THIS WEEK'S PEAK PERFORMER: She doesn't when to stop

Allie McLaughlin, a senior girls cross country runner at Air Academy, posted a time of 17 minutes, 46 seconds to win her second consecutive title at the Morris Vogel Invitational in Centennial.
 That time was good enough to finish almost two minutes ahead of her closest female competitor, and McLaughlin was just 1:19 behind the boys winner.
 McLaughlin, who won the 2007 5A state track title in the 3,200, burst onto the state cross coutnry scene with her win at Vogel last fall.

You didn't start running competitively until your junior year of high school. How did you get into it?
I always knew that I really liked running, and I used to do it a lot just to train for other sports. I played ice hockey up until the beginning of my junior year, when I tried out for a U-19 AAA team. I didn't make it, so that made the decision really easy. I had always wanted to try cross country, but hockey had just taken up so much of my time that I never really had the chance.
Your coach, Glenn Peterson, says that one of the things he really has to do with you is to keep you from working too hard and overextending yourself. Why is that?
I just find it really hard to do something and not go as hard as I can. And that's one of the things about running, you have to know when to really push and when you shouldn't. Or else you'll burn out in a race or peak too early in the season. I kind of think I did that a little bit last year. I didn't know how to pace myself at all, and I ended up with a stress fracture in my tibia because I couldn't figure out how to take a day off. The recovery day, the day after the race is the hardest for me, because you're not supposed to do anything except maybe a very light workout.
Do you have a running partner to talk to or do you listen to music when you run?
No, never. I don't like headphones. I almost always run alone, except when we're at practice or something. Over the summer especially, it's almost always just me. I often take my dog, Kenzie, who's a golden retriever, up the incline or something, and that's great because it tires her out for the rest of the day.
Where are some of your favorite places to run?
I love the Barr Trail and Ute Valley for the hills. And definitely the incline. I used to do that every Saturday last year after Friday races, but this year I'm definitely not going to do that.
Does the fact that (hiking the incline is) legal now make it different for you?
Not really. [laughs] When I first saw that in the newspaper, I was like "No, don't tell more people about it or that it's OK to do." I didn't want to have more people up there. But really, I think the people who are going to do it were already doing it. But it's nice now that I'm not going to get in trouble. Even though I don't think I ever really thought I would (laughs).