Friday Features: UAH's Winslow races way back to top after injury
By Mike Perrin
When University of
Alabama in Huntsville runner
Vicky Winslow came back from a year away from her team, the two-time Gulf South Conference individual champion did it in style.
The redshirt senior from Lawrenceville, Ga., raced her way to back-to-back GSC Runner of the Week awards for the first two weeks of the cross country season. Not surprising, considering the dominant fashion Winslow competed in her first two seasons in the GSC including an individual championship in every meet in 2013. Well, maybe a little surprising in that she was away recuperating from hip surgery for a torn labrum.
“I wasn’t able to run last season because of a hip injury that actually started in the previous track season,” she said. “After my surgery, I was on crutches for six weeks and wasn’t able to run for four months. Once I was off crutches, I spent a lot of time cross training in the pool and the elliptical. Eventually, I started running.”
In her first meet this year, Winslow – the 2013 Division II South Regional Athlete of the Year as voted by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association – won the Earl Jacoby Memorial 5K at UAH for the third straight season, this time with a time of 18:34.30, more than a minute and 20 seconds better than the second-place finisher. Her time was 17 seconds better than last year’s winning time.
Then, last week, she finished third – from a field of 205 – in the University of Florida’s Mountain Dew Gator Invite with a time of 18:11.84.
“I had to come back slow (from surgery),” Winslow said, “and it was hard getting back in shape, but I just focused on having patience. I knew I chose surgery so I would be able to compete my last year and I wanted to make sure it was well worth it. I wanted to give myself one last chance to (set personal records) and reach my goals. When I needed motivation, I just thought of all that I went through with surgery and recovering and how I didn’t do it for nothing.”
Winslow’s success comes naturally, but she didn’t jump into the sport with, ahem, both feet as a youngster.
“I started running in high school as a freshman,” she said. “My dad (David) was always a recreational runner and one of my sisters began running in middle school. They always tried to get me to run in middle school, but I hated running so much I swore I would never run cross country."
“When my family moved from Ohio to Georgia before I started high school, my sister convinced me to run cross country as a way to meet people. My high school had a good team and I quickly fell in love with the sport and got serious."
“Now, one of my older sisters (
Amanda Rego) is a pro runner,” she said. “and my younger sister (Rebecca) also competes in college.”
Winslow’s success can’t be attributed merely to genetics, though, she said.
“I would say a lot of my success has come from Coach
David Cain’s training that has worked very well for me,” she said. “I always take my training seriously, push myself and try to focus on all the little things like sleep, nutrition and strength training.”
On race day, the biology major brings the physical and mental together. “Before races I always try to think of all the training I’ve done and the good workouts I’ve had. I also say a prayer and often pray during my races that God will allow me to just run to my best ability and that I won’t give up,” she said. “I try to stay very positive and often repeat phrases in my head during races telling myself ‘I can do it.’”
And, she can.
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