WESTFIELD, Mass. – Former Westfield State University women's cross country and track and field All-American Jessie Cardin '18 has signed to run professionally with the Hansons Brooks Original Distance Project, a professional team with the goal of advancing American distance running.

Cardin, a two-time cross country All-American and an All-American in the 3000 steeplechase in outdoor track at Westfield State, has relocated to Rochester Hills, Michigan, to train for the Chicago Marathon with goals of competing in Boston and earning an invitation to the 2024 U.S. Olympic Trials, which would require her to run a time of 2:37 or faster.

"Jessie has impressed us," said Kevin Hanson, one of the owners and coaches of the Hansons Brooks Team along with his brother Keith.  "She's been competitive on the US Road circuit, while working full time.  Dedication isn't even the right word for her – its organization, passion beyond just trying to do well, she's been doing it with all those disadvantages."

Noted marathoner "Bill Rodgers used to say he'd never lose a marathon to someone working 40 hours a week," added Hanson. "There are things that are necessities to being competitive at this level, that aren't just luxuries to someone who's working full time [outside of running] without perks."

Cardin and the other Hansons Brooks athletes receive a stipend, housing, medical care, travel and entries to races and more. She has relocated to Rochester Hills, Michigan, where she lives with four of her teammates and has been training with Hansons Brooks since mid-June.

"All the things that Hansons Brooks offer is exactly what I saw on my visit here," said Cardin in a phone interview, noting that she even took the same room in the house that she stayed in on her visit. "It's pretty awesome."

Hanson said the salary stipends are tiered based on the athletes' established performance levels.

Cardin said she is currently doing tutoring work to stay involved with education, which was her major at Westfield State.  She most recently taught at the Eagle Hill School in Hardwick, Mass., before leaving to train.

SIGNING WITH HANSONS BROOKS

 Cardin announced her arrival on the national running scene with a 10^th place finish at the USATF Half-Marathon National Championships in South Carolina in December of 2021 with a personal-best time of 1:12:08.

Cardin was one of just two runners 25 years old or younger in the top ten, and said she believed she was the only one in the top 20 who was not running as part of a sponsored team.

"But I won a little prize money as well, which was a nice bonus," said Cardin.

Cardin followed that up by finishing seventh at the USATF 15k national championship in Jacksonville, Fla., on March 5 of this year.

Cardin said the interest was mutual as she started reaching out to teams, and several teams to her, about furthering her running career.

Cardin's coach "Steph [Reilly] knew Kevin and Keith Hanson, and thought that they might be a great fit for me," said Cardin. "I had talked to the Hansons in January and February, then had a chance to meet with Keith face to face after the awards in Florida."

"She was knocking heads racing with some of the runners on our team, we are at every big national race, and I literally did a google search to find out more about her," said Kevin Hanson. "Jessie was talking to Natosha Rodgers about us after a race, and at about the same time Jessie's coach reached out to us, we had a call with Jessie.  She said she really wanted to finish her school year, and I thought that wasn't a negative at all, that she had an appreciation for people and wanted to fulfill her obligations there."

"Jessie came out to visit us, and we are very proud of what we have built with the team, the training and the perks available for our runners," said Hanson. "We also want to have runners come visit and make sure they are a good fit with our other athletes, and it was unanimous that the team wanted Jessie to come.    They were texting me before she was even on the plane home!"

PLANS FOR CHICAGO MARATHON

Cardin said she routinely trains in the mornings with her group and the coaches.

"We will warm up together, and train in the same locations," said Cardin, noting several parks with trails in the area. "But the workouts may be completely different depending on each runner's goals.  The other day we were running two-mile repeats in the park, and I had to be very conscious to go at the marathon pace while some of the others were whizzing past me.  It can be tough because you want to run faster, and the coaches said they know I CAN run faster, but it's most important to keep the marathon pace so that internally you know what that pace feels like."

For the moment, Cardin will be training more than racing, with the specific goal on the Chicago Marathon on October 9, 2022, which both she and her coaches both thought would be the right fit.

For all the training and running that Cardin has done in her career, she said she has never yet run a full marathon.

"It will be Jessie's debut in the Marathon," said Kevin.  "I think she is capable of delivering, but there is a lot that you learn in the first Marathon – how much fluid you need to take in, how to run with dead legs.   We want her to walk away with a positive experience, but also to know that there is still more.  She is as good as anyone we have brought in at this point in her career, and we will learn together."

"I want to see how the build-up goes," said Cardin.  "The coaches do whatever they can for the individual athletes, they make it enjoyable and help you to succeed.  They are aligned to our individual goals and hopefully make dreams happen."

PATH TO THE PROS

Cardin said she built up her mileage and workouts during the pandemic.

"In those early days of the pandemic, I was secluded and alone, and teaching online just a few hours a day, and I wanted to see what I could really do with running and at home workouts," said Cardin.  "I started running more than ever, doing 10-15 miles in the morning, and a three or four-mile shakeout run in the afternoon.  I was running more than ever and it allowed me to see how much I could do and how much rest did I really need."

Cardin said she peaked at about 120 miles in one week.  She had done some running with the Greater Boston Track Club, but said the burden of the commute while teaching and training was getting "to be a lot," and that as she found she had moved to a different level of competition she sought out a personal coach.

It turned out Jessie didn't have to look far, as she connected with Providence College women's track and field coach Steph Reilly, herself an Olympic competitor for Ireland in the 3000 steeplechase, who coincidentally lived down the street from Jessie's parents.

"I'd actually babysat her boys when they were younger," said Cardin, a native of Sutton, Mass..  "I reached out to her, and she was very positive and adamant, I really clicked with her and she understood my personality."

Before working with Reilly, Cardin said she was going off 'bits and pieces' from her detailed training logs, many of the workouts she had done at Westfield State under the guidance of now-retired head coach Bill Devine.

Reilly's program added even more structure to Cardin's detailed routine.

"The workouts she gave me were what I had been trying to piece together," said Cardin.  "I really wanted someone to say 'do this,' and Steph would explain exactly what and why I was doing it and how it would help."

After a strong 10k performance in the fall, it was suggested to Cardin that her time would make her eligible to compete among the elite women at the USATF half-marathon national championship.

"I was running with some runners I had been fan-girling over for years," said Cardin.

FROM WESTFIELD STATE TO THE PROS

Cardin is presently the only runner from an NCAA Division III school who is part of the Hansons Brooks team.

"When I announced that I had signed on Instagram, I had so many Division III runners reach out and tell me that this gives them hope," said Cardin. "Competing at a Division III institution, sometimes the athletes are overlooked [on the national level], but it doesn't matter what program you come from, it doesn't matter your background."

"Westfield State was perfect for me," said Cardin.  "It let me pursue both teaching and running at the same time.  I talk about Westfield all the time.  I miss seeing it, and my teammates and coaches at Westfield were instrumental in getting me where I am today."

"One of the first people I told was coach Devine," she said. "I carried all of those things on all of my runs, and how much I love doing it is attributed to Westfield."

"I was extremely happy for her," said Devine about learning Cardin had signed.  "She's been going in the right direction, and she hasn't had any significant injuries which is really a key to success."

"We've had a few Division III athletes in the past," said Hanson. "In our sport, I find that they may not have run as fast of times as some Division I runners, but the D3 runners have really learned how to race, to prepare for a big meet.   Some of the DI runners may run fast, but just 'get on the train' in the pack and never learn to win or compete.   Some of these things don't need to be taught to the top Division III athletes."

"We certainly don't look past the Division 3 athletes just because of the Division," he added.

Cardin earned a slew of awards in her tenure at Westfield, where she was a four-time conference champion, a CoSIDA Google Cloud Academic All-American, the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference's NCAA Woman of the Year nominee and it's Female Scholar Athlete of the Year in 2018, along with the school's John Kurty Award as the top four-year athlete in her class.

ABOUT HANSONS BROOKS

Based in Michigan, the Hanson brothers founded the "Original Distance Project" in 1999, later adding Brooks Running as a title sponsor.  As part of their program, team runners are housed in several houses while training in Rochester Hills and Florida.  

The program is 'for runners coming out of college who have demonstrated the ability and wish to continue running, but haven't quite advanced to the next level. The Olympics are the ultimate focus for our runners, but more importantly, all the runners here are taking part in this program to see how fast they can become. Everything here focuses around maximizing time to train. Our lifestyle is most accurately described as being like college only we don't have classes or homework,' according to the Hansons Books team website.

"The phrase 'Distance Project' was never used before we did," said Kevin. "It was actually my brother Keith's term.  We were trying to see if it could happen, and we are proud of that.    In 1999 we brought back the idea of group training, and U.S. distance running is in a different place now and we are proud of that."

"We don't start with just anyone," said Hanson.  "We're looking for 10k, road, track, cross country runners.  They are like-minded people and they run the same events and help make each other better.   A 1,500-meter runner has a different mindset than a 10k runner.  We have a lot of different athletes on the team, but they are all of a similar type."

Cardin has not set a timeline beyond her current training cycle with her sights on the Olympic Trials, but noted that many runners have had long-term affiliations with Hansons-Brooks, going through life changes and returning from injuries.

"The women's American Marathon record was set by a woman who was 37 years old [Keira D'Amato in January of 2022, 2:19:12]," said Hanson.  "Men typically peak around 32 to 34, women at 35 or 36, and part of our program is how do we get a 23-year old runner to 36; without having to live on food stamps or have a full time job, so they can put in the work to train. And that's where some of our top performers like [2018 Boston Marathon Champion] Des Linden and [2008 U.S. Olympic Marathoner] Brian Sell have come from."

"It's a brilliant opportunity for Jessie to invest in her talent and make a run at representing the United States," said current Owls cross country coach Marlee Berg.  "We will continue to follow her journey and will be rooting for her along the way.  It's a special chapter for her and I'm looking forward to seeing her hard work and drive pay off."

 Release courtesy of Westfield State Sports Information