Frank Canady ‘14, is a biological chemistry major and a cross country and track runner. 
When did you start running?
I started in about 7th grade, and I got the inspiration from my mother who runs by herself. She ran Boston (Marathon) in 2004, which is a big deal because you have to qualify to run in Boston.
What’s your favorite event and how do you pace yourself while running?
A favorite event for a distance runner is very hard. But for me, it would be between five to ten thousand meters. In terms of pacing myself, on the track, I use splits by 400 meters or in 8k race, you can either use splits by kilometer or by mile.
What classes would you take again if you could?
I really enjoyed the format of Organic Chemistry I had with Professor Mobley (he’s my advisor) and Human Evolution with Professor Bentley-Condit, and that’s Anthropology. I’d take it again if I could. I love it already and I’ve only been in it 3 weeks!
What are your goals for this season?
For cross country, it would be to cut down time with each meet, and to take school and practice one day at a time. So I don’t have any final time goals or even final placing goals. It’s just going to be whatever it ends up. If I focus on the bigger goals, my history is that it just doesn’t work. It’s just much better to take it one day at a time.
What is the hardest workout you’ve ever done?
I would say either a very long run between 16-18 miles, anything that involves 8-10,000 meters of repetition work would be considered hard. At that level, it is done at 5:10 pace or faster per mile. Not all at once, repetition work. 10,000 meters is equivalent to two 25 200 meters, or 10 by 1000 meters.
Is there something that you always do to get you in the “zone” before you race?
Yes, I have a relaxation mind tape that is 10 minutes long, that I would listen to right after I wake up on a race day. The night before I would eat some type of pasta. The morning of is always some sort of oatmeal. Two to two-and-a-half hours before, energy bar. One hour before, I’ll warm up for about 10-20 minutes, depending on temperature. When it’s colder, I’ll warm up more. Half an hour before, I’ll have an energy caffeinated gel, and then it’s just off to the race.
What is the craziest meal you ever ate after a race?
That would have to be junior year in high school, I spent like $20 bucks at this food court after the state track meet. And I got all this stuff at Taco John’s. There was a whole bunch of ice cream places that I went to. It was crazy. I got a potato that was as big as my head. A year later, me and some of the guys still talked about how much I ate that day. I had so much money in my wallet, and at the end of the day, I was down to like cents. It was pretty funny. I can’t remember everything I ate, I just ate so much.
Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
I want to go to medical school, and I want to go there straight out of college. So that would be 6 years from now. And then ideally I would have completed a 3-year residency in either pediatrics or internal medicine that would be nine years from now. So in 10 years, I would hope to be a fellow in some kind of subsection of internal medicine, and as of right now would be either cardiology or pediatric cardiology.
Do you plan on running in the future?
That’s a good question. In that point in my life, I’m going to be working a lot. I just have to develop other interest. I might not be able to do it often, and it might not be a lot of stuff. I would find a way to find some other interest, and I hope to be active in my life as long as I can.
What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever thought about you’re running?
Once when I was a junior, I was running parallel to a train, and the train wasn’t going that fast, and I actually sped up and almost caught up to the conductor of the train. This was in Iowa City, and there was a bike path parallel to it, and the train wasn’t going that fast, it’s going 10-11 mph, I was catching up, but I ran out of bike path! I just wanted to get up there and wave at that guy and see the look on his face! I almost made it but I didn’t.
How do you balance sports with academics?
On a non-meet weekend, I’m probably at practice about 20 hours. So, it’s 4:20 right now, and I won’t get out of practice until 7pm. So, that’s going to be these 5 days in a week, and then I have weekend time. So when you add it up, it adds up to 20 hours. What helps is that it’s a lot like high school: you get up, eat breakfast, go classes, eat lunch, more class, or study, then you have practice, then you go do some more studying then you go to bed and repeat. So actually having the same routine from high school to college really, really helped.