How This High School Star Turned Collegiate Standout Keeps Chasing Dreams

By Elizabeth Carey for DyeStat

Photo Kirby Lee/Image of Sport

Pressure accumulates over time. For Katie Rainsberger, 10-time All-American and University of Washington senior, it peaked last summer. 

She’d been grinding away at training, she said, after the COVID-19 pandemic canceled the 2019-20 winter indoor championships and spring outdoor track season. Then she raced a couple of low-key meets. In August that didn’t go well.

“It’s kind of vulnerable to talk about, but I think I had a panic attack during the race. I had no idea what was going on. It had a physical component but I knew there was an emotional, mental aspect to it,” she said. “If this is what racing is like, I don’t want any part of it. I was pretty hard on myself. I was pretty down. It’s not something you want to experience.”

This moment was the culmination of a tough half-year, and years of internal and external pressure building. For Rainsberger, the moment presented two options: either work through these things or stop racing. 

She chose to work through them. And it’s paying off.

As a high school star and who became one of the top collegiate runners, the pressure may be internal, external, and — as in the case of the pandemic — often out of an individual’s control.

“You can’t control anything but your effort and your attitude. The past year has been a big journey of rediscovering those things. It hasn’t always been easy. There’s been some adversity. Everyone’s dealing with their own struggles in their own ways. It’s important to own that process and work through it,” Rainsberger said. 

In high school, Rainsberger won Nike Cross Nationals in record time (16:56.8) as a senior in 2015. At Air Academy High in Colorado Springs, she won 10 total titles in cross country and track, and swept the 800, 1,600 and 3,200-meter races at the Colorado state meet, twice.  

“Having early success in high school resulted in pressure both from myself, holding myself to a certain standard...and from outside — news outlets, teammates, coaches — it’s not all bad, but it’s there, a little bit unspoken. It’s both a privilege and a hindrance. Because you’ve gotten to this point, and at the same time how can you make sure the hindrance doesn’t weigh on you?” she said. 

As a freshman at the University of Oregon, Rainsberger led the Ducks to the 2016 NCAA cross country title with a fourth-place finish at the national championships in 19:51.1, among other accomplishments. When coaches Maurica and Andy Powell left UO for new positions with the Huskies, Rainsberger followed, transferring with several other teammates in 2018. 

As a collegiate athlete, it’s easy to get caught up chasing titles and PRs and vying to beat people. Somewhere along the way, Rainsberger lost a bit of the pure joy running had brought her. 

The COVID-19 pandemic forced her to sit down and reconsider her motivations — the whys. “When you take away something like racing or your teammates and you get thrown into this shitstorm of uncertainty, and you’re out there grinding every day...and you’re like why am I doing this?” she said. 

Luckily, she had support in her corner. She credits her coach, mom, and psychologist for helping her. “I had a lot of support from my coach Maurica Powell in giving me the space to figure those things out. From my mom, who was affirming she loves me as I am, not because of what I have done,” she said. (That’s especially poignant coming from Rainsberger’s mom, Lisa Larsen (Weidenbach) Rainsberger, who won the Boston Marathon in 1985 — the last American woman to do so until Des Linden won in 2018.)

Rainsberger encourages anyone who is struggling and wants to talk to reach out to a counselor or sports psychologist — ”even just to validate the things you’re experiencing or if you just need to cry. This has been a crazy year and you have to show yourself some grace,” she said. 

The work Rainsberger’s taken on this year required a reframing and shifting of how to approach success as a runner. “It should not be tied to my worth as a human being. Distinguishing those two things was what I had to personally work through in August. A time or PR or place or performance, those things have nothing to do with my character or how other people see me as a human being,” she said.  

This work revealed her goals for this season: “To enjoy it as much as possible and not take anything for granted.”

She debuted in the steeplechase at Stanford this month, winning by over a minute. “I loved that, so I would love to get an Olympic Trials mark,” she said. 

With her re-kindled approach to competition, that achievement would be icing on the cake.

“It’s so difficult because everyone always talks about having process-oriented goals, but how can you have process-oriented goals with running because it’s so time-and outcome-oriented?” she said.

“I’m going to run with integrity, race with integrity.”

That’s making 9 a.m. practices, that’s focusing on her form on the last 150, and executing race plans, like taking the lead with 500 to go.

“That way it’s a little more process-oriented. Doing the things I say I’m going to do, that gives me the best possible chance of having success within the race,” she said. 

She encourages younger athletes to embrace delayed gratification.

“My big thing is ‘persistent consistence.’ Buy into a several-year-long process. It’s kind of hard to do and it’s not going to happen overnight,” she said. “Be excited about the day-to-day. Practice ‘persistent consistence.’”

Also, especially high school girls, she said, “Keep it as fun as possible for as long as possible, to really enjoy it. That run where you run to the creek...You’ll remember those experiences more, the genuine good times.”

Rainsberger plans to carry joy and resilience through graduation this spring. She’ll attend graduate school at the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs on an applied physiology research track. The program has a partnership with the Olympic Training Center that enables her to run professionally. She’ll keep training, racing, and enjoying the day-to-day — giving herself the best possible chance. 

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Elizabeth Carey (https://elizabethwcarey.com/) is a writer and running coach based in Seattle, Washington. Her first book, GIRLS RUNNING, co-authored with Melody Fairchild, is available at your local book store and here: https://shop.aer.io/GirlsRunning/p/Girls_Running_All_You_Need_to_Strive_Thrive_and_Run_Your_Best/9781948007184-9934.