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We were lucky enough to spend some time getting to know High school sensation and soon to make a big splash in the NCAA, Cole Sprout. Cole has been deemed the greatest prep distance runner in Colorado history and as we know, Colorado being a distance runner’s heaven, is quite a title to hold. We spoke to Cole about things ranging from his favourite race ever to how he found the NCAA recruiting process.. Before you read more about Cole, we at Trackstaa just wanted to thank him for taking the time to talk to us, and for being a really down to earth guy.

We first asked Cole how he was finding training in the strange times that we all are facing: 

“Yeah, you know it definitely is a little different than it has been but, yeah. Well most of my motivation is just getting out of the house, you know, get some fresh air, and you know, been doing some time trials as well so that’s kind of broken up the monotony of training. So yeah, just doing little things like that helps kind of keep motivation and then, you know, keep things interesting. So, yeah we also did some time trials, I did a 1600m a couple days ago, and then a two mile couple weeks before that.”

We had to ask how that time trial went!:

“ya know I posted about the mile I did two days ago I ran a 4:07, so unofficial state record but I was pretty happy. it was pretty fun. Yeah, I wasn’t really sure what to expect so that was cool.I had a couple pacers, just to kind of lead me through the first 1200 and some of the second half with someone on the last lap as well so that definitely made a difference, because yeah running it Solo is also pretty challenging so yeah definitely happy with what I did!”

We then asked Cole what his aims were for the season had it not been hindered by Covid-19:

‘Yeah, I mean, a lot of it was time based like you said the state record for the mile and then, you know, the state championship was another big one, I was looking forward to which I won last year so I was really looking to kind of repeat that this year. And then individually also defending my music city mile title so yeah I was looking forward to that. And then, some sort of of postseason summer meets like new balance nationals and a couple other ones that I was also looking forward to yeah”

So some of you may know, but for those who don’t, Cole signed to Stanford! Having also been through the recruiting process, I wanted to know how he found it and how he came to his decision:

“I did look at places like NAU (Northern Arizona University) and CU (Colorado university) Washington was probably my closest other school that I was kind of debating between Stanford but yeah I’m excited! Yeah, looking at a good number of schools for sure. So, you know, a little difficult just like knowing which one kind of had the best to offer so that was a fun process for sure.” 

Cole will be joining a really really talented team at Stanford with an extremely optimistic younger side including Great Britain international Charles Hicks and the Netherlands international Ryan oosting.

We asked him a little more about Stanford’s programme and what he is planning on studying:

“as of right now I’m thinking bio engineering. Not 100% sure what I want to do with it yet but, yeah so that sounds fascinating to me. I think what’s nice and what I like about the programme it’s, somewhat individualised just based on what you have done so when I did talk to Santos he, he said that it would kind of just start with what I left off doing, you know, so that’s that is nice but as I say, I’m not looking forward to one specific workout, I think having guys to run workouts with in general is going to be sweet because I’ve been for the most part doing the work on my own.”

Many of us inside of the running community may have found their way into the sport via another sport. We were intrigued to see how Cole found himself in a pair of spikes:

So it’s kind of like seventh grade, eighth grade, eighth grade was when I first did cross country, and my sister wanted to do that before me aha.Yeah, I had a mountain bike race before then, so I was kind of familiar with the endurance sports. So that kind of appealed to me. but yeah after I did that, you know, eighth grade year I kind of just fell in love with it and kept going. So, yeah, yeah for sure it worked out well and I guess I had the strength for mountain biking as well. 

Have you got any pre race traditions or rituals?:

“I mean, it depends on when the race is, so like, if it’s in the evening I’ll do like a shakeout in the morning.But I do have like a I guess one kind of ritual I have is to eat like oatmeal before a race. then you know having that little shake out in the morning is nice for me too. But, yeah, yeah that’s important.”

We know that a big switch up from high school racing to college race is the rate of travel for each race. We wanted to know to what extent Cole has travelled for racing and how he is feeling about the opportunity of regularly making sizeable trips for racing:

“Yeah, I definitely have gotten a little exposed to that array of travel which is nice just to get ready for college competition but I do enjoy it. You know it is, you know, a little bit to get used to. I had a meet this past indoor season,in Iceland. So going that far was definitely a lot different than I’d ever done so that was a little, you know, a little different that I’m used to, but you know I think races like that are fun to just experience what it’s like to race,as a collegiate or even professional athlete.”

Which has been your favourite race?:

It’s a good question. Honestly I would probably say last year, the Music City festival mile in Nashville, is probably my favourite, it was just kind of a low key, but they did have some like professional races before, like the high school race so that was kind of cool to see and experience but yeah you know it was a really fast race and got some good competition.So yeah, I have to say that’s my favourite overall.”

Again, we wanted to say a huge thanks to Cole and to you guys taking the time to read this! We are looking forward to continuing interviewing athletes and getting them online for you guys to read. We also plan on having a consistent IGTV series where we give some quick fire questions. It would be great to hear feedback from you guys about athletes who you want to see interviewed, or other content you would be interested in, such as podcasts.

Thanks again

Team at Trackstaa