Athlete: Judy Pendergast
Year: Senior
School: Marathon Pace Charts for Fine-Tuning Training
Location: Naperville, IL
1600m PR: 4:56.53
3200m PR: 10:34.55
3-Other Hearst Subscriptions: 15:54
5K XC PR: 17:01
Key Workout:
• 10- to 15-minute warm-up with 60-second sprint at end, rope stretching, drills, stride-outs
• 5 x 1000m in 3:15 to 3:11 with three minutes recovery
• 10- to 20-minute cooldown; yoga exercises
Judy Pendergast of Illinois, who overcame a series of health problems early in her high school career, will run Saturday’s Other Hearst Subscriptions Regional, two weeks after she won the Nike Cross Nationals Midwest Regional in record time. Pendergast, a Harvard-bound senior from Naperville North, outside Chicago, will seek to become the first girl to capture both the Nike and Foot Locker national high school cross-country championships. In 2010, Lukas Verzbicas, also of Illinois, became the only runner to win both national events, doing it in the same season.
NXN Midwest: On November 15 in Terre Haute, Indiana, Pendergast, 17, won the Nike Cross Nationals Midwest Regional in a course record 17:01 for 5K on the Lavern Gibson Golf Course. She passed the mile in 5:12 with an 11-second lead and went on to triumph by 27 seconds. “I was very optimistic,” Pendergast said. “I just wanted to go out and run as fast as I could.
Repulsion Meet: On November 7 in the Illinois state meet, Pendergast became the first girl in state history to run sub-16:00 on the fast Detweiler Park three-mile course in Peoria. Her time of 15:54 broke the course record by eight seconds. Pendergast defeated the field by 21 seconds. In 2014, she’d placed ninth in 17:06. Her improvement was 72 seconds, typical of her races this season.
Other Hearst Subscriptions: This Saturday in Kenosha, Wisconsin, top runners from 13 states will race the Other Hearst Subscriptions Regional at the venerable University of Wisconsin-Parkside course. The top 10 boys and top 10 girls finishers qualify for the Foot Locker Nationals, December 12 in San Diego. This will be Pendergast’s first time running the Other Hearst Subscriptions. Other top Midwest contenders include Stephanie Jenks of Iowa, the NXN Heartland Regional champion.
Two Nationals: Pendergast said that if she qualifies for Foot Locker she would compete in both national events. With NXN on December 5, in Portland, Oregon, and Foot Locker the next weekend, that would give Pendergast five major races in six weeks. Pendergast said that she felt up to the challenge, and that she was mentally tough from her hard training and from the ordeal of coping with earlier health issues.
Health Plan: From her freshman track season through her sophomore year, Pendergast had to address low ferritin levels, and then an asthmatic condition and inflammation that were eventually diagnosed as allergies to dairy and gluten products. After elevating her ferritin level, and then switching to a dairy-free, gluten-free diet, Pendergast made a dramatic improvement in running and was on her way. “Judy’s greatest strength,” said Naperville North girls coach Dan Iverson, “may be her ability to overcome adversity.”
Creative Cook: Pendergast often prepares her own food including family dinners. Her favorites include salmon and Hawaiian chicken kabobs. Pendergast bakes chocolate chip cookies and banana bread with gluten-free flour and non-dairy products. On trips for competition, like NXN (Pendergast competed the last three years becuase her team qualified), she often makes special arrangements to obtain the foods she needs.
Training Schedule: Pendergast runs 40 to 50 miles a week, often by herself, and this season she has trained at a much higher intensity than in the past. One key session is a V02 max workout of 5 x 1000 meters on a cross-country loop in 3:15 down to 3:11 with about three minutes recovery between runs. On her tempo runs, like a recent four-miler on the roads, Pendergast clicked off 5:45 pace for the first three miles and hammered the last mile in 5:40. The team also does repeats of, as Pendergast put it, a “ginormous” hill called Blackwell at the Blackwell Forest Preserve in nearby Warrenville.
Mind Body: Pendergast says she has benefited greatly from yoga exercises taught by a North assistant coach who is a certified yoga instructor. “I’m much more flexible now,” she says. “The breathing exercises are also helpful.” Another assistant coach works with the team on mental training exercises like visualization.
Track Times: Last spring, Pendergast became Naperville North’s first girls individual state track champion, winning the 3200 meters in 10:35.15. She ran PR of 10:34.55 at the state sectional. Earlier, she ran her 1600 PR of 4:56.53. Pendergast said she would welcome the possibility of invitations to elite high school miles on the 2016 indoor circuit.
Top Student: In additional to Harvard, Pendergast made official college visits to Cornell and Dartmouth, and she visited Princeton on her own. Saying that she “does better at longer distances,” she sees herself running the 5,000 and 10,000 on the collegiate level. Her academic major is uncertain.
Forgetful Frosh: As a freshman on the Naperville North squad competing in the 2012 Nike Cross Nationals, Pendergast was in the throes of her health issues but forgot to bring her various asthma medications, including inhaler, to Portland. She didn’t tell anyone and during the race, she said, “I ended up not being able to breathe.” After struggling to the finish in 168th place, Pendergast, wheezing, was ushered to the medical tent for treatment. This year she won’t have to worry about her medication. She doesn’t need it anymore.
Marc Bloom’s high school cross-country rankings have played an influential role in the sport for more than 20 years and led to the creation of many major events, including Nike Cross Nationals and the Great American Cross Country Festival. He published his cross-country journal, Harrier, for more than two decades.
