Initial dislike of distance running turns into rewarding career for USU’s Lifferth

Before coming to college, junior track standout Stacie Lifferth said she hadn’t run farther than three miles at a time – now she runs as many as nine a day and anywhere between 50 and 60 miles a week.

It seems ironic that the woman who panicked when she saw how much she would have to run at USU would end up breaking distance running records and be well on her way to becoming an All-American athlete.

“Before college the most I’d run was three miles,” Lifferth said. “When I got an e-mail for a workout it was nine miles. I remember sitting at my computer crying.”

Lifferth, who was recently named USU Athlete of the Week for the second time this year for breaking a record held by Tiffany Strickland in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, said she got her start in running from watching her four older brothers run. She said her family is tight knit, and she loved doing the things her brothers did, including joining the track team when she was in eighth grade.

Deeming herself an average runner her eighth-grade year, Lifferth said her coaches ran her in the 400-meters, 800-meters and mile. She said she saw considerable improvement her ninth grade year and won the little district competition her school was involved in.

“One of the coaches just put me in and I kept doing it,” Lifferth said. “I think with each year you just gain more confidence with it too. The thing is, I didn’t really care a lot about track then. I played soccer in high school, and that was my main thing. I wanted to play in college too, but scholarships didn’t come to me as easily. In high school I just loved playing soccer. I think it was good (that) I liked soccer so much because a lot of people get burned out after doing one sport so much.”

Lifferth said playing soccer helped her improve her running ability but said it was a different style of running.

“(With) soccer you’re doing a lot of running, and it’s almost unconscious running. There’s a ball in front of you so you’re running for a purpose,” Lifferth said.

Lifferth received some offers for a soccer scholarship to junior colleges but said she wanted to attend a four-year university, so she agreed to run for USU on scholarship with a stipulation that she did not want to run anything longer than a mile. That didn’t happen, but it worked out in her favor in the end.

“My scholarships were for cross country and track,” Lifferth said. “I would run cross country in high school but I wouldn’t practice for it. I would go to soccer practice and would run at a (cross country) meet. I just hated cross country. When they told me what my scholarship included, I was like, ‘Oh! Cross country!’

“Cross country hurts. It just hurts to run that far that fast. It’s a lot of miles you have to put in. I just didn’t like it. Still I have a hard time with it,” Lifferth said.

Lifferth said she enjoys track more than cross country. While she didn’t want to run distance, she has excelled in the distance races and said now the 1,500-meter is way too fast for her. Lifferth runs the indoor 3,000-meters, the 1,500-meters and the 3,000-meter steeplechase.

When asked which event was her favorite, Lifferth said, “The steeplechase is a lot better because it has that touch of soccer where it has a little bit of purpose – something to focus on. The water jump is something you have to have your steps perfect on.”

The steeplechase is a distance event nearly two miles long that is interrupted throughout with hurdles that don’t move. One of the hurdles has a platform leading up to it that an athlete runs up and leaps over the hurdle to land in a small pool of water.

It is in the steeplechase that Lifferth broke the school record with a time of 10:18.89 – a time that also leads the Western Athletic Conference.

“That race felt fabulous,” Lifferth said of her record-setting performance. “I wasn’t expecting it. I just wanted to race the competition and not worry about the time. I do better when I go out and compete. Sometimes when you think of a time you want to get or a record you want to set, the pressure can build and build on you. When you go out and compete and do what you love doing, then it just comes to you and you run that much more relaxed.”

Keeping herself relaxed is one thing Lifferth said she works hard at. She said sometimes in a distance race, negative thoughts can bombard her about how much her legs hurt, but she said a teammate told her not to let people see the pain on her face so she winks at her teammates as she runs by.

Another thing Lifferth said helps her prepare to be relaxed in competition is staying focused during practice.

“If I’m having a hard workout and I’m just too tense and I can’t get my body to relax, I’ll just get a song in my head to get a rhythm but not in races usually. I don’t know if it pumps me up, but it definitely relaxes me,” Lifferth said.

Before every race, Lifferth said she calls her Grandma Murray, eats bananas and visually conceptualizes the race in her head. She said these pre-race rituals help her get prepared and do well.

As the track season comes to an end, Lifferth said she has some goals to stretch herself until she graduates, including joining teammate Jennifer Twitchell as an All-American.

“I want to go to nationals and get top 10 at nationals, which would make me an All-American, which is my goal,” she said. “The same thing next year. In cross country I want my team to go to nationals as a team.”

Lifferth said seeing Twitchell earn All-American status has inspired her to work harder.

“When she got it I was so stoked for her but a little tiny bit of jealousy was in me,” Lifferth said. “It just made my hunger for it that much more. If she can do it, I can do it.”

Lifferth said track is an addicting passion for her that she has come to love, and said she wouldn’t go back to soccer even if USU soccer Head Coach Heather Cairns invited her to play.

“I’m so dedicated to track that I’d stick with track. It’s funny how it becomes a new passion. It’s addicting. I just love it,” Lifferth said. “When I tell people we run 50 to 60 miles a week, they just look at you like you’re crazy. Who does that? It just becomes a part of you, and it’s something you love.”

-sethhawkins@cc.usu.edu