Hello, this is Collen McLain, your
newest MileSplitOK writer and social media content producer. I am excited to get to work covering
a sport that has been largely under-covered here in the great state of Oklahoma.
As a start here is a little bit about me and what we are hoping to accomplish moving
forward.
I grew up in the northwest corner
of the state in the town of Mooreland. I began running in 7th grade to
get in shape for the other sports I played. I was never very good at any of these
other sports, but I was always the guy who tried hard when we did conditioning drills
because that was the one area I excelled at. I was a shy nerdy and uncoordinated
kid who lacked confidence, running became the catalyst for me exiting my shell. The
summer before Freshman year I started to take running more seriously as I had
heard there was a chance, we could start a cross-country team in the fall. The Tuesday
before school started, we got word that cross country was going to be added as
a sport. A bunch of kids signed up because "Cool, new sport!" but none of us
had a clue what we were doing. Our coach asked us after our first practice whether
we wanted to go all in or take the year to learn. As any group of naive high
schoolers would we decided to go all in. We ended up 3rd at 2a State in our inaugural year. I was hooked, running brought me out of my shell and I became
obsessed. I worked hard day in and day out and refused to rest. This led to a
handful of state championships, a state meet record, and the opportunity to
pursue the sport at the next level. Running quickly consumed my life.
In 2017 former Guthrie athlete Trevor
Sallee and I decided to start an Instagram account trying to highlight Oklahoma
High School running the best we could. This account is now known as OKRunCO although
we both stopped being directly involved in 2020 when we left for university. Through
this account, I made a bunch of friends in the state and became known as the guy
who carried around a gallon Ziploc of cookies.
After being recruited by schools
ranging from junior college to NAIA to NCAA D1, I chose to go to the new
upstart Washburn University in Topeka Kansas. This was an exciting and slightly
terrifying move. I moved five hours away from friends and family to help a new
program blossom. Merging my two loves running and science I decided to study
exercise and rehabilitation science and graduated with my bachelor's degree
three years later. I had a ton of fun at Washburn and my growth continued as a
person as I was now in a place where I didn't know anyone and was forced
to form new relationships. I met some of my closest friends at Washburn and
learned so much about the sport at a different level. Topeka was a different world and having training partners better than me was all foreign. It
helped me grow immensely and the diverse group of humans that comprised the team
and university gave me a larger perspective on the world that I wouldn't trade for the world. It was a great experience for a small-town boy from Mooreland.
My racing career as an Ichabod was rocky as I became immensely better at training
and started producing great results, but I also could never stay healthy for an
extended length of time.
My final semester in Topeka sums my
time up well, I came off a cross season where I improved by minutes and
finished higher in the big races. I carried this momentum into winter training and
ended up with a stress fracture in my tibia and was sidelined from running for
a couple of months. I had to miss the entire indoor season knowing I was in the
best shape of my life. I did come back to racing late in the outdoor season,
but the extensive time off produced some of the worst running results of my
college career. At this point running had beaten me down and my life was at a
dark point I wasn't sure I wanted to continue as an athlete in the sport. I stopped
getting excited to race.
Academically I finished at Washburn
and wanted to continue my schooling at Oklahoma State University. I decided there
was still potential in there somewhere I just needed to make a radical jump to
get it out so I decided to reach out and see if the Cowboys would allow me to
walk on. I was granted the opportunity to try out. I went all in and put in my
biggest summer of mileage to give myself the best chance I could. Over the
summer I loaded my car and drove out to the Rockies to get a couple weeks of training
at altitude before heading to Stillwater. I slept in my car and traveled between
different towns to train with friends I made along the way. This was one of the
most exciting adventures I had been on, I was living the dream I had full
freedom to do as I pleased and got to meet and interact with a larger variety
of runners. I would 100% recommend every runner to go on their great
adventure if they get the chance.
Once the summer was up, I headed for
Stillwater and began training with the Cowboys. They took me in as this oddball tryout and showed me a lot of love and respect even when training and
racing weren't necessarily going my way. As the fall season ended unfortunately
so did my collegiate career. Running was still not going my way but not for a
lack of trying. I was cut from the team; it was a brutal end to something I had
chased hard and had largely consumed my life for the past eight or so years. I understand
that I was unable to perform to the necessary level and have nothing but respect
for the program at OSU. I am a firm believer that everything happens for a
reason. My story is only sad if this is where I gave up.
There is a silver lining to this. I
now have more freedom to chase things I enjoy and do things I wouldn't have had
I continued. I get to spend more time on this new project of bringing Oklahoma
the coverage I would've loved to have when I was coming up in the sport. I also
will be able to travel to meets for coverage and expand the running community.
I am working on a master's of applied exercise science and I now have more time
to work on research and my master's thesis. Next year I'm looking to take a
role as a graduate research/teaching assistant. This love of human movement and
physiology has spawned a love for all kinds of sports but recently I have
become most intrigued by combat sports. I frequently watch the UFC and other combat
sports in my free time and one day hope to dabble in it, but I plan to wait
until I dial the running back a bit more for that. I do still train pretty intently
and have recently begun working under my old graduate assistant coach to work
toward a couple of running goals I want to accomplish before hanging the spikes
up. Outside of sports I enjoy watching standup comedy and have become a big fan
of the show "Kill Tony" which I watch every Monday night. I also have a cat
named Lila who is the sweetest girl although she enjoys standing in front of my
screen while I work...
The biggest thing I hope to bring
to the state is a wealth of knowledge from the many corners of the sport I've
been in. I hope my experiences can bring the coverage up to the level the state
deserves. I also hope to grow the community and build connections with
everyone. Community is what makes our sport great. Runners are a special breed
of humans. It's a sport anyone can take part in which creates this beautiful
melting pot of personalities and backgrounds. I have met some of the coolest
people through this sport and I hope growing MileSplit in Oklahoma helps current
athletes do the same. We're starting with articles and soon to have our social
media up and running plus some exciting other content is in the works. You all
will be seeing plenty of content with my name attached to it. If we cross paths
at a meet don't hesitate to stop and say hello!
Collen McLain
MileSplitOK Writer and Social Media Content Producer
milesplitok@gmail.com