Roche Runs in the Prestigious Millrose Games

Ciara+Roche+%28front%2C+naturally%29+ran+in+the+2016+Millrose+Games

Ciara Roche (front, naturally) ran in the 2016 Millrose Games

Lindsey Golotko, Editor

On February 13, 2016, Freehold Township’s very own Ciara Roche was able to perform in a one of a kind race, the Millrose Games. This meet is extremely prestigious and is an honor to even be selected to attend, in fact, Roche is the first girl in the history of the school to qualify for this race. Roche is committed to running at Cornell throughout college and has shown tons of success throughout her high school career. Recently, the Patriot Press was lucky enough to sit down and talk to Roche about her recent accomplishments.

 

Q: What exactly are the Millrose Games?

A: The Millrose Games started a long time ago and were originally held in Madison Square Garden, which was obviously big because it was the whole stadium. Now, the Millrose Games are held in the armory. The meet has professional runners, with a few highlight races that feature high schoolers. The high school races include the mile, the 4×800, the 4×200, and the 4×400. The big race is the professional mile, which they put at the end so people will stay till the end. They have master races which feature older runners, and they do events like the 4×400 and others. It’s really just a big tradition; it’s put on by the New York Road Runners and New Balance.

 

Q: How big of a meet is this?

A:  It’s pretty big. The meet is mostly held on the Saturday, but the throwing events are done on the Thursday before to spread it out. They have to add bleachers in the throwing cage so spectators have more room, so it’s obviously big enough that they have to add room.  There’s definitely a lot of viewers and getting tickets is kind of hard.

 

Q: Where are the people running from?

A:  The professionals are from all over. There’s people from the Oregon Project, like Matt Centrowitz and Mary Cain. Mary Cain and Nick Simmonds have run it in the past, but not this year. There’s people who run on Team New Balance and other people who have been in the Olympic Trials.

 

Q: How do you qualify?

A: For the Girl’s Mile that I was in, they mostly pick people from the general tristate area. They want you to run fast times at The Armory, the facility that the Millrose Games are held. They have qualifier races, where if you win, you automatically qualify, but if you don’t win and still get a fast time they consider you. I ran 4 minutes and 51 seconds at the Bubble and they considered me because it was fast enough, even though it wasn’t at The Armory. At The Armory, I ran 4 minutes and 55 seconds

 

Q: What did it take for you specifically to qualify?

A: They had to mostly consider my time against the people I have ran against. For example, I was third place at the trials, but only by ½ a second.

 

Q: What training went into qualifying for this race?

A: This whole season, the goal was to make it to Millrose. So, I obviously ran a lot of races at The Armory to prepare for the facility. Also, running fast times at The Bubble during Counties and Shore Conference helped. I have basically ran only 1600’s this year to get ready for this race and the pace.

 

Q: You’re the first person in FTHS history to qualify, so what does that mean to you?

A: Obviously, I am honored to get invited to it and it’s cool being the first person from this school because I know my name will go down in history here. Hopefully, people later on can see me and use me as inspiration to break my records and do things I did and go to meets I went to.

 

Q: Describe the atmosphere of the race. How was it different then a regular meet?

A: It was really different because they definitely treated us like professionals. They gave us a uniform to wear, we didn’t just wear our own uniform. They gave us a uniform by New Balance because it was sponsored by them. Everything was much more organized. A lot of high school races are disorganized, they often run behind schedule.  They had a whole separate area for athletes to warm up. It was very official, the gathered us and announced our names while we were on the track. They had it all videotaped and everything. In high school races, they normally just shove everyone on the track and tell us to go.

 

Q: And you said it was videoed, how did that feel?

A: I knew there were definitely cameras all around the whole time, so usually that’s a good motivation to want to be up in the pack and try to perform well in the race. I knew I had friends at home watching and I would be able to watch it later, so I didn’t want to make a fool of myself.

 

Q: Personally how do you think you did?

A: It was definitely a good race for it being the day after winning in Groups. Mostly, I was trying to enjoy the atmosphere and have fun at the race. I knew that winning or medaling would be a stretch (top 3 medal). I’m still happy with seventh place, my time was pretty good. My time was equivalent to 4:52 for a 1600, so that’s pretty fast and I’m pretty happy with that.

 

Q: What big things do you have planned for the future?

A: I have MOC in 2 days and for outdoor track, I’m hoping to break more meet records, hopefully get the county record for 1600. I’d like to go back to nationals outdoors and run an individual race and try to get All-American as an individual. I’d love to win more state titles, too.

 

Q: Who can you attribute your success to?

A: It’s definitely a lot of coaching and all the support I get from teammates. Coach Briggs definitely plans out everything very well. He’s good at making the most of bad situations, like bad weather and everything. He always finds a way to cope with everything. My own motivation plays a role. I always try to look at the bright side and be optimistic.