One of the new faces to the Nicholls Men’s cross-country team this year is sophomore transfer Casey Keiser. The New Orleans native and product of Brother Martin High School joined the Colonels this season after running last year at Mississippi College. Last week, Keiser finished 26th out of 77 runners at the 2010 Gulf Coast Stampede. Finishing the 8k run in 29:43, along with help from teammates Blaine Gisclair and Justin Babin, Keiser and the Colonels were able to take home fourth place at the stampede.

I was able to run down Keiser after practice and ask him a few questions about this season and preparation before races.

Q: What personal goals do you set for yourself before a race?

A: I want to try and average a 5:20 a mile pace. My goal right now is to break 28 minutes and then just try and stay with the pack during the race.

Q: How do you prepare yourself for a race?

A: I do a 10 min warm up, stretch, do my drills and jam out to some music on my iPod.

Q: What is the farthest distance you have ever run?

A: The farthest I have ever run is 14 miles in about an hour and 40 minutes

Q: What do you eat or drink before a race?

A: I have a peanut butter sandwich on a bagel before every race along with water

Q: What goes through your mind while the race is going on?

A: I just try and stick with each mile, and work every mile

Q: What is one thing you could not live without?

A: Peanut butter is one thing I could not live without.

Q: What do you listen to on your iPod before a race?

A: I listen to some Rage Against the Machine to get me pumped up, or some Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Q: Who is your role model and why?

A: My dad; he’s a coach and I want to be a coach. I believe that he has taught me everything that I know.

Q: What do you like to do in your free time when you are not running?

A: I like to watch TV and play X-Box in my free time.

Q: You train early in the morning and in the afternoon. When do you prefer to run, or does it really matter?

A: I like to get my run over with, but even if we do run in the morning, we still have to run in the afternoon as well during two-a-days. I would rather run in the morning to get it over with.

Q: What does an average training run consist of?

A: I usually try to run eight to nine miles in a day. If we have two-a-days, I probably run about 12 to 13 miles. On a normal day I try to run about eight miles.