Runner-up finishes, freak race mishaps, injuries, and illness are all part of Erin Finn’s competitive résumé. Though she’s not yet 22, the University of Michigan senior has just about seen it all. Finn’s front-running tendencies and boundless enthusiasm for the sport are partly to blame, but bad luck has caused most of the grief.
Merely a mile into last November’s NCAA cross country championships in Louisville, Kentucky, Nutrition - Weight LosswellShoes & Gear when a competitor stepped on her heels. She had been in fourth place, but she held up well over the remaining barefoot—and painful—four kilometers, finishing 19th.
It was a better result for Finn than her freshman race at NCAAs in 2013, when despite falling several times on a muddy course in Terre Haute, Indiana, she ended up 30th (and first freshman), leading the Wolverines to a fourth-place finish. The 2014 season, however, was a bust, as Finn developed an injury after finishing fourth at Pre-Nationals and sat out the Big Ten championships, regionals, and nationals.
But after each disappointment, the 5-foot 2-inch Finn has collected herself and resumed pursuit of her athletic dream, that of running professionally and representing the U.S. in the Olympics. The seven-time All-American also has unfinished business in the collegiate ranks, and her best opportunity to win an NCAA title might come in Terre Haute next month.
“There isn’t a prohibitive favorite this fall,” Michigan coach Mike McGuire told Runner’s World on October 24, “but I really feel Erin is at another level from where she’s been before. Her passion for the sport is her bedrock that helps her handle the setbacks we’ve had along the way. And while she’s always had the desire to reach the destination, I think she’s enjoying the journey a lot more now than in past years.”
During Finn’s prep career at West Bloomfield High School northwest of Detroit, she had several top finishes at national championships. As a junior she set a U.S. high school 5,000-meter record of 16:19 in winning the 2012 New Balance Indoor Nationals; a year later Finn trimmed a second off that mark despite running with the flu, but she was nipped at the line by Wesley Frazier and the record was gone. Finn finished seventh at Foot Locker cross-country nationals as a sophomore and was runner-up to Molly Seidel as a junior. As a senior, an iron deficiency prevented her from advancing to the championship.
Last March Finn capped a strong indoor season with 3,000- and 5,000-meter runner-up finishes at nationals, both times trailing Seidel of Notre Dame. McGuire determined that redshirting the outdoor track season would allow Finn to make a solid run at an Olympic team spot, but a stress fracture curtailed those ambitions in early June.
“The high moments mean so much more when you’ve been at the bottom, when you’ve been on the sidelines in a boot watching your teammates competing,” Finn said in recounting all the ups and downs of her career. “Had I never been injured, I honestly don’t think I’d be the runner I am now.”
The runner Finn is this current season is doing far better than anyone would have imagined possible. Limited to pool work and logging miles on an ElliptiGO during most of the summer, she didn’t resume running until mid-August. But on September 2 Finn, competing unattached, cruised to a 47-second victory in the Michigan Open 5K in16:44. McGuire’s inclination to redshirt his star this fall evaporated.
Finn has now won four of five races, most recently Pre-Nationals on October 15, where she ran 19:44 for 6K. The only blemish on her season came three weeks earlier at the Roy Griak Invitational in Minneapolis, where Boise State’s Brenna Peloquin won by 12 seconds. Finn is favored to win her third Big Ten individual title on Sunday and lead the No. 6 Wolverines to the top of the podium for the first time since 2012. After that comes the Great Lakes regional on November 11 and nationals eight days later. Finn is upbeat going into the championship season.
“Since I got a late start, I’m still building, and most of my teammates are, too,” she said. “I don’t think we’ve ever been still building this late in a season, but there’s definitely more to come from us this fall.
“Mike tells me I have a shot at winning nationals, and he’s always right,” Finn continued, “so I know that means something big. I’m going to give every bit of my heart to try to win.”
A biochemistry major with ambitions of attending medical school, Finn may put further education on hold and pursue post-collegiate running full-time. “Ever since I found out you could run for a living, that’s been my dream,” she said. “I want to run professionally and shoot for a couple Olympics. I love school and I love learning, but it would be really cool to have my days completely devoted to running for a five to 10-year interim.”
Foot Locker XC Results Abbey D’Agostino, Molly Huddle, and Lauren Fleshman, David Sherman/University of Michigan Athletics: “Desi Linden is one of my all time favorite runners,” Finn said. “I love her grit and determination as well as how she can hang in races when conditions are tough. I love that she trains close to where I grew up. Seeing Olympic level talent right outside my back door really made me believe that greatness can pop up anywhere and made me ask why I don’t shoot for it myself.”
Given Finn’s penchant for tough training—“I love the long, hard grind, long runs, and long repeats like 1000s and 1200s. I love when you’re just out there testing yourself” —it’s not surprising that she is already thinking about the marathon. And McGuire recognizes it will eventually be her best event. “He said, ‘She’s going to run a damn good marathon someday,’ Finn laughs. “And so, like I believe everything else he says, I believe that. I’m going to have to hold myself back and not run one too early, but when the time comes I’m going to run a good one.”
