Villa Park's Garrett Corcoran (photo courtesy of Leonard Coutin) won Saturday's Azusa Pacific/Adidas Distance Meet of Champions mile race in 4:10.28. The meet also timed the 1600m. mark with Corcoran recording a new lifetime best time of 4:08.86. That finish qualifies him for the "Dream Mile" race in New York in June. Corcoran had quite a cross country season winning the Lowell Invitational, finishing 2nd behind Tal Braude at Mt. SAC Invite before winning the SS Division II race. He won the state championship Div. II race and qualified for the Footlocker National meet in San Diego were he finished in 14th place. He will be attending Cal Berkeley next year.
1) How did you get your start in running? What other sports have you played?
My first experience with running was when my dad signed me up for my school’s track team when I was in second grade. I ran the 200, and although I was one of the best in my age group, I didn’t like it that much, so I stayed away from track for the most part until high school even though by the time I was in middle school I could run a 5:09 mile. I played soccer, baseball, basketball, and football before high school and as a freshman I played football and basketball before deciding to join the track team in the spring, and that was when I got my real start in running. I had never trained for races or been part of a team before, but once I started running in high school, I fell in love with it and decided to stick with it.
2) Tell us a little about your freshman season in track. What led you to joining the team? What races from that season stand out for you? Proudest accomplishments?
I actually joined the track team as a freshman because my dad pushed me to do so. I was originally planning on playing baseball, but when I decided not to do that my dad made me go talk to the track coaches instead. The races that stand out to me the most from that season are definitely when I ran 4:32 in the frosh-soph 1600 at the Orange County Championships and when I ran 9:44 for 3200 at League Finals a few weeks later. Both were huge breakthrough races for me as a freshman and they were my proudest accomplishments, especially since they were freshman school records.
3) What led to you joining the cross country team as a sophomore?
I joined the cross country team as a sophomore because I liked running track so much as a freshman. I made some friends on the team and had a lot of fun during summer training, so I was very excited to race when the season came along.
4) What would you say were the highlights for you in both XC and TF during your sophomore and junior seasons?
In sophomore cross country, a highlight of my season was when I broke 15:00 for three miles for the first time at the Dana Hills Invitational. I got a little over-excited as I neared the finish line and screamed like an idiot but I didn’t care since I had run 14:57. During my sophomore track season, I had quite a few races I would consider highlights: winning the frosh-soph invitational 1600 at the Azusa Meet of Champs was definitely a memorable race, but I hit a huge breakthrough at OC Champs again that year when I ran 4:17 in the 1600 to take fourth place and so that was a big highlight as well. Highlights of my junior cross country season included finishing runner up at Orange County Championships, breaking 15:00 at Mt. SAC, and tying the course record at League Finals to win my first cross country league championship. In track, the race that sticks out to me the most as the highlight was at Orange County Championships once again (I love that meet) where I ran my personal best time of 4:10.95 to claim the 1600 meter title.
5) What has changed the most in terms of your training from your freshman season to now? What is your typical mileage per week? Longest run?
My coach has overhauled my team’s training regiment numerous times throughout the years I’ve been at Villa Park. I definitely put in a lot more miles now than the varsity guys ran when I was a freshman, and the intensity has increased greatly as well. During cross country I was putting in around 50 miles per week while in season, always with a long run on Monday, hard workout on Wednesday, race on Saturday, and every other day easy distance. I think what changed the most in my training was the distance I covered on cool downs and the day before a race. During cross I would typically run 5 mile cool downs after workouts and races and about 5.5 miles the day before a race, whereas previously I had only run about one mile for all of those occasions. Now, in track season, my coach has put the team on a high intensity system with 3 or 4 workouts per week, sometimes on consecutive days, and the workouts vary greatly in rest time and interval distance. The longest run I have ever done was 16 miles when I ran up Blackstar Canyon Road all the way up to the Doppler radar on the top of the Santa Ana Mountains. That run had about 2500-3000 feet of elevation gain and it was probably one of the most terrible experiences I have ever had, even though the view from the top was incredible. 0/10 would not recommend.
6) What are the workouts that you feel helped you the most during XC season? Please include paces and rest.
During cross country season, about the only two workouts I ever ran with my team were 800-meter repeats on the grass/dirt loop on campus and 400-meter repeats on the track. During October, I hit a 2:12 average on 6 of the 800-meter loops with 3-4 minutes rest and that’s when I knew I was ready to do great things in the coming races.
7) Tell us a bit about your coach and how he has helped you develop to the runner you are today.
My coach, Dave White, has been at Villa Park for 40 years now, and he has coached a lot of great athletes throughout the years, such as a 4:11 miler in Dave Cangelosi in the 80’s and a sub-9:00 3200 runner/XC state champion in Augie Escobar in the late 90’s. He was also a great distance runner in his own right, having broken 9:00 for 2 miles multiple times in high school and making it to the Olympic Trials Marathon in 1972. He is a man who loves what he does, having fun, and yelling “GET WRECKED” at everybody (he got that from one of my classmates but nobody is quite sure what it means), and he is the reason I fell in love with running and decided to come back after running freshman track. I have followed his training regiment and have done all his workouts throughout high school and I would be nowhere near where I am today if it wasn’t for him.
8) Favorite XC course? Favorite XC invite? Favorite long run? Favorite track distance? Favorite track invitational? Favorite track workout?
My favorite XC course/invitational is the Lowell Invitational in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. It’s pretty much the only real cross country course my team runs on. It’s all grass and trails and I really enjoy it because it’s different from all the asphalt and hard-packed dirt we always run on down here in SoCal. There are sections of the course where you run on single track trails and on soft sand and there are tight corners and steep hills and it’s always a fun experience to run there when my team travels up to San Francisco every year. My favorite long run…I can’t really say I have one. I have lots of different courses and I’m always switching it up. My favorite track distance thus far is the mile, and my favorite track invitational is either Azusa MOC or OC Champs. I can’t really say I have a favorite track workout personally, but my team loves this “flying 40’s” workout we do every once in a while where you sprint 40 meters all out after a 40 meter buildup 8-12 times.
9) What are you the races you are most looking forward to as you peak ahead to the rest of your track and field season?
I’m looking forward to all the big invitational races: the 3200 at Arcadia, whatever event(s) I decide to run at the Mt. SAC relays, the 1600 at OC Champs the California State Meet, and now I’ve recently added the Adidas Dream Mile in New York to my schedule!
10) You ran 8:58.01 last week. What was the plan going into the race and when did you realize you had a shot at sub 9?
The plan actually was to break 9:00 that day to make an early statement and ensure a spot in the invitational 3200 at Arcadia. I was pretty sure I had a shot at breaking 9 about 1.5 weeks before the race when I averaged under 2:10 for six 800’s with 2-minute rest. I was going to just pace myself to the time I wanted if nobody took the race out fast, so I got out in 2:10 over the first 800 and from that point on the only thing on my mind was keeping myself on pace, and with the help of coaches and other people cheering me on from on the track I did just that, and it felt awesome when I hit the finish line.
11) You will be attending Cal Berkeley next year. How many other colleges were also in contention and how did you finally decide on choosing Cal?
Cal Poly, Arizona State, USC, and Stanford were also in contention during the recruiting process, and I had great options at every school that was recruiting me, but at the end of the day I chose Cal for two main reasons. First, it has a great academic reputation; its school of Engineering is ranked 3rd in the nation and that meant a lot to me since I’m planning on studying Mechanical Engineering in school. Second, there’s no other way to put it than Cal did the best job recruiting me out of all the schools I was in contact with. The coaches all came up to me to talk right when I came out of the finish chute at the State Meet and Footlocker XC Nationals, they called me once a week to catch up and see how things were going, and even some of the guys on the team really let me know how much I was wanted at Cal compared to the other schools. It was almost like Cal chose me. Go Bears!
12) Anything else you would like to add.
The race last night at the Azusa Meet of Champions was awesome. That meet never disappoints and I love the atmosphere there. I hadn’t planned on extending my season past the state meet this year, but now that I’ve earned an auto-berth into the Adidas Dream Mile, I’m very excited to go to New York in June!
adidas Azusa Distance Meet of Champions highlights video
| 2.x Mile Run (CC Short Course) (Graph) | 14:42.00 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14:45.00 | 1st | 2013-11-23 | CIF Southern Section Finals | » | |
| 15:02.00 | 1st | 2013-11-16 | CIF Southern Section Cross Country Prelims | » | |
| 15:32.00 | 21st | 2011-11-19 | CIF Southern Section Cross Country Championships | » | |
| 14:42.00 | 5th | 2011-11-12 | CIF Southern Section Cross Country Prelims | » | |
| 3,000 Meter Run (Graph) | 8:20.34 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8:20.34 | 4th | 2014-04-11 | Arcadia Invitational | » | |
| 3,200 Meter Run (Graph) | 8:52.18 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8:52.18 | 5th | 2014-04-11 | Arcadia Invitational | » | |
| 8:58.01 | 1st | 2014-03-14 | Irvine/Asics Invitational | » | |
| 9:25.35 | 4th | 2013-04-20 | Orange County Championships | » | |
| 9:25.35 | 4th | 2013-04-20 | Orange County Championships | » | |
| 9:21.06 | 18th | 2013-04-05 | Arcadia Invitational | » | |
| 9:43.86 | 1st | 2013-03-14 | Brea Olinda / Esperanza / Villa Park | » | |
| 9:20.18 | 1st | 2013-03-08 | Irvine/Asics Invitational | » | |
| 9:26.20 | 10th | Prelims | 2012-05-12 | CIF Southern Section Division 2 Prelims & Finals | » |
| 9:37.29 | 2nd | 2012-04-28 | Century League Prelims & Finals | » | |
| 9:37.73 | 11th | 2012-04-21 | Orange County Championships | » | |
| 9:38.89 | 2nd | 2012-03-31 | Asics Triton Invitational | » | |
| 9:32.50 | 10th | 2012-03-09 | Irvine/Asics Invitational | » | |
| 9:44.82 | 7th | 2011-05-06 | Century League Finals | » | |
| Three Mile Run (Graph) | 14:00.50 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14:00.50 | 1st | 2013-11-06 | Century League Finals | » | |
| 14:29.00 | 2nd | 2013-10-25 | Mt SAC Invitational | » | |
| 14:28.00 | 1st | 2013-10-19 | Orange County Championships | » | |
| 14:48.09 | 1st | 2013-10-05 | Central Park Invitational | » | |
| 14:29.00 | 3rd | 2013-10-02 | Century League Preview | » | |
| 14:20.70 | 1st | 2013-09-28 | Dana Hills Invitational | » | |
| 14:07.00 | 3rd | 2013-09-21 | Woodbridge Cross Country Classic | » | |
| 14:08.00 | 0th | 2012-11-17 | CIF Southern Section Division Finals | » | |
| 15:07.00 | 0th | 2012-11-10 | CIF Southern Section Cross Country Prelims | » | |
| 14:55.00 | 0th | 2012-10-19 | Mt SAC Invitational | » | |
| 14:44.00 | 0th | 2012-10-13 | Orange County Championships | » | |
| 15:14.30 | 2nd | 2012-10-06 | Central Park Invitational | » | |
| 14:38.20 | 1st | 2012-09-22 | Dana Hills Invitational | » | |
| 14:53.90 | 4th | 2011-11-02 | Century League Finals | » | |
| 16:04.00 | 3rd | 2011-10-21 | Mt SAC Invitational | » | |
| 15:18.00 | 1st | 2011-10-15 | Orange County Championships | » | |
| 14:57.90 | 1st | 2011-09-24 | Dana Hills Invitational | » | |
| 15:38.93 | 1st | 2011-09-10 | Laguna Hills Invitational | » | |
| 5,000 Meter Run (Graph) | 15:09.00 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15:33.70 | 14th | 2013-12-14 | Foot Locker Nationals | » | |
| 15:53.10 | 9th | 2013-12-07 | Foot Locker West Regional | » | |
| 15:09.00 | 1st | 2013-11-30 | CIF California State Cross Country Championships | » | |
| 16:06.00 | 19th | 2012-12-01 | Foot Locker West Regional | » | |
| 15:48.00 | 18th | 2012-11-24 | CIF California State Cross Country Championships | » | |
| 800 Meter Run (Graph) | 1:52.98 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1:55.76 | 1st | 2014-04-17 | Villa Park vs Elmodena vs Canyon | » | |
| 1:52.98 | 3rd | 2014-04-17 | Mt. SAC Relays | » | |
| 1:58.85 | 1st | 2014-04-10 | Esperanza vs El Dorado vs Villa Park | » | |
| 1:57.92 | 1st | 2014-02-15 | Esperanza HS All-Comers #2 | » | |
| 2:00.33 | 9th | 2013-05-18 | CIF Southern Section Finals | » | |
| 1:55.98 | 5th | Prelims | 2013-05-11 | CIF Southern Section Prelims | » |
| 1:56.97 | 1st | 2013-05-02 | Century League Finals | » | |
| 1:57.35 | 2nd | Prelims | 2013-04-27 | Century League Prelims | » |
| 1:59.41 | 1st | 2013-04-17 | Villa Park vs Foothill / El Modena | » | |
| 2:08.67 | 17th | Prelims | 2011-04-30 | Century League Prelims | » |
| 2:09.40 | 1st | 2011-03-25 | adidas Meet of Champions | » | |
| One Mile Run (Graph) | 4:10.28 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4:10.28 | 1st | 2014-03-22 | adidas Azusa Meet of Champions | » | |
| 4:13.89 | 5th | 2013-06-07 | Portland Track Festival | » | |
| 4:29.72 | 12th | 2013-04-05 | Arcadia Invitational | » | |
| 4:23.69 | 3rd | 2012-04-06 | Arcadia Invitational | » | |
