Nicole Blood had found the school in Oregon that she felt most comfortable with. All she wanted to do was compete, but an untimely injury kept competition right outside her grasp.
Blood arrived in Eugene last fall all ready for cross country, but a stress fracture in her sacrum pushed her to the sideline. The sacrum is the triangular segment of the spinal column that forms the back side of the pelvis. When asked to describe the pain, Blood said it “almost feels like a pinched nerve.”
“I worked really hard all summer. I was in great shape – probably the best shape of my life and then to come and get that news the first day was tough, but (the coaches) were great with it and they kept me motivated,” Blood said.
Now fully healthy and immersed in the outdoor track season, Blood is looking forward to the 5,000-meter race this weekend in the NCAA West Region Championships at Hayward Field.
Blood ran ninth in the preliminary round of the 1,500 in 4 minutes, 32.79 seconds two weeks ago at the Pacific-10 Conference Championships. She advanced to the finals the next day, and finished sixth in 4:25.24.
“She’s coming into her own and she’s turned out to be a very good Pac-10 caliber distance runner and I think that she’s going to be a national caliber one before too long,” track and field director Vin Lananna said.
Blood’s arrival culminated a two-year whirlwind that had taken her from her native New York to California and finally Eugene. Blood grabbed headlines from an early age when she began running for one of the top cross country programs in the nation at Saratoga Springs High.
“I switched coaches three times in like two years,” Blood said. “It was hard. It showed in my training a little bit. I was still a strong runner, but my times weren’t as persistent as they were. I was a little inconsistent, but finally I think I’m hitting my stride out here, having coach Lananna and getting into his training and everything’s kind of falling into place now.”
Blood took visits to three other schools than Oregon, including Villanova, North Carolina and Providence.
“I could have went to any of them and been happy, but when I came here, it’s just the energy that surrounded running and just all the fans and the way the coaches were really optimistic,” Blood said. “I really got the feeling that this is where I wanted to be.”
Although Blood can be considered one of Oregon’s promising young distance runners, she is transitioning to a whole new level of running – Division I – after being a dominant force nationally in high school.
“You’re kind of the underdog again,” Blood said. “It was kind of like when I was younger, seventh, eighth grade, no one expects you and then that one day you’re just going to come out of nowhere. Until then, you just work hard for that one day so it’s nice.”
And that includes being teammates with sophomore Zoe Nelson, another nationally known distance runner during her prep career in Montana, and who met up with Blood at the annual Foot Locker National Cross Country Championship in San Diego.
“You think of them as kind of intimidating when you just build them up so much in your head so once you meet them and they’re just really normal and fun and a lot like you, it’s pretty funny,” Nelson said.
The attention heaped on Blood during her prep days left her name mentioned with the likes of Mary Decker, a famous U.S. track athlete from the ’70s through the ’90s.
“It’s a great feeling but at the same time I’m not in the whole cockiness (thing). I think that’s what made me be extra competitive with the people who were cocky because it’d drive me nuts,” Blood said. “You want to knock them down a peg a little bit.”
High school athletes in New York are allowed to participate in varsity sports starting in the seventh grade, and it made a difference, Blood says, who couldn’t imagine if she had had to wait until ninth grade, as it is in California.
“That stinks ’cause that’s when you want to start really getting serious. Seventh and eighth grade I had a lot of fun,” she said. “I didn’t train everyday and did my own thing but at least I was running. My body’s getting used to it.”
After her sophomore year of high school, Blood reportedly left the program over a dispute with coaches. She was also recovering from a right knee injury. Blood didn’t compete for a high school during her junior year.
“I think it was the best thing for me at the time,” said Blood, who moved to California with her family during her senior year. “I needed a break from the troubles that I was having in high school. It gave me a big mental break and then moving out west … I got away from it all.”
Blood joined the Royal High track program in Simi Valley, Calif. during the spring. Blood could have competed in track meets individually and trained on her own, but the modest athlete missed the camaraderie.
“That’s what my parents were asking,” Blood said. “I could have just got workouts from (individual coach) Mr. (Bob) Lane but I missed being part of a team and I was kind of excited to have that opportunity again.”
In her first time at the prestigious Mount San Antonio College Relays, Blood won the girls’ invitational mile in 4:51.87.
Blood now enjoys wearing an Oregon uniform, and after sitting out six weeks to recover from her injury in the fall, is hitting her stride.
She made it back for the cross country Pac-10 Championships and finished No. 28 in 21:42.79. Coaches eased her back in during indoors.
They placed her in slower heats, where she won and built up her confidence. By the time outdoor season came around, Blood was raring to go.
“Indoor was tough ’cause I didn’t have a lot of base so I feel like finally everything’s coming together for my outdoor season and I know next year’s going to be really great ’cause I’ll have a lot more momentum going into it.”
[email protected]