear and sometimes it was the weather, sometimes it was how I was feeling. I don’t want to say I was disappointed by them, but I feel like it wasn’t everything that I was hoping for. In indoors and last outdoors, I feel like I always had people around me to push me to 101%, and I felt so proud of everything I was doing those years. This year, it’s made me hungry for more. I know it’s setting up a really good base, especially for my mile time from indoors to outdoors, just seeing it consistently go down little by little, I know that I’m chipping away at a PR.

I know my fitness is there, I’ve been feeling really good in workouts and I think my workouts have been giving me a lot of confidence. My mile in New York, I guess that’s what I’d say I gained the most confidence from. That was the quickest I had ever gone out through the 800m, but it didn’t feel like a sprint—that felt very comfortable. I was kinda disappointed about how I handled the last 400m, and I know that I can close so much faster than that with people around me and with a few more weeks of training under my belt. The next day, I came back and ran the anchor leg of our team’s DMR at our State Relays and I ran 4:40. I went out in a 67 and was like, “What the heck am I doing?” and then hung on for dear life, I guess. Being able to bounce back not even 24 hours later—it was an evening race to a morning race—knowing that I could do that is giving me confidence.

When you talk about these races being around 90% but they’re still either PBs or close to your PBs, how much does that excite you about what might be in the cards the next few weeks?

The rest of the season I’ll be racing some amazing girls from the rest of the country and that will help push me so much further. I was also more timid going into those races and nervous about the fact that it was gonna hurt and I was gonna do it all alone, and my workouts this year have really helped me gain confidence. I feel so much more comfortable running goal mile pace and knowing I can do this. Looking at how hard I can push myself in practice, I can push myself just as hard on race day too, you don’t have to be afraid of it. Going into it, mentally, I’m more prepared to give it my all.

One of things I noticed looking at your races this year is that you’ve run PBs in the 400m and 800m as well. How do you think adding a little more speed to your toolkit will serve you when it gets down to the last lap against some of the best girls in the country?

I’ve always been pretty confident in my kick, but I know that there’s girls out there that can run an 800m six seconds faster than me. I’m just trying to put together every piece that I can to hold up against the best girls in the country. I always like to have good range, too. I never want to just confine myself to the mile, even though I know that I’m a miler at heart. I like jumping down to the 400m or running a two-mile, I think it takes the pressure off of it. I just find it fun to see how many different events I can PB in.

I was really disappointed with that 800m, it was not what I was looking for. I ran a 1:33 600m in practice a few days before, and if I can run 1:33 in practice and continue to have a good workout, I know I’m much more fit than a 2:07. I’m hoping to maybe get in one more 800m this season to show what I can do in that event because I want to prove to myself and others that I’m not just a miler.

Looking ahead to New Balance Nationals Outdoor, what’s your schedule going to look like?

I’m trying to focus on the mile on Saturday and then the DMR on Sunday morning. My team is trying to go after the state record which is 11:44. We were looking at an 800m the week before, but I could also run it at Nationals. I know I’m not as competitive in it, but it would be a fun way to end off my season. I want to stay fresh for the mile, and I know that there’s gonna be some amazing girls in the two-mile as well.

It’s hard to really analyze the races at New Balance Nationals Indoor because Katy Zang took such a commanding lead so early, but looking back at your two runner-up finishes, what are the important things looking back at those that you can take into NBNO?

I know had I gone out quicker and gone for broke in that mile indoors, I know I could’ve caught Katy, I felt so much more fit than that. I remember walking off and telling my coach that I wish we had 400m more. That brings me back to some of my races where I felt disappointed that I wasn’t brave enough to make a move sooner. I was kind of trapped in the mile, so making sure that I’m always in a position to make my move is something that I’m also focusing on for these races.

Also, I think it’s a big mental battle. In the two-mile, I was kind of stuck in no man’s land for a majority of the race and that kind of got to me. I also felt so horrible in that two-mile to be honest. I came back 48 hours later for that mile and thought “Wow, I feel 10,000 times better.”

After you wrap up your Westford career at NBNO, you’ll be off to Seattle to become a Washington Husky. In the recruiting process, what stood out to you about UW as the place you want to be?

Maurica [Powell] just has an amazing team there. Everyone’s so close knit and I’m really excited to come in with a freshman class of 13 girls, which is going to be absolutely insane. I think that’ll be really fun to have this new environment where I’ll be with so many different girls who want to push themselves just as hard as I do and we’re all on this level together. I’m so excited to go do tempos together and that kind of stuff. My coach is a big tempo person, and just me on the bike path alone every day gets a little tiring. I know it makes me mentally stronger, but I’m excited for college too.

Maurica’s amazing, I trust her so much with anything training, any part of my life, honestly.

Last one: talk us through your weekly shoe rotation.

For my daily trainer, I use the Rebel. I’m not a super high-mileage person. I don’t go on a ton of easy runs, but I use the Rebel for those. For workouts, I love the Pacer, and then I love the SC Elite for anything on the roads—tempos, threshold stuff. I really love those shoes. And I love the MDX spikes for anything speedy on the track for workouts. I always love when I get to spike up and I feel like I have this speed boost for these last reps that’ll be so much easier than the previous ones.

Do you have one of the signature colorways for your spikes?

I had been racing in the green ones that match the pro kit, but I tried the Gabby Thomas pink ones for my 800m. For the few 400s that I ran, I needed some Gabby Thomas speed for those.

Well, Abby, congratulations on all the success you’ve already had this season, and we’ll all be looking forward to what’s on the table for you these next few weeks!

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