How does a kid from western Canada wind up as a track star at Eastern? Despite winning the 800 meters at the Canadian junior nationals, Eastern junior David Holm didn’t receive the same exposure in high school as American runners. So he did his own recruiting. Holm contacted track and field coaches at universities across the United States, eventually landing at Eastern. It turned out to be a good fit. Holm won the OVC indoor 800-meter title in 2007 in his sophomore year. He recently sat down with staff reporter Mike Mears to discuss, among other things, why Froot Loops is the breakfast of champions and why distance runners are tougher than sprinters.

So how someone from Calgary wind up, 1,800 miles away, in Charleston?

Ever since I was in high school, I wanted to go to school in the (United) States. That was my main goal, to go to school and get a scholarship in the (United) States. I pretty much did my own recruiting. I sent out e-mails to different schools all over the States, and Eastern was one of the schools I was talking to. I came down here for a visit, and I liked the guys on the track team. It seemed like a good fit, so I decided to come here.

You recruited the schools rather than them recruiting you?

They wouldn’t know me at all otherwise, so I just sent out e-mails and talked to schools that way.

How does the competition compare between the United States and Canada?

In the Canadian universities, we only have an indoor season, and here there’s an indoor and an outdoor season. And the level of competition, there’s a greater number of athletes, so you’re bound to have better athletes, and the competition is that much stronger. I’m not saying there aren’t strong athletes in Canada, but with more numbers you’re bound to have better athletes (in the United States).

How did do you discover you’re good at the 800-meters?

I started out as a sprinter, but after that I upped the distance and found that I was good in that middle-distance range. It’s one of the harder events to run, but I like doing it.

Is the 800 your favorite, or just the one you’re best at?

I think now the 800 (meter) is probably my favorite event. It’s also, I think, the one I have the most potential in as well.

Do you think you’re going to repeat as the 2007 Ohio Valley Conference Indoor Championships?

That’s my goal. To do that again. I want to actually double in the mile and the 800 (meter) and win them both.

At Eastern, you’ve run several different races. Describe your typical workouts.

Definitely interval training helps with the speed work. Then you have your long runs that you do once a week, and you have your medium runs that you do two or three times a week, and then you have your morning practice as well. Different ranges to get in all the training you need for each of those events.

How is running indoors different than running outdoors?

Indoors you obviously have the enclosed environment. You don’t have to deal with the weather or with the wind or anything like that. There’s no outside factors that are going to affect your race. Outdoors you have a bigger track (400 meters, as opposed to 200 meters indoors). It’s not as many laps outdoors and half as many turns, so you can run a little bit faster. But you also have to deal with the weather, though it’s nicer when you have the sunny weather, to be competing in that.

Which do you prefer?

Outdoors. Just because I like being outside. You have the bigger track.

You run cross-country as well. How does that help you for track?

It just gives you a strong base. You need to have that base to be able to run any sort of race.

Which distance that you run do you think is the hardest?

I would probably say the 800 (meter), and then the mile would be second. They’re both hard. The 800 (meter), you’re going a little bit faster, but the mile you’re going twice the distance.

A lot of people in track and field consider the 800-meter the toughest race in track. Do you agree?

You want to have a pretty fast pace, definitely. I don’t want to knock any other race because they’re all hard. The 400 is also tough.

What is your career highlight to date?

That would be winning the 800 (meter) at the Canadian junior nationals in 2004 in Montreal. Starting in August of that season, I was training with the cross-country team back home. I was on a regular run, stepped on a rock and broke my ankle. So I started out the season kind of rocky. Then I actually switched coaches, and the whole plan was that he was going to coach me and take me to nationals. He thought I had the potential to win the 800 meters at nationals. That was my goal; the one thing I was going to do was go to nationals and win the 800 (meter). I had gone the previous year and didn’t have a great showing. So I trained hard and had some good races. When I got there I wasn’t favored to win or anything like that, but I went up there and had the best race of my life up to that point. It was just.it’s winning nationals. You’re the best in your country. After that I made the Canadian national team from winning that meet, and I went on to represent Canada in the Pan-Am Junior Championships. I don’t know what the word is, but it’s a pretty incredible thing to represent your country in a meet and wear a Canadian track uniform.

What do you hope to accomplish on the track in your time left at Eastern?

My goal this year is to make it to nationals in the 800 (meter) in the outdoor season.

You’ve done a little of everything on the track, so tell me who’s tougher: the distance guys or the sprinters?

I have to say the distance guys. I have to back up my boys.

Why the distance guys?

How do I want to word it? The distance runners show up for practice every day ready to run. We’re ready to go every day, day in and day out, seven days a week, at 6:15 in the morning. You just have to have heart to be a distance runner. All you can do is run. That’s the only way you’re going to get better, faster and stronger. Even on a day like today, when it’s zero degrees out or minus temperatures, getting up and going for a run.

The day of a meet, what is your pre-race routine?

Definitely Froot Loops in the morning. It seems to sit well in my stomach. Then have a good shower and get all clean for the day. Then I just sort of get my head focused and get ready to go out there and compete for the day. But it all starts off with a good bowl of Froot Loops.

Before the gun goes off, what’s going through your mind?

Definitely a level of confidence. A lot of anxiety, because you’re on the line and thinking, “All right, let’s get this race going, let’s get this thing started.” I just have this thing in my mind where I’m thinking no one’s going to beat me.

Do you want to keep competing after you’re done at Eastern?

I haven’t thought about it too much. The Olympics is something every runner has thought about. How reachable is that, I guess that would be something that would be on my mind when I’m graduating. I’ll just have to see where I am in my life, and where I am training-wise and fitness-wise.

What are your goals beyond track?

Just to be happy. To have a good life, be married, have kids. Nothing too extraordinary.

Mike Mears can be reached at 581-7944 or at mlmears@eiu.edu.

David Holm, a junior mid-distance runner, might not be from the states but if you see a shirtless track member running with a bandana around his head it might just be David Holm. (John Bailey/The Daily Eastern News)

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