STRONG TO THE FINISH

Published: Wednesday, December 31, 2008 10:56 PM CST
By DILLON TABISH/The Daily Inter Lake

Former FHS runner wraps up her running career at University of Oregon

The streets and sidewalks are covered in snow on Fifth Avenue and Zoe Nelson clips by in a speed only a former national champion would call "easy pace."

It's the same route she ran all those years as a high schooler at Flathead when she was setting state records and running faster times than a majority of boys.

When people hear Zoe's name, they think of the freshman who upset senior defending state champion Heidi Lane, or the sophomore who traveled to San Diego for the Foot Locker National Cross Country Championships and beat the field. Or the phenom who never lost a 3-mile race in Montana and joined the most storied running university perhaps in the world, the University of Oregon.

Running has defined Zoe for nearly her entire life, but that's about to change.

After four years in Eugene, Zoe is preparing to graduate in the spring after one final season of indoor track, which will put an end to her competitive running career. The former Flathead valedictorian is getting a degree in general science with a minor in Spanish, and hopes to become a genetic counselor.

And what about running?

"I can't see myself carrying it on too much," she said. "What I always wanted to do was just get myself through college with it and I've really enjoyed it and loved competing in college. But I think without the team aspect of it, and after college it gets a lot harder, you're on your own a bit more, I think I'll be ready to move on."

On and off the track, her time at Oregon was well spent, she said. Eugene is Tracktown, USA, home of Hayward Field where the legendary Steve Prefontaine earned global attention along with running coach Bill Bowerman.

"It's one of the most storied tracks in track and field. It's definitely a cool place to work out," Zoe said. "I think I take it for granted. You get used to working out at Hayward Field every day and then you see people come there for meets and they're taking pictures ... It is kind of a sacred place for a lot of people, and I have to stop and think about it for a minute and really appreciate how cool it is."

In 2004, Oregon's women's cross country team had one of its worst finishes, placing seventh at the Pacific-10 championships. The next year, former Stanford coach Vin Lananna took over as head coach and focused on turning the team around with Zoe as a freshman.

Four years later, the Oregon women earned a second place finish at the NCAA cross country championship for the second year in a row. At the meet on Nov. 23, Zoe placed fifth on her team, 61st overall. Her coach said she played a key role throughout her time at Oregon and will be missed by both her teammates and the staff.

"Zoe Nelson has been a wonderful leader on and off of the track since my arrival," Lananna wrote in an e-mail to the Daily Inter Lake. "She has been the 'Go-to' person for the last two years. She is reliable and dependable ... Her skills are widely respected by her peers and other members of the Athletic Department staff."

"She brings an obvious sense of confidence to practice each day and the other athletes value her contributions as a stalwart leader of the U of O cross country team," he added. "It is no coincidence that our tremendous progress as a nationally competitive distance team coincides with her arrival in Eugene."

At an early age, Zoe considered Oregon a dream school, and chased those dreams relentlessly.

As an 8th grader in Kalispell, she tagged along with the Flathead High School cross country team to the Western Foot Locker Regional race. Current cross country coach Paul Jorgensen brought her along with his top-notch group of runners, who were competing against the best of the West. The high school races that day were supposed to be the headliners, but then the 8th-grade race started.

Within minutes, spectators were piling along the course as word spread of a back-and-forth battle between two 8th grade girls, one of them being Zoe.

The race came down to the final stretch, with Zoe barely getting out-kicked at the finish, and placing second. Regardless, Jorgensen was amazed.

"I couldn't believe that she'd run that fast on that course," he said. "I thought for awhile that the course was short, but it was a true two miles."

"After all the races were over, people were still talking about that 8th-grade race being the best race of the day," he added.

The legend grew from there.

Zoe went to Flathead High and won race after race. In her high school career, she won four state championships in cross country and holds the girls record time of 16:50 for three miles, which she ran as a sophomore. In track, she holds the state record in the 1,500 (roughly one mile) of 4:54, and the 3,200 meter record of 10:20. As a senior in track, she won the state championship in three races — the 800 meter, 1,600 and 3,200. In all four years at Flathead, she qualified for the national championships, a feat that Jorgensen said is remarkable.

"The neatest thing was, I remember other kids coming up and asking her for an autograph," Jorgensen said.

He also remembers what set her apart from other runners.

"I don't think I've ever had a girl with the work ethic that she had," said Jorgensen.

"A lot of kids are impatient, they want it right now without working hard," he added. "Sometimes you have kids who have the talent but don't work ... Some kids take their talent for granted, they think they can run on pure, natural talent. But to be great, you have to put the two together, talent and working your butt off. Zoe fits that."

Now that school and running are coming to an end, Zoe said she plans on taking a break and maybe moving to South America with a friend from high school. Then she wants to enter graduate school to fulfill another dream of hers — working with people with genetic diseases. Getting into graduate school and then finding a job will be tough, but hard work never kept Zoe from achieving her dreams. She learned that by lacing up her shoes on cold, snowy days and heading down Fifth Avenue.

And now that she thinks about it, maybe she isn't ready to completely call it quits.

"I think I'll still run," she said after recollecting a bit. "I can't see myself just not ever going out running, I think I'd go crazy."