After fall in last year’s final, Utah star has overcome physical setbacks and mental battles this season just to have a second chance

By Erik Boal, DyeStat Editor

Grayson Murphy has been waiting a year to go the distance again in the women’s 5,000 meters at the NCAA Division 1 Indoor Championships after being tripped and knocked down just past the mile mark of last year’s final.

But it has been the road less traveled this season for the Utah senior in preparation for Friday’s race in College Station, Texas.

Having competed only once before the championship, Dec. 2 at the Boston University Season Opener, Murphy has overcome several obstacles in the past three months in order to give herself an opportunity to complete some unfinished business at Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium.

“I was pretty sad and disappointed with how last year went. Falling down at nationals is like everyone’s worst nightmare,” said Murphy, who battled valiantly to get back in the race, before finishing 15th.

“Coming into this year, I’m glad that I do get a second chance. My worst-case scenario has already happened, so this year I want to have fun and enjoy it more than last year, when I was just panicking with 3K to go.”

There have been several moments of uncertainty and panic for Murphy following her fifth-place finish in the 5,000 in Boston, where she lowered her own program record by clocking 15 minutes, 44.45 seconds.

Murphy was supposed to have her wisdom teeth removed during her winter break, but scheduling conflicts resulted in the surgery being pushed back two weeks, causing an overlap when training was expected to resume.

“That was the first thing that kind of threw a wrench into what we were working with. I started to run again and then I had to stop for the surgery,” Murphy said. “Coming back from that, I think maybe I pushed a little too hard, too soon, just because I felt a little bit of pressure to come back because (the surgery) got pushed back two weeks. I felt like I was behind and needed to get back.”

Having not completely healed from the surgery, combined with the added stress of trying to make up for lost time in workouts in order to compensate with an abbreviated indoor schedule, Murphy came down with shingles in January.

The viral infection, which causes a painful rash, set Murphy back another two weeks in her recovery.

“I was trying to run, but I couldn’t really do workouts, obviously, because that’s too much stress on my body, and we decided that it was stress in the first place that caused the shingles,” Murphy said. “So then I got really anxious because I felt like I was a month behind and races were coming up.”

Murphy was looking to return to the track Feb. 9-10 at the Husky Classic at the Dempsey Indoor facility in Seattle, but having only resumed workouts earlier that week after the shingles had run their course, she decided it would be more productive to continue to train rather than race.

As her fitness level continued to improve, Murphy still needed to regain mental and emotional strength in preparation to compete at another national championship, following an eighth-place finish Nov. 18 at the Division 1 cross country finals.

As a result, she also passed on competing Feb. 23-24 at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championships in Seattle, remaining confident her 5,000 time from Boston would be enough to make the NCAA final.

Murphy’s performance joined six other athletes from that race – New Mexico’s Ednah Kurgat, Weini Kelati and Alice Wright, North Carolina State’s Elly Henes, Kansas’ Sharon Lokedi and Missouri’s Karissa Schweizer – in qualifying for Friday’s championship.

“I’ve always been really anxious and had anxiety problems, and it kind of spiked with all the injury and illness stuff, trying to stay positive and confident throughout all of that, so I got pretty in my head about it,” Murphy said. “With MPSF, I just decided that I needed to get my mind straight. I was training and that was good, but my mind is a second component and if I don’t address that as well, I’m not going to get anywhere. While I may have been in race shape or close enough to it, I needed that mental time away to still try and heal from the last couple of months.”

Although Murphy missed a potential opportunity to also qualify in the 3,000 by sitting out those February meets, she knew her ability to sell Utah coach Kyle Kepler on traveling to Boston two weeks after the NCAA cross country final would pay dividends in the long run.

“I think we both knew I was capable of running a 3K (qualifying) time, and had I been healthy, that would have been something we would have liked to do. If I had qualified in both, I would have done both here,” Murphy said. “Boston was kind of a risk and it paid off, so we’re really happy we took that risk. I’m really grateful that coach Kep decided to let me give it a go. Boston was my idea and I’m glad he went along with it and considered it. Just he and I went out there, kind of a special trip just for that, so I’m really grateful he let me do that.”

When it came to Murphy’s recovery following her shingles, Kepler didn’t want to take any risks, relying on a cautious approach the past month in an effort not to compromise any future goals.

“It’s been a slow process coming back,” Kepler said on this week’s Utah Track Chat.

“But we want to make sure we get it right and don’t have any more setbacks, so we can have a great outdoor season as well.”

Murphy earned another All-America honor by placing fifth in the 3,000 steeplechase at last year’s Division 1 Outdoor Championships and didn’t want to compromise her spring schedule by not being properly prepared, physically and mentally, for any additional indoor competitions.

“That was a little bit of the consideration when I decided not to race because I do want my outdoor season to go well and I don’t want to jeopardize the rest of my outdoor season to race a couple of indoor races when they just weren’t necessary,” Murphy said. “It’s given me perspective that races aren’t everything and just because I missed one or two races indoors, I think a lot of times people think that they have to race and that just wasn’t the case.

“I feel a lot better knowing myself and knowing that I don’t need to have a bunch of races to feel like I can go into Friday and do well. I have the qualifying time and I’ll be there ready to run.”

Only one Utah female athlete in program history has been a first-team All-American in any distance event at the Division 1 Indoor Championships, with Amanda Mergaert finishing fifth in the mile in 2013.

If Murphy can complete her road to recovery with another memorable run Friday, she will not only have closure following last year’s unfortunate outcome, but will be able to conclude her collegiate indoor career with another significant achievement.

“I’m really happy with how everything has come together. It’s almost like the pressure has been taken off just because this is my first race back and I didn’t have to go and deal with racing up until this point, so I could focus on hard efforts in workouts and just getting back into a normal routine,” Murphy said. “This year, I want to be in the race and it’s exciting to know that anything can happen, but I have the comfort that the worst-case scenario has already happened, so I feel like nothing bad can really happen to me. I think that’s been really helpful and I’m feeling pretty confident about fitness-wise where I’m coming from going into Friday.”