We’re proud to welcome Sean Quigley to KIMbia. Sean just graduated from La Salle University, and finished his college career by placing 6th in the NCAA 10,000m championships. He’ll make his professional debut at the Olympic 10,000m trials on July 4. In April he set a personal best of 28:03.72 while winning the Stanford Invitational 10,000m.
You just graduated. What adjustments will you make now that you’re not tied to college racing schedule?
I guess I’m more committed to running now that I don’t have a class schedule and those other things that go along with college running. Now I’ll just be focused on running.
What will be your primary focus in first couple of years?
I’d like to stick to the track for a couple of years. I feel like I’d like to improve on the track and max out my potential there, and then give it a go in the marathon. I’m sure I’ll do some road races the next few years just to get my feet wet there. Eventually I believe I’ll be a marathoner. But I want to spend the next couple of years getting quicker on the track. I’m really in no rush to jump into the marathon. It could be two, three, four years. I’m just going to take it race by race.
You’re choosing to stay in Philadelphia and keep working with Charles Torpey. Who will you have to train with?
I’ll be training with a couple of guys on the team. I’ll probably just swing by and do a couple of runs a week with them, and I’m sure I’ll do the workouts at La Salle because my coach will be there and it’s convenient.
Did you think at all about going somewhere else, joining another group, going to Flagstaff, anything like that?
I’m certainly open to that maybe later, but I just want to see what happens here. This has been working for me so far, so for now I don’t want to change what I’m doing. Groups out there, there are positives, but for me right now this is working, so I don’t feel like I need to change it.
Have you thought about what you’re going to do all day now that you’re not in school?
I’ll probably get a part-time job just to kind of distract myself from running for part of the day. I don’t want to be just thinking about the next run for seven, eight hours. I don’t think academics ever affected my running. I feel like it’s not going to be a big difference. I might have a little more extra time. Plus now I get to make money for it, which is pretty cool.
When you ran 28:03, did you feel like, “There’s a lot more there”?
Yeah. I definitely felt like I could have run in the 27:40s, just because we went out slow in that race. We went out in something like 14:11, and then came back in 13:52. So I think if it was a little more of an even pace, even at like 14:00, I could have gone faster.
What do you think is realistic for you at the trials in Eugene?
I feel like the race is pretty wide open. I feel like anyone could be representing the U.S. from that race.
Say you’re a mile into the trials race and it’s slower than the Olympic A standard of 27:50. Would you get up front and do something about it?
I guess I would have to. But I feel like there’s a couple of guys in there who don’t have the standard yet, so I’m sure they’ll be up there pushing the pace. Also, a guy like Abdi, who just ran 27:16, I don’t see why he would want a bunch of guys around late in the race. Even if he kept it a little bit honest, like going through in 13:55, I would imagine that’s like nothing for him. I would imagine that he would want to get rid of some guys early on, and then just race over the last 5K.
Tim Nelson and Sean Quigeley ran personal bests for 3,000m at today’s Grand Prix meet in London. Tim ran 7:48.87, and Sean was close behind in 7:50.02.
