After college graduation, Vessey moved to Southern California and joined the Santa Monica Track Club under the wing of Joe Douglas. It was a frustrating experience, according to Vessey, as she struggled with injuries in 2006 and 2007.
“I’d go out to practice and I just wasn’t able to run,” she said.
Vessey was in pain and she didn’t know why. She moved back home to Santa Cruz where she sought solace and support from her mom, and her sister, Katy, with whom she lived rent free. Eventually, a stress fracture of the femoral head in her hip was diagnosed. At that point, Vessey seriously thought about giving up track.
“I hadn’t been productive in the sport in three years,” Vessey said. “I didn’t want to be the person who was hanging on to a dream that wasn’t going to come true. I couldn’t afford an apartment. I kept asking myself ‘where are you in life?’”
She started looking for jobs in Santa Cruz. Several times Vessey began filling out applications for the Peace Corps, but each time she put them down and headed out for an easy run.
Back On Track
Eventually, her hip healed and the young athlete began doing some of her favorite workouts “for fun” on the track at Santa Cruz High School.
That’s where, in early 2008, Vessey hooked up with Greg Brock, the Santa Cruz High School and Santa Cruz Track Club coach whom she had informally known since her early prep days.
“My first thought was that I’ve never coached anyone with this kind of talent,” said Brock , a two-time All-American at Stanford who placed fifth at the 1972 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials. “Then I got to thinking, who are you trying to kid?”
Brock’s experience in coaching stretches back to his days as a prolific high school runner. As a student of the sport, he provided advice to his friends on other teams. He eventually went on to obtain a Masters degree in Exercise Physiology.
Said Vessey: “What I liked immediately about Greg is that he didn’t start telling me what I should be doing. Instead, he started asking me questions. What have you been doing? What do you want to do? I was pretty strung out at that point. I was open to listen, and he had the right things to say. He had an honest, authentic approach. Most importantly, he began rebuilding my confidence in myself.”
Brock shifted Vessey’s training away from over-distance and higher mileage, a regimen with which she was never very comfortable. Today, her training schedule is more suitable for a middle distance athlete who can flourish when she stays healthy. It incorporates running quality rather than quantity, solid cardiovascular and strength training workouts in the exercise room, and time for recovery. Vessey doesn’t keep a log of weekly mileage.
“Maggie has a great work ethic,” Brock said. “And, my system depends on consistency and not getting athletes injured. If they show up every day, you can [help the athlete] make seamless improvements from one day to the next.”
Indeed, Brock was instrumental in resurrecting Vessey’s dream of competing in the Trials and lifting her light-years beyond. Although her then-PR of 2:02.01 at the ’08 Trials was less than a second out of coveted third place, Vessey wasn’t disappointed.
“Just making the final and placing fifth was amazing for me,” Vessey related. “It was a rebuilding year. I was coming from a point where I hadn’t stepped on a track in two years. I never thought I could make the team, so when I got so close, I exceeded every dream.”
And, what about Vessey’s astonishing season just one year later when she finds herself, literally, on the top of the world? Has the magnitude of her accomplishments sunk in?
“People have been telling me that I should have been running these times years ago, but I just didn’t believe them,” Vessey admitted. “I wasn’t ready to do it. And, now, I still don’t know if I’m ready to do it. But, I am.”
Plus each big step, all the way to the World Championships, gives Maggie Vessey more reason to believe in herself.
“I guess now I have the confidence to get to the starting line and just roll the dice. There’s a lot more I want to accomplish. And, hopefully, I’ll drop down a little further on that U.S. list,” she said.
