On Tap with ... Clare Gallagher

Clare Gallagher, a sophomore on the women’s track and cross country teams, has represented Princeton at the Heptagonal Championships in both sports. Hailing from Colorado and planning to major in ecology and evolutionary biology, she has a personality so large it is almost impossible to capture in words. The ‘Prince’ recently interviewed Clare to get her stance on running, school, laser tag, the Mountain Pine Beetle epidemic and pinata night with the men’s hockey team.

Q: What are your roles on the cross country and track teams at Princeton?

A: In cross country, I give pump-up speeches. That’s my main role. I’m a great pump-up speech person. In track, I’m a steeplechaser. I succeed in getting through the water jump as poorly as humanly possible.

Q: What is the steeplechase?

A: Steeplechase is a distance event — it’s a 3K. There are five obstacles each lap. They are solid barriers that don’t move, so if you run into one, it is you who will be moving and the barrier will be staying where it is. One of the barriers has a 3-foot water pit after it. You have to jump into it or jump through it and run out. Really good people like our captain from last year and assistant coach this year, Ashley Higginson [’11], who was All-America, can get only one foot wet. Other people, like myself, have to work on getting as little water on the body as possible.

Q: Where did steeplechase come from?

A: It was originally a horse race in England — horses still do it. I never try to channel horses when I do it. Maybe I should, though.

Q: What are some of your athletic accomplishments?

A: In high school, sadly, I never won states. I was runner up in cross country, and I placed in the mile, the 2-mile and the 800m. Being a sophomore, I haven’t had the most opportunities yet in college, but I placed in the ECACs in steeplechase, and I ran on both Heps teams — cross country and track.

Q: What is Heps?

A: Heps is our league competition. It stands for Heptagonal Championships, but there are really eight teams, so it’s misleading, I guess.

Q: Who is your professional athletic role model?

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A: Joan Benoit Samuelson. She’s a runner. She won the first women’s Olympic marathon and she’s also a family friend. She has a really healthy attitude about running and life. A lot of distance runners can get very type-A and compulsive and she’s an incredibly healthy person and she has great balance in her life. I try to channel her.

Q: Where are you from, and what is it like there?

A: I’m from Colorado, and I’m incredibly proud. I call the mountains and the river my home. The river is my home — I’m very into the outdoors.

Q: What was your “welcome to college” moment?

A: When I got to campus, I whipped out my compass and I looked west, and there were no mountains! It’s so weird without mountains. But my most memorable welcome to college moment was after our first set of mile repeats, junior Alexis Mikaelian pushed me into a locker and said, “Welcome to college, bitch.”

Q: How far do you think you could run without stopping?

A: Days. It’s humanly possible — humans are the best long distance animals on this planet. It’s been proven. We’re better than horses. Nomads in Africa still hunt animals for days. I like to think I’m evolutionarily capable of running for days. If I can run slow — really slow — then I’d say like 500 miles. Really slow, though!

Q: How many miles do you think you run in one year?

A: 50 miles times 52 weeks. So 2,600 miles. Ahh! That’s probably pretty close, actually.

Q: Forrest Gump or Steve Prefontaine and why?

A: Definitely Steve Prefontaine. He is a such an icon in running history and lore. Also, “Stop Pre” shirts are pretty awesome.

Q: Alright, Pre it is. Any feelings for Forrest Gump, though?

A: I like Forrest Gump a lot. Especially that he served, and his love for shrimp. He’s a man of many traits. He’s a real Renaissance man, and I really love Tom Hanks.

Q: What’s the strangest thing that’s ever happened during a race?

A: Maybe when teammates bark to each other. Back in Colorado, there were a couple teams where they would want to know where their teammates were, and they would bark to each other throughout the race.

Q: Were you really good at tag as a kid?

A: Yeah! Definitely. I’m super competitive, and being a runner obviously helps. But not laser tag. We just played as a team recently, and I got owned by everyone. There was one girl whose gun broke, and she still had a better score than me. Capture the flag, though, and manhunt. All those awesome night games.

Q: If you didn’t do cross country and track, what sport would you play?

A: I would play lacrosse. I played lacrosse all through high school, and I originally wanted to go to school for lacrosse. The lacrosse team is really cool here, and I love all the girls. People say the rules in girls’ lacrosse are really lame, but I still love it. I secretly always wish I had alternate lives to be really good at other sports. Like winter sports. Luge, skeleton — I’ve never tried those in my life.

Q: Who is the quirkiest member of the cross country team? The track team?

A: This is tough. My teammates are quite the quirks. Probably freshman Emily de la French. Her last name is not de la French but we call her that. She can translate the Illiad into Chinese. She can fly if she wants to. She’s a French supermodel. And on the track team, sophomore Sam Anderson, she’s a pole vaulter. She has some sick dance moves.

Q: How many pairs of running shoes do you own, and how many pairs do you go through in a year?

A: Right now, I probably have 10 pairs, counting spikes and racing shoes. I go through two pairs of trainers every season and spikes every season, so I probably go through 10 pairs a year.

Q: What are you majoring in at Princeton?

A: I think I’m going to major in ecology and evolutionary biology. I really love animals and biology. I’m premed. I also want to get a certificate in environmental studies, and I’m really passionate about the earth.

Q: What has been your favorite class at Princeton so far?

A: ENV 316: Communicating Climate Change. It’s taught by two professors — Michael Lemonick and Heidi Cullen — whose normal job is to work at Climate Central, which is a nonprofit media group that spreads climate awareness. It’s great to have professors who are actually in the outside world most of the time. We made videos, and we used Final Cut, which was really hard. I made a video I am very proud of on the mountain pine beetle epidemic that is happening throughout the Rockies. To all the haters out there about my mountain pine beetle movie, The New York Times cover last weekend was a story on the mountain pine beetle epidemic, so I was foreseeing great journalism to come.

Q: It’s rumored that the women’s cross country team is the envy of many Princeton women’s teams because you can eat pretty much whatever you want and not gain weight. Is it true?

A: Yeah it’s pretty true. We keep the calories coming in. Calories in, calories out. We have a good mindset because if we didn’t eat, we would just wither away. I wouldn’t say we’re the envy of all the other teams, though.

Q: A tree falls in the forest and nobody is around to hear it. Does it make a sound?

A: Most definitely. I like to think of trees as having their own souls, and just because our superior human selves aren’t there to hear it, what makes you think that it can’t make a sound?

Q: What’s the best part of a cross country race — beginning, middle or end?

A: Definitely the end because the burn is an alternate state of mind, and you can see the finish line. Whether it’s a good race or a bad race, you know you’ve grown after the 5K or 6K that you’ve just run.

Q: Do you have any pre-race rituals?

A: I like to listen to some LCD Soundsystem — great band. Or my dad’s favorite song — the Underdog, by Spoon. I also fist pump a little bit here and there.

Q: What’s the best thing about being an athlete at Princeton?

A: Having the opportunity and challenge to earn our stripes both on and off the field. In our case, the field is a soybean field covered in mud.

Q: What’s the worst thing about being an athlete at Princeton?

A: There’s not a lot of downsides, to be honest. I guess the obvious answer is lack of sleep. Catching up on z’s is tough, and it’s necessary to perform and bring your A-game.

Q: What’s the most embarrassing song on your iPod?

A: I listen to kind of weird music. Kind of indie. Do you know the tight pants song? I guess I’m so proud of all my music, but a lot of people think it’s really weird. A lot of bluegrass, Bela Fleck. People hate on that, and that’s no good.

Q: What’s the best cross country joke you’ve heard?

A: Question: How many cross country runners does it take — I’m actually making this up right now — to destroy a golf course? Because that’s what happens in races. Answer: Not many. Ok, that was the worst joke ever. Not many, with spikes. Ok, maybe that wasn’t a joke — it was more of a riddle. A lot of our races are on golf courses, and we run on the fairway with quarter-inch spikes.

Q: Fill in the blank. “Cross country uniforms are better than ___.”

A: Nothing.

Q: “I saw the hill at the end of the course, and I thought, ___.”

A: Good thing I brought my ropes! It’s a thing on our team that you do when you’re going on a long run. We pretend we have ropes, and it makes for good running form.

Q: “I ran so fast, I ran right out of my ___.”

A: Mental state of being. I was no longer. Period.

Q: “You can run, but you can’t ___.”

A: Well, I can’t say hide. You can run, but you can’t beat me in water polo. That’s what the water polo boys would say. We have an annual water polo match on our team, and the water polo team just scoffs at us.

Q: “Cottage is closed. I guess I’ll go to ___.”

A: Pinata night with the boys’ hockey team.

Q: “Shere Khan can sing, and Bodyhype can dance, but cross country can ___.”

A: Get swollen. You know, like lifting weights.

Q: If you were a T-shirt, what color would you be?

A: Yellow.

Q: If you could have a super-power, what would it be?

A: To suck out all the extra carbon dioxide out of the earth.

Q: What is your favorite thing to do when you’re not running?

A: Preferably laugh in many different forms, whether it’s dancing, reading or cuddling with many fluffy animals. Laughing is good in whichever of the various states.