Isaac Roberts: Lyons To Colorado Christian

Q) Talk about the recruitment process - what other schools were you looking at, and how did you come to choosing Colorado Christian?

I went on a visit to Colorado Christian University (CCU) back in September during cross country. It was my first college visit, so I didn't really know what to expect, but I really liked Coach Poag and the family atmosphere of the team as well as the motivation they had to compete at the national level.

I was invited on a couple other college visits, so I decided to look at a couple more options before making a decision. I considered Adams State, Fort Lewis and the University of Wyoming. I liked all of those schools, but at the end of the day, coming from a smaller high school, I enjoyed the small-school feeling and Christian atmosphere at CCU as well as the tight knit team, and I'm looking forward to being coached by Coach Poag and Coach Verbal.

Q) What do you plan to study at CCU?

I'm going to begin majoring in business with the option of switching after the first year. I am not sure about what part of the business school to focus on, so I hope my first year of classes will give me some more clarity about where to focus my efforts, and CCU has one of the best business programs in the state.

Q) What would you consider to be your main event, and what event do you see yourself focusing on at CCU?

I would consider the mile to be my main event. I run everything from the 400 up to the 5k, but the mile has been where I have put most of my focus, and it has been my favorite event throughout high school.

I really enjoy the mixture of endurance and speed that it takes to run a mile. I will be focusing on the mile all the way up to the 5k at CCU. I will also be running cross country which is 8k/10k. I'm not sure what my best event will be yet, so it might take a couple years until I begin focusing on a specific event.

Q) You've consistently been one of the best distance runners in the state throughout high school (7th at State XC as a freshman, second as a sophomore, third as a junior, and state champ as a senior) - what would you say attributes to such consistency?

I would say my coaches were big contributors to my consistency, Coach Roberts (my dad) and Coach Henson always prepared our team to be ready to run fast at the end of the season. My teammates were also a big reason for my consistency. I've always enjoyed training and racing with my teammates more than individually, and each year our team was either runner-ups or state champs, so that always gave me some extra motivation to run for my teammates.

I'm a competitive person, and my season goals have always focused on what it takes to win state each year. Coming up short just helped me to focus and motivated me to continue training and working harder for the next year. Finishing second and third two years in a row in cross country especially motivated me for my senior year. I had a couple stress reactions over the summer and into the beginning of my senior season, and coming up short the previous seasons definitely helped me persevere and stay motivated during my last high school season.

Q) You come from a very well known family of distance stars - what sort of inspiration/motivation/words of wisdom has your family shared over the years?

I watched my older brothers and sisters run since I was in middle school, and watching them run always inspired me to want to do the same thing. I couldn't wait until I could run in high school. My siblings also set some pretty high standards and fast records, so they provided me with plenty of motivation and they were also supportive and encouraging

I learned a lot from talking to them and observing how they went about the process of being dedicated to their running. I learned how to work hard, compete and stay humble. I learned that if you want to be successful, you have to do a little extra work. And they taught me that servant leadership and being a good teammate are more important than winning or any individual accomplishments.

Q) The first result we have on you on MileSplit is a 12:43, 25th place finish at the St. Vrain Invite in September of 2011 - what do you remember from this competition?

I actually remember this race pretty well because it was the first race that I got a ribbon. I don't know why I was so obsessed with ribbons, but I knew before the race that they handed out ribbons to the top 25 and that was my goal.

I think I was in fourth grade, but they let me run in the middle school race anyway. I remember that I was doing pretty well, and then I started to die at the end and I got passed by a bunch of kids. I was pretty mad at myself for letting so many people pass me, but when they handed out the ribbons I got the last ribbon which was the rainbow ribbon. I remember being especially excited that I finished 25th because the two kids right in front of me both got pink ribbons and I disliked the color pink.

I have been running since I was a little kid because my siblings and I were homeschooled when we were little, so my parents would make us run around the park as our PE class.

My dad is also the cross country and track coach, so even when I was a little kid I would always hang out with the high school team and watch my older siblings compete and it always looked really fun. I think that's what really got me interested in competing in track and cross country.

Q) Favorite book, musical artist, and movie - GO:

Favorite book is definitely Racing the Rain by John L. Parker (prequel to Once A Runner), favorite musical artist is AJR, and my favorite movie is Shooter.

Q) What would your favorite high school moment be?

I love running track, and I especially love running on relays because I enjoy competing with my teammates, and the 4x800 is my favorite. When I was a freshman at state, our 4x800 team led almost the entire race, but our anchor leg was barely out-leaned at the line, and we lost by .08 of a second. Losing by that much was pretty depressing, but we had the same exact team the next year, and we were all extremely dedicated and motivated to get some redemption.

Our coaches have us write down our goals at the beginning of every season, and that season we all wrote at the top of our goal sheets that we wanted to win the 4x800 relay at state. I don't remember all the details during the regular season, but I think it was because someone was always injured during the season, or our top four never all raced on the same relay, that we went into state ranked 6th or 7th in the relay. It was a really close race at state, but we ended up winning, and we also ran a new school record. The shared excitement and celebration with Colton, Field and Adam afterwards was amazing, and it was awesome to surprise the other teams and gain some redemption from the year before!