MileStat.com\'s Brandon Miles interviews Radford junior Nathan Brame and asks the tough questions circulating around the recent Group A state cross country champion in regards to his transformation from his freshmen year message board predictions, his rivalry with Clarke County and Simon Biddle-Snead, and discussing his breakthrough season of cross country.
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MileStat.com: Congratulations on your state championship win on Saturday. What was your race plan coming in and how did you feel the race worked out for you?
Nathan Brame: First off, I would like to thank you of doing me the honor of taking the time out of your busy schedule to offer me an interview and thanks for the congrats about the state meet. My plan for the race went pretty much as expected. From hearing about the Region B Meet, I figured that the race would go out really slow, and it would end up being a middle distance runners\' race. Pretty much everything went the way that I expected, except that I had the thought in the back of my mind that Simon would make a comeback, especially when his coach called out to him at the 2 mile flag \"come on simon, let\'s see a sub 5 mile!\" That kind of freaked me out a little, until we hit the hill, and I like hills because it feels to me that I am resting my normal, flat ground running muscles.
MileStat.com: The Roanoke Times recently did a feature article on you as well as the website in relation to your message board freshmen year predictions and the controversy it stirred. Looking back in retrospect to then and now. How do you feel you have grown or changed as a person and a runner since then?
Brame: Well, since me freshman year, I feel that one big difference is physical maturity. Since I ran in my key dovelopmental years, I feel that I have kind of grown into a more natural runner because when I started out, I looked pretty flimsy. And as a person, I am definitely more serious about running. For me and my team, we talk about running whenever we can. It is kind of consuming our lives. We all make A\'s and B\'s mostly, but running is what we do. So yeah, both the Radford guys and I are intensely more serious.
MileStat.com: There are plenty of rivalries in the sport between teams and individuals. All are competitive, yet the definitions of friendliness between two rivals seems to be classified three ways: genuinely friendly, superficially friendly, and not friendly at all. Where do you classify your rivalry with Biddle-Snead and the Clarke County guys? Do you think the rivalry helps motivate you more in your training and racing than if no rivalry existed at all?
Brame: About the rivalry between Simon and I, I don\'t know what I should say. I bet he is a great guy, but I don\'t really know him, which is strange considering the amout of time I had spent thinking about him. But we are not what you would call friends, I think that the best way to describe it would be not really friendly. But I think that the rivalry between Radford and Clarke has grown extremely deep. At each practice, it is like \" think about that one Clarke guy in front of you.\" We are definitely better off if the rivalry exists. No matter how unfriendly, it pushes us both to be better, and that is what the entire sport is about.
MileStat.com: Do you plan to compete at Foot Locker South? If so, what race do you plan to compete in and what are your goals for Charlotte?
Brame: Yeah, I do plan to compete in Foot Locker. I am going to run in the seeded race, and in my dreams, qualify for nationals. But actually thinking about it, in the past, Foot Locker has been similar to the Giles course in times, and even though Jacob Maidens, who is an amazing runner who everyone should watch out for in the future, pushed me, it was only for about half way, and I kind of cruised. A lot like at States, I think that I could have been at least 10 seconds faster per mile but all I wanted then was a secure win over Simon.
MileStat.com: Not only have you improved since your freshmen year, but your team has at Radford as well with a state runner-up showing this past weekend. What do you think has contributed to Radford\'s rise as one of Group A\'s top programs and do you think its possible for Radford to break up Region B\'s streak of state championships next year?
Brame: I think that the Radford team has amazing work ethic, and taking into consideration that we have only had our coach for 3 years, I think we are on the right track. We all have high hopes for next year too, seeing as we are only losing our number five and six guys. The really great thing is that we have an amazing eighth grader coming up, VJ, and his last name starts with a G. He broke all of my middle school cross country records by like 30 seconds. He will be our missing link that will hopefuly bring Radford our first cross country state title. Only a year after the first time we have ever even won the region.
MileStat.com: Was last spring outdoor\'s 1600 state title win over Biddle-Snead a confidence booster heading into this season?
Brame: Yeah, I think that my 1600 win last year was a huge mental victory because to be honest, I had never even been close to Simon before. I think the two middle laps are what gave me the confidence though because it meant that I had the potential. I had been told that I should stick to the middle distances, but it is nice to know that with enough hard work, I can at least force my body to be a decent long distance runner.
MileStat.com: How big of win was Octoberfest for you?
Brame: I think that Octoberfest was an enormous victory for me. Going up to the starting line, I saw runners like Tessema and Porter. I mean, Porter was the indoor 3200 freshman national leader. So many people that I have raced, Simon included, could beat me by 200 meters or more in a two mile, but somehow this season, I have been beating a lot of them by like 10 to 15 seconds. I am really excited about the upcoming track seasons and Foot Locker because I think I have so much more in me. Plus at that race, I thought Spooner was there, but after a terrible start, coming 1/4 mile in at like 40th place, I just bounced straight to the front. It just felt natural and relaxed the whole time. It is just huge when you go and run with people that you think are so much better than you, and you come out on top. It gives me an incredible boost of confidence for the rest of the year.
MileStat.com: What was your background in running before your freshmen year at Radford?
Brame: Well, not really that much, just running middle school for Radford. Back then, we had myself (8th), Daniel Harrell (8th), and Charles Mogen (7th). We were all setting records in cross country and finishing 1-2-3. We are all just now starting to live up to our potential. Watch out for Charles and Daniel these upcoming seasons. They have both run about 16:35 on a not so fast Giles 3 mile course. And just for the record, because we run there three times a year, the course is nice and well rounded, but slow as there are 11 places where you have to come to a dead stop to turn around. But anyway I remember back in 7th grade, when I was undefeated in the mile, and I raced Peter Dorrell, and he beat me by like 15 seconds. I think I ran 5:23. The next year in 8th grade, I ran 4:53 for 1600 meters and I was ready to race him again. However, for some reason, Blacksburg backed out at the last minute. But Peter and me, we are on pretty good terms now.