Post-OUA interview with Alex Wilkie
Alex Wilkie, of Queen’s University, has had an incredible racing season thus far and will stand on the CIS start line virtually undefeated in the OUA conference. He placed second to Kevin Tree at the Queen’s Invitational earlier in the season, after having run the first two-thirds of the race as a tempo workout.
We caught up with him to chat about the OUA experience and how he’s feeling leading up to the CIS championships on Nov. 14.
Canadian Running: Tell us about the race.
Alex Wilkie: The race was crazy, with lots of switchbacks and tight turns on the course. I went out conservatively and was probably in around 30th at the 1K mark. I knew [Tristan] Woodfine was up front, so I was concerned with being too far back. The race was four times around a 2.5K loop, so I spent the rest of that first loop moving up and catching the front guys. Once I caught up to Woodfine, along with Kevin Tree, Woodfine settled a bit and it gave everyone a bit of time to recover. Then on the last loop I was trying to break away because of the nature of the course but all the sharp turns really kill your momentum. I couldn’t get a gap until the last 300-metres or so. Janikowski and I were whaling on each other that last loop, pushing the pace.
CR: Did you go in with a strategy?
AW: In the back of my mind I was thinking, “if Woodfine goes out and starts running sub 3-minute Ks, because he’s capable of that, I’m just going to let him go.” This wasn’t the number one race of the year for me, but I did want to build on the consistent results I’ve had so far. If I was with the leaders with 2K to go I knew I could consider taking off.
CR: How will you prepare for the upcoming CIS race, mentally and physically?
AW: There’s one more big K repeats workout up on the Fort Henry course, which will give me one more chance to get a sense of 10K race pace. This week I’m trying to hammer out all my schoolwork so that I don’t have to be focusing on that next week.
Mentally, I’m staying off Trackie as much as possible. I understand the site’s use as a resource for the running community, but when you’re the subject of threads it can get a bit uncomfortable.
CR: Have you done anything different this season than prior ones?
AW: This year has been the first season that I’ve had uninterrupted summer of training. Coming into first year, I was completely new to the program and still getting used to the mileage. Last year I had achilles problems through August and wasn’t able to run as much as I would’ve liked. I had the opportunity to build a really solid base this summer though, and I think that’s made a difference.
CR: Who do you predict for the men’s and women’s team titles?Â
AW: I’m going to go with Windsor for the men and Trinity Western for the women.
CR:Â How do you balance school and training?
AW: When it comes down to it we [university athletes] are here for school. The goal for a university runner is to emerge with your schoolwork unscathed. Yes, leading into CIS I will prioritize being focused on running, but for the vast majority of the year, running takes the back seat to school.
RELATED: Post-OUA interview with Gabriela Stafford.
CR: What’s your pre-race routine? Any superstitions?
AW: The week before I try and get a lot of sleep, at least eight-hours a night. On race day, I’ve got to have a proper playlist and I try to get at least an hour to myself. There’s parents, teammates and a lot going on, which is great, but I need to get in that headspace and to do that I need some solitude.
CR: What’s on your playlist?
AW: [Laughs] There are some pretty weird things. Before OUAs I was listening to the soundtracks from NFL films. I’ve watched a lot of them with my dad and they’re these really intense orchestral tracks. To me, it just feels like it goes well with Fall and the thundering of many footsteps.
CR: If you had to describe your team in one word, what would it be?
AW: Passionate—nobody is as passionate as our coach [Steve Boyd] is and that rubs off on all of us.
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