On Saturday Nov. 1, Thomas Miller, sophomore, will be running in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisc at the WIAA State Cross Country meet.  Miller qualified for the meet last Saturday, October 25 at Tendick Park in Saukville with a time of 17:03. He will be the only representative of Homestead’s boys varsity cross country team at the state meet. “It’s a bummer I’m the only one running, but it will be great to be there to represent Homestead Cross Country,” commented Miller. Highlander Publications caught up with him as he prepares for this weekend and asked a couple of questions.

Q: Why did you start running?

Miller: I started running because I always knew I enjoyed it and I thought I could be successful at Homestead

Q: How often do you run? On average, how long?

Miller: I run every day except Sundays –  all summer, fall, spring, and a portion of winter. I run anywhere from four to twelve miles a day, depending on the workouts.

Q: Do you have any good luck charms/ traditions?

Miller: I don’t have any good luck charms but I always listen to a pump-up speech, “I am a Champion”, before I race.

Q: What’s your PR?

Miller: My 5k PR is a 16:32 in terms of cross country.

Q: How do you prepare for a race?

Miller: I drink a lot of water, eat a lot of fruit, get a lot of sleep and I usually visualize the night before.

Q: Which song gets you “pumped”?

Miller: I usually warm up to “Can’t Be Touched” by Ray Jones Jr. which is also my favorite pump-up song, too.

Q: What do you expect in the future of your running career?

Miller: I would like to continue to be successful in high school by making state in track and cross country in my junior and senior years. Also, if I improve enough, I would also like to see if I could run in college.

Q: What do you eat for breakfast the day of a meet?

Miller: I usually just eat cereal and occasionally a bagel or an egg sandwich. I don’t eat anything too heavy, so I can stay light for the race.

Q: Is there any way you reward yourself after doing well at a meet?

Miller: I usually think to myself, “Hey, that was a good race,” but after that day I’m usually looking ahead to the next race and don’t give that one much thought in terms of rewarding myself.

Q: What’s one thing you always have in your duffel bag?

Miller: My spikes

Q: Who has facilitated your qualification for state? How? 

Miller: I would say my coach, Dan Claussen, because he got me interested in cross country as a middle school student. He has trained me to work hard with my running all the way up to sectionals this year when I made it to state.

Q: What do you enjoy most about cross country?

Miller: I enjoy being able to compete because I’m an incredibly competitive person. I also like the running because it is a great stress reliever.

Q: How do you get through a race when it gets difficult?

Miller: Usually I just look ahead at the people I am supposed to beat, think about my goal, and just put the pain out of my mind. I just keep going but it’s hard to explain how I do that – it’s just a thing most runners get good at after a while.

Q: Any nicknames the team has given you?

Miller: A lot of people on the team either call me “TMill” or “Tom.”

Q: What is one talent you possess that most people don’t know about?

Miller: One talent most people don’t know about me is that I’m pretty good at waterskiing.

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Emma Zander