Even-Achieving in the Wild!
Jane Hedengren is on the watchlist for one of the most prestigious titles in collegiate track & field and she’s only a freshman.
In high school, she won the Nike Cross Nationals – setting a course record and blowing the second-place runner out of the water with a 40 second lead. All in all, she set 9 high school records.
In her collegiate cross country debut season, she dominated. That is until the NCAA championship meet. There, she came in second place.
2 weeks later, though, she set a new record for the 5,000-meter successfully obliterating the old record by 8 seconds. She is the first collegiate woman to run a 5k under 14:50 – her time was 14:44.79. That’s a 4:44 per mile pace!
In an interview after her record-breaking win, she was asked what she did differently between her second-place achievement to her record breaking one.
Her answer?
“My training has changed quite a bit… I’ve rested more and I’ve started eating more… the work has been far more productive… it’s been able to have a more sustainable outlook… Overall training went down quite a bit.“
Wait, what?! Instead of pushing harder and doubling down, she backed off. She trusted her training and her coach. She listened to her body’s needs and then pulled out a record-breaking win.
That, my friends, is Even-Achieving in action.
After quickly researching her, here are 2 other things that Jane does that make her an even bigger champion in my eyes:
She’s running for the love of it
Each of her interviews are brimming over with gratitude. She said, “The race is often won before the gun goes off – it’s the preparation in the months prior” and she loves the process of the work. She is often heard saying, “lets see how far we can go!”
Her coach is a champion for her
Jane credits her change in training to her new coach and said, “I’m grateful to be part of program that takes care of me and cares about me more than just an athlete.” Her coach values her as more than just what she can produce. This coach knows that productivity can reach its ultimate best when we sustainably support the human being behind it.
As we reach for our own records to break, I hope that we can learn from Jane. I hope that we learn to love the process of growing and reaching. I hope that we also learn to back off when our body needs rest and reset. And finally, I hope we surround ourselves with people who help us reach our ultimate goals. That is the recipe for a champion.
Thanks for reading with me today. I hope this gives you a little boost of motivation to keep Even-Achieving this week.
Notes:
https://run.outsideonline.com/news/how-good-is-jane-hedengren/
https://youtube.com/shorts/EmdPO9WX12Q?si=sR5MnjxQLgCkYnj8
Post-race interview: https://youtu.be/r_f-KJto09Y?si=ZPRIeGbPeozxkjOY
Picture Credit: BYU’s Jane Hedengren runs ahead of New Mexico’s Pamela Kosgei during the women’s race during the NCAA Mountain Region cross-country meet at the Regional Athletic Complex in Salt Lake City on Friday, Nov. 14, 2025. Rio Giancarlo, Deseret News
