Annie Rodenfels returns to D3 Glory Days after running 15:08.80 at BU this weekend – a world championship standard! The original goal of her indoor season opener was to pace the BYU women anywhere between 3,000m and 4,000m. At 3,000m, she was feeling good and dropped back into the pack to see where the train would take her. A 30-second last lap propelled her to the race of her life. She is now 12th All-Time on the U.S. women’s indoor 5,000m list. The best stat of all, she is now the fastest woman to run a 5,000m out of Division III.

Annie recently joined the BAA after training with Greenville Track Club. This is the first time in her life she has female training partners and she is absolutely loving it. As she continues to bet on herself, she is excited to be training alongside 2021 USATF Running Circuit champion Erika Kemp and Abbey Wheeler.

We go into how the race played out, what her transition to the BAA has been like, and how she is handling this transforming race. If you want to hear her origin story, go back to Episode 2!

Listen now: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

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Thank you goodr

A huge thanks to goodr for coming on and partnering with us. I hope you were able to get a pair of sunglasses at the National Meet! If you didn’t get a pair at the NCAA Division III cross country championships, go to goodr.com and save 15% by using code GLORYDAYS at checkout.

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Notable Quotes and Show Notes

On the pacing duties for the BYU women:

“Coach Taylor came up to us and asked if we were the ones pacing. And she asked me about taking the field through 4K and I feel so bad. I looked at her straight in the face and I said, Oh no, I’m not good enough to pace your women to 4K at that pace.“

On Shifting her mindset over the last two years

“If I’m really going to put this much effort into it, I have to feel like I belong and believe in myself, even if nobody else is.”

On the state of U.S. women’s distance running:

“It’s a changing landscape right now in American women’s distance running. Everyone’s getting faster, so I’m just trying to keep up. And I feel like this is the best I’ve done at keeping up in the last several years.”

On making big jumps in her training:

“I feel like I have learned to adjust and to think of myself as that talent or [someone] that has the capability [to run fast]. I’ve worked hard enough to get there and then just keep going. I’Il try not to get too caught up in it because like I said, everyone else is running faster now, too.”

On what’s next:

“I’m adjusting to a new training program, but I definitely do want to do the U.S. indoor championships. It’s always been a goal of mine to make a team any team.”

What she daydreams of while on her recovery runs:

“I definitely feel like I noticed I was speeding it up a lot because I was just like thinking about, ‘OK, what next? Where am I going to go?’ And I was definitely daydreaming a little bit about like like making the world’s team or something like that or like, you know, just even having a shot.”

On self-belief:

“At the end of the day, I know my own strengths and my own capacity and I chose to believe in that. Whether or not other people want to is up to them. You’re always going to have people who think you can and you’re always going to have people that think you can’t. So choose to ignore that and don’t let other people have power over you.”

On her move to join the BAA:

“I feel like right now, I have a very balanced approach to my running and training. I think that’s why I ran so fast because I’m so happy here and I feel very stable. I don’t feel like I’m doing too much in any one aspect [of life].”

On becoming great:

“I’m not a great runner yet, right? I ran a 15:08. That’s great. But, I can really show that I’m a great runner by showing up on the right day like the indoor championship, right? That really proves how good you are. It’s great, obviously, to run fast times on the way like that still does things for you. But showing up at the right time and the right day is what is important next.”

On the race:

“That was the frickin race of my life! I don’t want to be the person that runs a 15:08 once and then never does anything to get it right. Like, if you want to continue to be great, you have to keep showing up and prove that in other times and other races.”