Week 20: Brett Roginski

Brett (right) and his brother, Eddie (left)

Home state: Michigan
Status: Freshman
Year on club: 1
College and Major: Undecided

Brett is a freshman on the club. His favorite events are the 5k, mile, and 800. Through his hard work and devotion to practicing, Brett hopes to achieve new PRs this season. So far, he has broken his 1200m record in the DMR and is close to breaking his 4:57 mile PR.

Running Club: “What events do you run?”
Brett Roginski: “In high school I ran the mile, two mile, and then my coach would always throw me in the 4x8.”
RC: “Are you thinking about running those same events here?”
BR: “Yeah, I’m going to try to. I ran the mile last race; so yeah, I’m going to try to run more towards a little higher than the 800. So the 1200 and the mile for the DMR. I want to get closer to 3:20. I just broke 3:30 on Saturday [at the MRUN Club meet].”
RC: “Is that a PR for you?”
BR: “Yeah, and then I don’t know about the 3k. I might try it one time, but I’m not sure.
RC: “Would you ever consider doing the 5k or the half marathon?”
BR: “Probably the half marathon because I know that I can kind of handle it. There was one day that I kind of just went on and did 10 miles at like 6:40 or something and that was pretty cool. I would sooner do that than the 5k on the track. I don’t really like…I guess I could try doing the 5k again. I’ve had bad experiences on the track though.”
RC: “Like what?”
BR: “My cross country coach would have us do time trials on the track and it was terrible. It was just so repetitive.”
RC: “So do you prefer cross country to track?”
BR: “No, I definitely like track way better, but I didn’t do cross country this season and I’ll probably do it next year. And then I’ll re-access my judgements. But I like track better.”
RC: “And then, did you run throughout high school all four years?”
BR: “No, I didn’t run my freshman year. I tried out for the baseball team and missed the first week of track practice and the coach didn’t let me on. I knew the cross country coach was crazy, so I kind of held off until my junior year and then that was my first year running cross and that was my only year. I ran one race the next year and then quit because the guy was just nuts.”
RC: “So this is your freshman year, right?”
BR: “Mhmm.”
RC: “So how did you hear about running club?”
BR: “My brother, Eddie, was in it. He graduated four years ago so he was with Eric Loveland and all of those guys.”
RC: “All of the beginning people?”
BR: “Yeah.”
RC: “Does running go in your family or is it just something that you both like to do?”
BR: “Not really. I picked it up after my dad passed away. I was always just kind of interested in just running; through middle school I would always try to but I would always just miss the sign up day for track. My dad passed away my eighth grade year and I missed the day for sign up so I couldn’t run track and I didn’t really feel like asking. And then I knew I definitely wanted to run, but I knew the cross country coach was crazy so I was going to wait from track.”
RC: “Did you hear that the coach was crazy from your brother? What made him crazy?”
BR: “No, my friends. So my brother coaches on the rival high school and he wouldn’t let me talk with the guys that I run with over there at meets so like, I can’t even say ‘hi’ or anything.”
RC: “Your coach wouldn’t let you?”
BR: “Yeah, my coach wouldn’t let me. And then he had to know where I was the entire time. The only reason I raced the one race for senior year was because I told him I was going on vacation but I went out to cross country camp with my brother—which was on vacation—but he went through this whole thought process and found out and assumed that I was there instead of on vacation.”
RC: “That’s why you quit senior year?”
BR: “Yeah, that’s why I quit. My mom was like, ‘yeah, I can’t take this anymore’ so she called me off and I just kept training for track. I was really close to breaking 5:00 all of junior year in the mile and then I finally broke it senior year, but it was only 4:57. So I kind of want to get faster than that, but we’ll see what happens.”
RC: “How’d you do on Saturday?”
BR: “I ran good in the 1200, which was a PR. And then for the mile I think I was just in my head and I psyched myself out. So, I went good through the first 600 or something and then just started falling off from there. I never caught the group that gapped me so I finished second to last and ran a 5:08 which is okay. I definitely wanted to be closer to 5:00, if not under but it’s fine.”
RC: “Do you prefer indoor to outdoor track?”
BR: “It depends on the place. I’ve run at Macomb Community College and the atmosphere is just terrible, so I avoid the mile at all costs. It’s so dry that you end up developing a cough and it stays with you the whole day. And, depending on if it’s your first time running there, it might seep over to the next day. You might just keep feeling it. I like it on a 300m track because the facilities are better but it depends on where you are. I like outdoor track in general better.”
RC: “Do you have a favorite memory from a race or running in general?”
BR: “My favorite runs where for my brother’s high school. For his team, they would run to the cider mill from the other coach’s house. It’s like 10 miles there…10.1… and you would run there and eat donuts and have cider afterwards. And you’d get two donuts and they would buy cider for everyone. It was fun. That’s kind of where I figured out that I could handle a half marathon.”
RC: “Have you run a half before?”
BR: “I ran a distance run with Adam [Terwillegar] and Nate [Blosser] and Tom [Brettschneider]. That day I had wanted to run 8, and then no one was going to turn around and we weren’t going that fast, so I decided to keep going and we ended up doing 13.5 [miles]. That was new, but I was pretty happy. That was at 7:00 pace which is decent. After summer practices with my brother’s practices we would play ultimate Frisbee afterwards, so that’s fun.”



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