Sept. 29, 2008

With most of last year's top runners either graduated or redshirting this season, the Idaho State men's cross country has looked to sophomore Ryan Davis to be the team leader. He's done just that, running the Bengals' top time in ISU's first three meets of the year. He notched his first Top 10 of the season in the Bob Firman Invitational on Sept. 20 in Boise -- and he did it with staples in his head thanks to a nasty spill at the Idaho State-North Dakota football game two days before.

Davis sat down with Idaho State Sports Information graduate assistant Mitch Worthington before a recent practice to chat about the unique motivation behind distance running, rain and ringtones.

Q: So what happened at the football game?
A: OK, so Thursday after practice and class, I decided to go to the football game. I'm riding my bike up there and going to meet some people. I'm doing my thing. The sun's out, and they put up a cord to block off the road. It wasn't marked, really. Somebody whistled, and I looked away for a second. The bike hit the cord and stopped. I kept going right over the handlebars. I tried to do a little tuck and roll but ended up on my head. I hit my head and my knee. I just kind of laid there for a little bit, taking inventory, making sure I wasn't dead, that all my joints still worked and everything. Some people came over, and one of them said "Your head is bleeding." I felt it and sure enough, it was. (Associate Athletic Director for Student Support Services) Nancy Graziano came over and said, "What's going on?" I said hello, and she got all worked up and got me taken over to the hospital. They got me stapled up.

Q: Where was this?
A: Right out in front of the dome.

Q: Is this the first time something like this has happened?
A: No, this is the second time. The first one was kind of the same. It happened in a swimming pool. I went down a water slide head first right into the bottom of the pool. So don't go down the slide head first. There's a reason they tell you not to do that.

Q: You weren't in deep water, I'm guessing?
A: Three feet.

Q: Did you think you were going to be able to run Saturday?
A: I was a little worried about it. When I could bend all my joints, I thought I would at least be able to run, but then my knee started hurting. That's what I was really concerned about. Friday we left for the meet and my knee was still hurting a little bit. Saturday came around, and I said, "Well, it's go time." I couldn't wash my hair, so there was still a little bit of dried blood in there. I rinsed off as much as I could. I was lucky it was raining, so nobody could se anything. It matted the hair down so nobody could see the staples. Coach was like, "Don't worry, I'll just get a magnet and put it in strategic points and we'll get you pulled around the course." My head started throbbing a couple hundred meters into the race. After about a mile or so that went away, my knee was feeling good, and I ran a great race. Faster than last year, and I placed pretty well.

Q: I guess with the blood and the staples, you weren't going to be picking up any women after the race.
A: You'd be surprised.

Q: Chicks dig blood and staples?
A: Actually, no. "Hey you wanna see my staples?" "No. No. Eww!" That's generally the reaction there.

Q: When did you get the staples out?
A: Tuesday. I got them out on Tuesday night (Sept. 23).

Q: You're one of the only guys back from last year, and you're running the fastest times so far. Even though you're a sophomore, have you taken it on yourself to be a leader this year?
A: I wasn't real excited about trying to take over the team leadership or anything. I'm just trying to pull as many people along as I can, as fast as I can and as far as I can. When the responsibility falls on your shoulders, you have to pick it up and run with it. I'm doing the best I can. Logan (Torgison) is doing well, and Chaz (Anestos) is another one of our really good freshmen. We're just trying to work our way up the ranks and get the guys running faster times every week.

Q: When did you know this was going to be your year to be the leader?
A: I was planning on Zach Barrett being my main competition, with he and I being 1-2 every week. Then he got his IT bend injury, and I was like, "Well, it's me now." I didn't know the freshmen really well. I figured I would have to step up to the plate. A few weeks into practice, I knew coach was expecting a lot out of me. He told me last year, "If you want me to keep my job, you're going to have to run faster." So I've been trying.

Q: Most people, myself included, don't understand why people run long distances. What motivates you to run so far?
A: There's just something really nice about running. It's a huge stress relief. When you run, you can just think about stuff and work things out in your mind. Another reason, you have all these other sports, and you have officials who judge and say this happened or this didn't happen. In a race, it's you and then there's everybody else. There's no judges. The first guy across the line wins. Period. You could have had a faster time last week, but if you didn't show up this week, you're second place. There's something really gratifying about finishing a race knowing that you did your very best and it showed in your position.

Q: Be honest, though. There's gotta be times during a race where you wish you could just jump on an ATV and get up that hill.
A: Never! Never! Yeah, OK. Everybody gets tired. But that's what separates us. I'm not going to stop. I know it hurts, but the thing that keeps me going is I know the guy next to me is hurting more. As long as I'm not hurting as much as he is, I'm going to beat him. So if you keep that mentality that everybody's hurting, but I'm hurting less, and I'm going to work through it, that's where you pick up a couple places. In Boise, with a half-mile left to go, I was in 12th place. I just knew there were guys in front of me that hurt even more, and that I could run faster. I just picked it up and beat them.

Q: Does rain help or hurt during a race?
A: It kind of helps and it hinders. It made it a little colder which is tougher on your muscles, but I enjoyed it. It helped keep my mind off pain. I could just really focus on making sure my stride was right and making sure my form was good. You can't be loping around in the rain or you're going to end up falling on your face. That happened to a lot of guys out there.

Q: People don't think of cross country as a contact sport, but in those packs there's a lot of elbowing and jostling for position. Is that something you have fun with?
A: We practice a little bit on the team when we're jogging around places. We have a few moves we try. Most of them are swim techniques, the swim move and the breaststroke. Then there's the push and over.

Q: That one seems pretty self-explanatory.
A: It's not, actually. You come up next to somebody and you cross your body with one arm and you push off their chest at the same time you lift your back arm. Then you go over the top. You give yourself some momentum. I've never done that in a race. I have done a swim move, though.

Q: These are all legal, right?
A: Exactly. It's a legitimate move. I was pleased. It made me run faster for about a mile and a half.

Q: Are you allowed to listen to music during a race or do you have to take all of that off before it starts?
A: That's a great question. I don't think there's anything against it. I don't personally like to run with music, especially because you don't know who's coming up behind you. Especially if you're running around town, and a car comes -- if you don't hear it, it's over. You don't have a lot of protection as a runner.

Q: So no "Eye of the Tiger" the last 50 meters of a race or anything?
A: Sometimes we have the girls just sing it to us. It works out. We do what we can to cheer each other on.

Q: What do you do to psyche yourself up before a race?
A: I do a relaxation thing. You rub your collar bone, and you do this little arm-leg thing where you touch your arms and legs together. It's supposed to relax you and get your mind and body in the same mantra. Then you just focus. Most people pump themselves up before a race. I like to calm and focus myself. A five-mile race isn't won in the first mile. It's not won in the first four miles, either. You've got to be focused and steady. You don't want to get too jazzed up and run a 4:40 mile and then end up running a 6:30 mile to finish it off, because you just lost the race.

Q: So you're twisting yourself into a pretzel before the race, but if you win, that's ok?
A: Exactly. Runners, we have all sorts of weird quirks, but if you're good, it's cool. If I have a mustache, it's weird. But if I win, it's cool.

Q: What would you do on a Saturday morning, if you weren't out running six miles for fun?
A: Bye weeks, weeks we don't have meets, I like to go rock climbing. That's super fun. Mountain biking, I'm a big fan of that. If I didn't have running as a hobby, I'd take up BMXing or longboarding. Bungee jumping, that's a good one.

Q: You have any cool ringtones for your phone?
A: My ringtone is "Cute Without The E" by Taking Back Sunday, and my alarm in the morning is "The Circle of Life" off the Lion King. So I wake up in the morning to that. I sit straight up in bed and just feel it. OK, sometimes I wake up and want to throw my phone across the room, but not most times.

Q: Let's talk about the whole weight thing? Can you eat McDonald's six times a day as long as you run five miles an afternoon?
A: Just fruits and veggies and stay away from any sort of meats and grains. Yeah, no. It's not like that at all. People are like, "You're always eating. Stop for a minute. You're lucky you run." I'm not on the Michael Phelps diet by any means, but I eat as much as I can as often as I can. I try and get fruits in and the veggies. My breakfast is carefully planned out. Every day I have to have dairy, some grains and fruit. Lunch is whatever I can grab on the quad. High-protein dinner. It's whatever works.

Q: Isn't that kind of expensive, though? How do you afford this on a college student's income?
A: I eat a lot of rice and beans. Once a month I go home and raid my parent's pantry. I kid you not. My parents are supporting me through the food they give me whether they know it or not.