Blogs : NCAA Division III Blog

Interview: Marcia Taddy of the University of Wisconsin - Platteville

(Courtesy of Alison Wade, eliterunning.com)

At the beginning of the season, Marcia Taddy was under the impression that she was out of indoor eligibility.  Less than a week before the WIAC meet, the 15 time track and field and cross country All-American, and 6 time National Track and Field Champion, became eligible due to medical hardship her freshman year of college.  At the conference meet, she went on to win both the 800 and Mile, running the fastest time in Division III in both events.  Recently, Marcia took some time out of her schedule to talk about how she was able to compete this season, and what her goals are for the rest of the year.

Could you tell us a little bit about yourself, like where you're from and how you got started running?

I am from Two Rivers, WI and graduated from Two Rivers High in 2003.  Sports have been part of my life ever since I can remember.  I started running at the age of 6 in the little kids events at the YMCA and other rec. track meets while my mom and dad competed in the 5k’s and triathlons.  Both sides of my family have been into sports forever; my grandpa was on semi-pro basketball and baseball teams, my grandma was on the first softball league; besides my dad, his two other brothers ran and one still holds the 2 mile record for my high school, and 3 of my other aunts and uncles are still into marathons.  I was in mostly every sport from dancing (since I was 4) to softball to basketball.  My mom actually went the basketball route and played 4 years for UW-Green Bay on a full ride.  I planned to follow in her footsteps until my freshman year in high school when I won the State 400m dash.  I played basketball for 2 more years and then quit to concentrate on running during the winter.  As long as I can remember I have been into running, it just took me awhile to decide that it is what I am really better at. 

How do your PRs in high school compare to what you've done so far in college?  More importantly, how has your understanding of training, racing, and running in general evolved?

High school was more about just getting familiar with competing and racing.  I believe I was very lucky because my high school coaches were incredibly knowledgeable.  Most often I trained with the boys, which was interesting, but the harder training helped bring my times down.  My PR’s from high school were 2:12.2 in the 800 and 4:56.8 in the 1600.  My times have come down in college but at times are frustrating because I look back at my high school times and do not see as big of improvement as others have.  I contribute that to my high school coaches knowing what they were doing with me and how to train me. 

What I haven’t lost on my PR’s, I have gained through my knowledge in college running.  Coach Antczak and Coach Nickasch know a great deal about track and field and they try to not only get their runners to be better athletes, but try to help them understand why they are doing what they are doing and how to get themselves to the next level. 

Your story of gaining eligibility this season is pretty interesting; can you tell us how exactly it unfolded?

It all kind of started after one of the other women on the team tried to get her cross country season back due to an illness.  We all came back to school after winter break and at our first home track meet I brought it up to the coaches jokingly that it would be cool if I would be able to get back my first indoor season at UW-Madison.  Coach Nickasch said, “Hey, why not try, the worst they are going to tell you is No”.  That following Saturday, January 25, I went to Madison to watch Tyler Sigl run in the UW-Elite Meet and I ran into Chuck Heart, the athletic trainer for the UW-Madison women’s track team.  In discussing my situation, Chuck told me that the DI rules for medical hardship had changed since I had attended Madison.  During my first indoor season at Madison I had competed in 3 meets and at that time the DI rules for a medical hardship allowed for only 2 competitions.  Because of this I had always thought that I wouldn’t be able to get that first season back.  But Chuck explained that the DI rules had been changed about 2 years ago and they were now very similar to the DIII rules, which allow for 3 meets in the first ½ of an athlete’s season.  Not only that, but DI had made the rule retroactive to any athlete who had first enrolled in college after August of 2003; my first semester of attendance at Madison was Fall 2003.  This was great news and I called and left a message for my coaches, who were at a track meet at UW-Whitewater, and when they got the message they couldn’t believe what they heard.  But there were still a lot of hurdles to overcome and paperwork that needed to be compiled and completed.  Chuck told me to contact Steve Waterfield, the assistant AD of Student Affairs and compliance at UW-Madison.  We did that on the following Monday to get the paperwork rolling and to see if I was actually eligible under the new DI rules.  The biggest holdup was getting the medical paperwork released from the UW-Hospital.  After submitting a release of information form we didn’t hear anything for 2 ½ weeks.  Finally we called the Hospital and found out they were waiting to process the paperwork because of a $1.71 administrative fee that needed to be paid and which we hadn’t been informed of.  I drove into Madison the next day, paid the fee, got copies of all the medical charts from my injury and hand carried them over to Steve Waterfield at UW-Madison.  That was on February 24th.  A day or two later Steve faxed all the necessary forms to UW-Platteville and we immediately forwarded them to our conference office for review by our conference commissioner, Gary Karner.  I believe Gary called UW-Madison, as well as the NCAA, to make sure everything was in order.  We received the approved waiver on Monday, February 25, 4 days before our conference meet.  Because I hadn’t run in any meets for the team the coaches had to wild card me into the meet in both the 800m and mile run.  That’s why I ran in the slow heat in the mile at our conference meet. 

You initially enrolled and ran at the University of Wisconsin – Madison.  What went into making that decision, and why did you then to choose to enroll at a Division III school, and Platteville in particular?

By the time I got through all the letters colleges had sent to me as a junior/senior in high school, I just wanted to stay close to home.  My final picks were between Madison, Marquette, Minnesota, and Mississippi State.  Obviously Madison was well known for their strong mid-distance/distance teams, so that drew me to their program.  Going from being 18 and from a smaller Wisconsin town where you know virtually everyone to the very large town of Madison was quite a shock.  The training, while good, wasn’t what I thought it would be, or maybe I wasn’t ready it for at the time.  We met with our coach, Peter Tegen, on our harder track/speed days and were on our own for our longer days.  Being a freshman, this was not something I was used to and it was hard to adjust academically and athletically.  I transferred to Platteville because it was one of the schools where I could major in both health promotion and biology as well as keep my horticulture minor.  Plus my boyfriend at the time was at Platteville and they had a pretty successful mid-distance/distance crew as well.  Another good thing I saw about going D3 was the class sizes went from being about 320 down to about 30!  I also met the coaches before I made my decision and really liked how they ran things here at Platteville. 

What have you been doing since graduation last year?  Similarly, what has your training been like since then (did you run any cross races and/or were you training for indoors at all before you got clearance to compete this season)?

Well, first off, I haven’t graduated yet [editor’s note: we were under the impression that Marcia had graduated last spring, as she was listed as a senior at Outdoor Nationals last year].  I will be doing that next December, after I get my internships squared away.  My training has been pretty minimal.  Since I didn’t have cross to compete in and thought I wouldn’t be racing until outdoor, I decided to have surgery this past summer.  I needed bunion surgery on my left big toe because it was getting pretty uncomfortable to even run 20 minutes at the end of last school year.  I needed to have the big toe broken, have a pin put in and shave some off the inside of the knuckle.  I went under the knife at the end of July and didn’t start running, well I guess it would be more called jogging, until late October.  I did some short track workouts on the track before winter break and I am probably up to running just about 200 minutes or 25 miles every week along with biking about 100 minutes to try and get my aerobic base up.  Since this past July, post surgery, I probably have run at most 350 miles.  At the time I had the surgery, I thought I would have until outdoors to compete, but with getting my eligibility back, I jumped into things a little earlier.  The doctor said swelling should go down within 8 months to a year, so I am still looking forward to that, but I am guessing that running an indoor season is slowing that process down a bit!  In all, I really am not doing many miles; my foot gets to dictate that, but I am trying to hold it all together for outdoors.  This indoor season is more like a bonus.      

(Courtesy of Alison Wade, eliterunning.com)

What are your goals for yourself and your team this season?  Also, what are your running plans and goals for the rest of the year after Indoors ends?

This indoor season our goal for the team is to trophy, which is possible according to the rankings and time lists.  My long term goal is getting to the Trials this summer in the 1500.  That is basically why I got surgery last summer; so I wouldn’t run into problems this summer before the Trials.  I am going to start the outdoor season a little bit later than usual mostly because I will be racing later into the summer than Outdoor Nationals. 

On the one hand, you have the top times in the country heading into Nationals in both the 800 and mile; on the other hand, your season is only about two weeks old and you've done very little racing for Platteville.  Do you think it's fair to tag you as the favorite? 

That is a good question.  Basically from my story, my approach to the indoor season was “let’s see how I can do and what kind of shape I am in this season”.  My times are solid and I have run the mile three times this season, all which have been under 4:55, but I don’t think I have the edge that I had last year.  My training base was bigger last year and I had had my sights on tripling last year (Indoors 2007) since the end of cross 2006.  This year, I didn’t even know I would be at Nationals until about 2 weeks ago! 

Who has been the biggest influence in your life and/or running?

I could go with some of the professionals; obviously I admire their dedication and persistence to the sport.  People that have had the greatest influence in my life as far as running have been the people I have had close bonds with and have shared their stories of triumphs and failures with me.  Some of these include my coaches here at Platteville as well as my high school coach, Amy Gahlager (Erickson).  They competed through college and have been through a lot of the same things I have so their insights mean a lot to me. 

Do you follow running at the collegiate or professional levels at all?  Would you care to confess to what extent you lurk on Letsrun.com or other message boards?

To tell you the truth, I really don’t go on running sites and follow who has run what.  I love running because how it makes me feel and what I have accomplished for myself.  I tell fellow competitors congrats and nice job whether I am competing against them or I am at the same meet and see them run, but most of my information about performances of others comes second hand from coaches or other athletes.  If I am flipping through the channels and catch a meet on TV, I admit, I’ll watch the whole thing.  It is nice to know who has run times around mine, especially if I am going to race them and use that for tactics.  But, on the other hand, I think going into races naïve gives me the upper hand because then I can go by how my body feels and usually that is when I run PR’s. 

Untitled Comment

2:58 PM, March 13, 2008 .. Posted by Anonymous

why is taddy not on nats heat sheets anymore? ineligible?

Untitled Comment

5:02 PM, March 13, 2008 .. Posted by Anonymous

Im wondering the same thing

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11:36 AM, March 15, 2008 .. Posted by Anonymous

She isn\'t yet entirely recovered from her surgery, and her foot hurt too badly to run.