Laura Nagel celebrates winning her first senior crosscountry title. Photo / Warren Buckland
To comprehend the mechanics of running at an elite level is one thing but, as Laura Nagel found out, discovering one's self during that process is totally another.
It wasn't something Nagel had necessarily factored in while growing up as a dynamic teenager who had the potential to become an elite runner.
That sense of awakening came while the 24-year-old was pursuing her tertiary education on a full American scholarship. She graduated from Providence College, in Rhode Island, in May with a degree in science in marketing and masters in business administration with management.
"I guess [I learned] to kind of be more relaxed with things and more balanced in my lifestyle," says Nagel, who won her first senior national crown last weekend on a heavy track at the New Zealand Crosscountry Championship at the Auckland Domain.
"I was very intense at high school with my running [because] I think I took it a bit too seriously, as most kids do because they want to achieve their goals," says Nagel.
She attended Taradale High School and, on Monday, started working fulltime with Sport Hawke's Bay as its marketing and communications adviser.
She realises that sort of mentality is ingrained in the Kiwi conciousness, especially in the sporting cauldron, but balance, she stresses, is imperative.
"There's more to life than winning titles as [there are] a whole lot more things to go with it, too."
That is not to say she doesn't appreciate that it was that unbridled passion at school that provided the foundation in her formative years for education and a promising career.
"I came out debt free so that's kind of good and a bonus, too," says Nagel who, after four years, took up a graduate assistant's position at varsity. That paid for tuition and offered a monthly stipend to cover food and other expenses although she did some graphic designing on the side while running fulltime.
The Sport HB job is a godsend because her heart was always set on returning home.
"We've got great weather, even though everyone keeps complaining about the cold but it isn't really that cold right now."
Her job description entails promoting sport and recreational activities in the province as well as tapping into social media.
"There's a lot of work to do so I'm getting my feet wet in that area and, hopefully, I'll have some kind of impact in the Bay."
The Napier harrier won the North Island Crosscountry Championship senior women's title in Taupo early last month over 5km in 17min 53sec.
"I'd wanted to come back from six years over in the States and having that experience to go into what I wanted to do. Coming back to win was always the goal."
Nagel ran side by side with international steeplechaser Rosa Flanagan at the nationals, enjoying the company but around the 7km mark she left the Cantabrian behind.
"I pushed the pace a little bit and it worked in my favour so I kept going from there," she says after clocking 38min 8sec to finish 20 seconds ahead of Flanagan while Australian Karinna Fyfe crossed the line a further 32 seconds behind.
Nagel cannot quantify the incremental gains she made in the US.
"Oh, huge, I'd never give up that experience for anything."
While the goal is always to win a race, she feels coming away wiser after each turnout is equally important.
"You can't always win," says Nagel, who competed at the Junior World Crosscountry Championship in Canada in 2010 before going to the US.
"I had a wake-up call then that I wasn't the best and I had a lot to work on," she says.
In hindsight, Nagel realises managing a race and focusing on her processes are more significant than worrying about what other rivals may do.
Her US coach is Ray Treacy, of Ireland. Treacy is mentoring US Olympian Molly Huddle at Rio, and Kiwi athlete Kim Smith, "one of the best middle-distance runners New Zealand has ever had", among others.
The fact runners "don't get paid at all or very little" makes it difficult for anyone to consider running fulltime in New Zealand. The opportunity is there in the US but her attempt to find a niche there a few months ago didn't find much traction.
"I decided if it wasn't going great than it wasn't going to go great anywhere else."
Instead she chose to return to the Bay to inspire others, esoecially schoolgirls, to share her journey. She praises her support network in the Bay, singling out her Napier coach, Mick Cull.
"Mick got the best he could have ever got out of me so I don't know where I'd be without him today."
She is in the process of gradually taking over his reins in the hope of igniting the passion he did within her and her peers.
Cull will always be there for her to bounce ideas off and help with the transition.
"I want to have an impact with those kids and, hopefully, expand the group because there's only four," says Nagel, who admits she prefers training girls.
Cull groomed boys who went on to become head boys so Nagel is hoping to emulate that with girls in her tenure.