Olympic hopeful running down steeplechase

By Bryan McKenzie

Published: May 27, 2008

Julia Rudd doesn’t believe in regrets or “what-ifs” and that’s why she’s taking her best shot now.

The 25-year-old Wisconsin native and 2006 graduate of the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse, is an Olympic hopeful in the steeplechase. The track event is a 3,000-meter run with four hurdles and a jump over a foot-deep water pit on each lap, and Rudd is living and training — and even working — for her sport in Charlottesville.

“It’s a pretty tough lifestyle because you don’t go out very often, you go to bed early, you get up early to run and then run again in the evening and you’re always training. It’s hard on friendships,” Rudd said, relaxing with a quick lunch on the University of Virginia Grounds, across from The Corner.

“I was never planning to move [from Wisconsin] in any part of my life, but I was looking for a place to run, a group I could train with,” she said. “I felt that I never reached my potential in college because I came to running late, as a senior in high school. I just want to give it my best shot.”

Rudd’s life is on the run. Eschewing athletic clubs, she trains at the UVa track, lifts weights in a nearby shed and runs the area’s streets. Her roommates are former UVa athletes Tamika Ferguson and Erin Crawford, who recently qualified for the Olympic trials in the triple jump and 400-meter hurdles, respectively. Rudd works at the Ragged Mountain Running Shop, an athletic store that provides flexible hours around her training and competition schedule.

Her best time is 10:15 in the race and she needs to run 10:05 or less.

“It’s very doable,” she said. “There are a lot of variables in the steeplechase and times can vary a great deal.”

Even her friendships are track-based: Her best friend is Alan Webb, who in 2007 ran the fastest times in the world in the one-mile run and the 1,500-meter run. He also set the U.S. record last year for the one-mile run at 3:46.91.

“Julia lives to run and she’s doing this the hard way. It’s not easy for her because she doesn’t have a sponsor and she has to have a job and try to make enough money to travel to compete and support her training,” Webb said from his home in Reston. “One thing I love about her is that she is extremely positive. She has an upbeat attitude about life in general and she believes in herself and others.”

That belief led her to move to Indianapolis after college to train and compete. She moved to Charlottesville this winter to continue her training and be nearer to Webb, whom she met on the competitive track circuit.

“I loved it in Indiana. My first year there I [ran a personal record] in almost every competition,” she recalled. “I met [UVa grad and assistant women’s track coach] Dawn Cromer, who runs the steeplechase, at a couple of competitions and she told me about Charlottesville. I visited and fell in love with it. It’s nice to be closer to Alan, but we’re still far enough part that we can focus on our training.”

She’s found Charlottesville to be a supportive environment with accomplished athletes to help her push her limits.

“I was decent in [NCAA] Division III competition: I qualified for nationals my freshman year in 2002 and won the nationals in 2004,” Rudd said, noting that she placed third two other times. “There’s definitely a big difference between Division III and Division I. I’m running with people who push me all of the time. It’s great. It’s challenging, though.”

“She’s gone about it right. For her a Division III school was the right place to develop the skills without the pressure that a Division I school can put on you,” Webb said. “She got a taste of winning and, speaking from experience, nothing gives you confidence like winning.”

Running with the big girls just seconds away from going to the Olympic trials is a far cry from the high school athlete whose love for basketball far eclipsed her skills.

“I really loved basketball, but I just wasn’t that good at it and I finally gave it up. I took up running in my senior year of high school, instead,” Rudd recalled. “When I ran my first race I discovered it was something that I was good at. I wanted to be an athlete and so I [walked on] the team in college.”

The desire hasn’t left. As long as it exists, she’ll keep training and trying.

“I keep setting new personal records and improving and I want to see how far I can go. I may not be a superstar, but I think I can make the Olympic team and I have the ability to keep improving, This is the kind of sport you can run into your 30s. People quit trying because they get tired of the lifestyle. It’s hard to train as much you have to,” Rudd said.

“I want to keep going as long as possible. I don’t want to look back and think I gave it up too soon,” she said. “I don’t want to look back and be bitter.”