Running Times: Your hometown is known as a mecca of track and field and distance running, and South Eugene High has a great legacy. When did you start taking the sport seriously and decide you wanted to pursue running at a really high level?
Erin Clark: I would say it happened gradually. I started running for my middle school and pretty quickly knew I was good at it—I ran pretty fast and placed pretty well in my first few meets. So I think it just kept progressing as I went along. I committed fully to cross country and track and not combining with soccer my sophomore year in high school. That fall was a big breakout cross-country season and an eye-opener to the fact that, yeah, I do have the potential to do this in college and it can be something I’m really good at. So it’s been a lot of little steps along the way where I’ve had good performances and realized I could make it to the next level. And definitely enjoying it along the way has helped as well.