Waiting for no one

By Natalie Clericuzio     3/19/09 7:00pm

Her freshman year at Rice, Lennie Waite never thought she'd be an All- American, particularly not as a member of the track and field team.

The switch

Back then, Waite played on the soccer team. Although both the track team and the soccer team recruited her, Waite ultimately chose soccer over running. Her sister, Katie, (Jones '03) had run for Rice, so Waite decided to break out of her sister's legacy and stick with the team sport rather than the solitary one.

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Waite's freshman year, the soccer team won the Conference USA crown and made it to the NCAA tournament before bowing out in the first round. Despite the team's strong season, Waite was nagged by the feeling that she hadn't been playing as well as she hoped.

Then, on the evening after her soccer season ended, track and field Head Coach Jim Bevan gave Waite a call.

"Right after I had finished up soccer freshman year, he asked me if I would like to do a race," Waite remembered. "I thought he was kind of crazy. ... I wasn't in running shape at all. We decided that if I were going to start, [there was no reason] not to start the first day I could."

While Waite might not have shown All-American promise in her first meet, she soon realized that she enjoyed track more than soccer, and decided to make the switch.

"I knew the hard work I would put in would show up on the track, whereas in soccer you can work super hard and you still don't have control how much you get to play or the unlucky balls that you get," Waite said. "In running, if you're fit, you're fit - no matter what."

Smoothing things out

Although Waite had run track in high school, the transition from being a Division I soccer player to a varsity runner was not entirely smooth. She says that she still considered herself a soccer player and would let herself get away with some things because she had not yet become a runner in her mind.

Mentally, Waite also had to adjust to the track workouts. Accustomed to running sprints for soccer conditioning, she had no problem completing the shorter-distance runs in practice. The longer workouts, however, were a whole different ballgame.

"If ever we did anything over 800 meters on the track I would panic," Waite said. "I remember my first year out there doing repeat 1000s and stopping. That was the only workout I ever stopped on because I didn't think I could do it."

For any runner, learning how to focus over long distances can be difficult. Waite had to push herself to find a way to focus over extended distances, and while her method might not be the most orthodox, it seems to work for her.

"Something what I'll try to do is to relax as much as possible," she said. "I'll zone in and try to feel like napping. . I'll just try to let go and stay calm to hang on for as long as possible."

Eventually Waite's napping technique helped her become accustomed to running longer distances, but the difficulty she had early on allows her to identify when freshmen runners have similar anxieties.

"When I tell them times I ran, these freshmen . don't believe me," Waite said.

In fact, Bevan even notices how she works with new runners.

"Beyond her performances, Lennie has been a team leader, something of a mother hen for the younger runners," Bevan said.

Waite not only motivates her teammates verbally but also demonstrates the products of hard work through her many accomplishments while running cross country and track. During this year's indoor track season alone, Waite received C-USA Female Athlete of the Week honors in February, earned the title of top scorer at the C-USA Indoor Track Championships with wins in the mile and 3000, helped Rice win its third-straight C-USA Indoor Track Championship, qualified for the national meet in the mile and 3000 and earned All-American status, largely due to her sixth-place finish in the mile with a new Rice record of 4:38.60.

For all of the season's successes, Waite says it flew by for her.

"It made the season so much fun," Waite said. "You're constantly on a high because when you do well in one meet you're looking forward to the next meet. It made for the perfect season for me to end my indoor career."

Bevan notes that Waite has improved tremendously, especially over the last two years.

"Two years ago she struggled to break five minutes," Bevan said. "Now she can run sub-five minutes for two miles continuously without a break. It's a testament to her hard work on and off the track."

All about commitment

Every success Waite has had during her running career for Rice has been a result of her commitment to transitioning from a soccer player to a runner. In the course of only five years, she has come from being a walk-on on the women's track team to developing into the top scorer in conference, a feat rarely, if ever, seen.

Bevan has witnessed Waite's progress through her many accomplishments and perhaps best understands how she earned them.

"[The transition to top-scorer] didn't happen over night, and it couldn't happen over night," Bevan said. "It happened because of a lot of hard work and sacrifice and letting things gel in her mind over a long period of time."

For Waite, though, one of the biggest obstacles she had to defeat was simply believing that she was capable of running at such a high level after starting as a track walk-on. For her, that realization did not come until the 2007 Rice Invitational and the Notre Dame Invitational.

"In our first race at Rice, Marissa Daniels (Jones '08) won, [sophomore] Alison [Pye] was second and I was third," Waite said. "I remember just being able to see them in front of me. That I wasn't that far behind really helped. Also, at Notre Dame, when we won the team title there, I remember running and looking [at an opponent] next to me, thinking, 'You're really, really good and I'm passing you!' I realized I could be good too."

Now not only does Waite realize she's a top runner, but the rest of the country does, too, thanks to her performance at the 2009 NCAA Indoor Championships, held at Texas A&M University. Her qualifying race for the mile in College Station, Texas, gave Waite the opportunity to get rid of any jitters she might have to be running on a national stage, as well as adapt to the distraction-filled environment. Waite led for the first three-quarters of the race, and although a couple runners passed her, she moved ahead at the finish to punch her ticket for the finals.

During the race in the finals, Bevan said she ran like she belonged there.

"She ran like a veteran," Bevan said. "She was able to focus on running and block everything else out. She moved well and demanded eve r y t h i ng from her b o d y a n d pushed harder than before."

Waite said she used the motivation of earning a spot on the podium to push through the race.

"I just kind of tried to stay really relaxed in the beginning, and then when I saw an opportunity to pass people I went around them and it gave me confidence," she said. "I told myself, 'If you stay like this, you'll get on the podium and that's what you want.' When I saw that I was sixth, I was so excited."

At the end of those 1600 meters, Waite had earned the reward for all her hard work and sacrifice she had put into her running. Waite's sixth-place finish was good enough to put her on the podium and to garner her the honor of an All-American.

For Waite, that's more than she could have imagined.

"It's crazy," she said. "I remember freshman year thinking it wasn't possible to ever be an All-American. "It was totally unreal for me, and it means so much to have this opportunity. I'm excited for the future, and I am still dreaming.

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