Britney Whitehead has broken three school records in her time as a track runner at Eastern Illinois, but her success has her the most surprised. 

The senior distance runner who has surpassed the school records in the steeple chase, the indoor 3,000-meter and most recently the indoor 1,600-meter, never planned any of those accomplishments.

She took the record in the 3,000-meter dash (the record is now 9:51.74) without actually going for it during an away meet at Indiana University earlier this season.  

In the moments leading up to her event, Whitehead said she was just thinking about getting through the race with a new time and spot on the podium. 

“Going into the race, I was really focused and determined,” Whitehead said. “But the record wasn’t even on my radar.” 

Obtaining another record had not been considered until her coach, Erin Howarth, texted her before the competition, saying that it was within Whitehead’s reach. 

When she raced on the track, Whitehead and her competitors were neck-and-neck, and in the final four laps her coach urged her from the sidelines to speed up so she could win the race. 

Whitehead admitted that in those moments she felt like her body was beginning to run on autopilot. 

“Sometimes when I’m running, I start to feel as if my body locks up and I’m just running on muscle memory,” Whitehead said. “My abs, my back, my whole core were just tightening up.”

With about four laps left, she quickened her pace and started to pass each of her competitors. 

She won and said she looked up the scoreboard to find out that the she owned the new record.

For Whitehead, running at the collegiate level was not something she had envisioned for the future until her senior year of high school, when a change in coach and alterations in her training produced results she had never seen before. 

In high school when she was first introduced to the world of running, the 800-meter dash was her signature event.  

That same year, she tried out for the cross country team hoping the sport would better prepare her for track. 

The first day of practice, she said running a block was too difficult for her. 

Her first race, Whitehead recalled, was a disaster. 

She took off too fast and wasted all of her energy on mile one, forgetting that there was still another mile to cover and slipped back into the pack.

“I went from being first to being last,” Whitehead said.

That race, Whitehead said she burned out and walked all the way to the finish line.

By the end of her freshman year, Whitehead said she had shed 10 minutes off of her three-mile time.

But despite all of her progress, by the time sophomore year ended, Whitehead hit a wall with her training and began to see little to no results.

At the time, she said the track and field program at her high school, Larkin, was constantly bringing in and firing coaches until her mother stepped in and helped train her. 

Her mother was a hurdler in high school and in college, Whitehead said. 

Her junior year, Whitehead switched events and went from being an 800-meter runner to a hurdler. 

The change in events helped her form, which she said needed a lot of work. 

When her senior year came around and she was looking at potential schools, running at the collegiate level was the furthest thing from her mind. 

She said that Eastern was a school at the top her list, but only because of its teaching program. 

In Whitehead’s senior year, Larkin hired a new coach who trained several athletes in the past and taken them to state. She sought him out and asked if he would consider training her.

He said yes, and whitehead went back to running the 800-meter dash. 

That year she went onto state and ran in the 800-meter dash.

Then she said being a colligate athlete wasn’t such a farfetched dream. 

“I thought maybe I’ll just try out for the team, maybe I’ll just be a walk on,” Whitehead said. 

She can no longer be considered a walk on with all of her accomplishments. 

But, Whitehead said she continues to surprise herself the most because she never thought she would be showered with so much success. 

During her first year at Eastern, she was running the 800-meter dash and saw some improvements in her time. 

The year Erin Howarth came to Eastern to coach the cross country and distance on the track team, Whitehead started running other events and eventually found success in the steeplechase. 

Under Howarth’s coaching, Whitehead made tremendous strides as a distance runner at Eastern in events that she never actually ever saw herself running. 

Last year at Drake Relays, a meet that she described as a big deal, Whitehead broke the record in the steeplechase in front of a massive audience and earned second place in the competition.

Large crowds can sometimes be distracting for her, she said. 

However, this race was different. 

The roar of the crowd fueled her during the race, Whitehead said. 

“When you are racing and you can hear your name over a loud speaker and you’re doing really well in a race, that just pumps you up and just gives you so much adrenaline,” Whitehead said.

With her coach’s training, Whitehead said she has learned not to be as hard on herself. 

“Under coach Erin, she makes the negative seem positive,” Whitehead said. 

Whitehead said Howarth points out all the good things she fails to notice during her races. 

“I’ll have a race where I think it wasn’t my best, but there’s always a silver lining with her,” Whitehead said. 

Jaime Lopez can be reached at 581-2812 or jlopez2@eiu.edu.