Joining The Pack: Rainsberger And Burdon Help Huskies Build
November 18, 2019 | Cross Country
It has still been less than a year and a half since Katie Rainsberger and Lilli Burdon first put on purple. If it seems longer, it’s only because the two have accomplished so much in a short amount of time, while at the center of a major transition for Washington track and cross country. Now as the seniors run toward their final cross country race together they are hoping to help lead the Huskies back to the podium for the first time since 2011.
Teammates since the fall of 2016 at Oregon, Burdon and Rainsberger came to Washington when Maurica and Andy Powell were hired away from Eugene to lead the Huskies. With all the successes the two had achieved running for Maurica and the relationship they had formed with the Powells, it wasn’t a matter of if but how Burdon and Rainsberger could make the move as well.
“When I was told that I had the option to come with them if that was something I wanted to pursue, I immediately thought well I’m going to U-Dub!” Burdon says. “I liked Seattle, I liked the Dempsey, I had a really fun indoor season, and we always were excited to come up to Seattle. I trusted Maurica and Andy and I knew they wanted the best for me athletically and as a person, which I think is pretty hard to come by in the NCAA.”
While on the GoHuskies Podcast with Tony Castricone, Rainsberger recounted her thought process, which was equally as quick as Burdon’s.
“I had this … understanding with (Maurica) that went beyond how I competed as an athlete. She cared about me as a person,” said Rainsberger. “When I got hurt and I wasn’t putting points on the board, every day: ‘Katie, how are you?’ And that meant so much to me. To know I was cared about as a person and not just points on the board, it was huge. She knows me, from how I walk in the door, how I’m feeling that day. … When she said ‘all right I’m going to Washington,’ it wasn’t a matter of ‘should I go?’ It was ‘how can I go? What are the steps I have to take to get there?’”
So the duo, both already NCAA Champions (Katie on the 2016 cross country team, Lilli on the 2018 distance medley relay) and with 12 combined All-America honors between them, headed north to Seattle and began to help laying the groundwork for a new team culture and chemistry.
While they knew what to expect from their coaches, Burdon and Rainsberger were both a little unsure what to expect coming into a new team environment.
But for Burdon, “the transition was everything I could have hoped for.”
“I was a little nervous at first because I didn’t want to feel like I was invading a team or anything, but everyone was so welcoming and I made some really good friends last year, like Emily Hamlin and Izzi Batt-Doyle,” Burdon says. “Everyone was so encouraging, and they were excited about the change, too, and wanted to learn from us a little bit.”
Rainsberger credits Burdon with making the transition easier for her, at UW, or in just about any social situation.
“Lilli is so social and friendly and kind that she just draws people to her. She can go into a room and laugh and people just want to know her. To come to a new place halfway through your college experience, to have that sort of bubbly, magnetic pull, she just flourishes in those environments, and for me she’s been helpful because she helps me make new friends,” Rainsberger laughs. “You could put Lilli anywhere and she would do well because she’s got grit and determination but she’s also got that social aspect and when you put them together it’s a powerful personality.”
Cross country is trying to be as comfortable as you can in discomfort. That’s part of the journey. It’s the same with life, there’s highs and lows and with running they really take those to extremes.Lilli Burdon
While their impact on the team culture was surely significant, the contribution they made on race day in the fall of 2018 was easier to quantify. It was huge.
What was on paper going to be a very young Husky squad suddenly had a pair of All-Americans to shore up the lineup. Rainsberger led the Huskies at every race en route to a 19th-place finish at nationals. Burdon got a late start, working her way into shape late in the season until she put it all together with a 33rd-place finish at NCAAs to earn another All-America honor and help the Huskies place ninth in the final team standings, well above their ranking coming in.
“I had only five weeks of running before opening up at Pac-12s,” says Burdon, “so that was really, really hard, and then same for Regionals. But I was just working hard every day and I just tried to think that each time I raced I was just resetting. I was ignoring the result before.
“Having my teammates in the races and just truly wanting to do my best for my team was another big thing. They definitely helped carry me through, in those tough workouts, when I was grinding and the days were running out. I was definitely proud of my approach that each race I just tried my best, and I was proud that I could contribute to the team at Nationals.”
One year later, and Rainsberger and Burdon continue to operate at a high level, but the growth of their teammates such as Allie Schadler, Shona McCulloch, and Camila David-Smith plus the skill of new additions like Mel Smart and Haley Herberg, has helped the Huskies to a No. 4 national ranking, a big win at the Pre-National Invitational, and UW’s best score at the Pac-12 Championships in 10 years when they took second on Nov. 1.
“I know that Lilli and I have been working hard together to make sure that the underclassmen and newcomers feel welcomed and supported and they know that they can turn to their upperclassmen whenever they need to,” Rainsberger says. “It’s more trying to lead by example. We don’t have a captain. We’re just doing our best every day and helping out when we can and knowing that you have your teammates to share the load with is huge.”
Burdon is just enjoying being healthy and being part of this team, which she says is in a really good place.
“I’m really enjoying watching girls grow and myself grow throughout the season,” she says. “We’re all working really hard together collectively and I think we’re going to do something special. I’m really excited to be a part of it and I just want to contribute as much as I can for the team which has been my mindset every year but especially this year being my last in NCAA.”
Rainsberger and Burdon will have full track seasons to come, but there’s something special about the team component of cross, all together at the same distance for the same goal, that both will cherish in this final month.
“I love the team camaraderie, the atmosphere, the respect, the feeling that you’re doing something bigger than yourself, you’re doing it for a team, and that’s not always the case in running,” Raisnberger says. “There’s something gritty about cross country that not all other sports can understand. You know ‘I am literally pushing my body to its maximum capacity,’ and I know there are six other people on the course doing it with me and we’ve seen each other do it in practice and we know the not-so-awesome parts about each other, and the maybe-a-little-gross bits. I think that makes it so much more special, because we love each other at each other’s worst.”
The two have also both learned a lot about themselves in the last year and a half since coming to Seattle. Burdon earned All-America honors in cross and indoor track last year, but just when she felt she was getting back to top form, she had an injury to her sacrum that kept her from running outdoor track.
“I was excited and really enjoying running, and I put in so much work and invested so much time and energy and focus and then I just didn’t have the satisfaction of what we trained for, the fun and the thrill of going to race,” Burdon says. “Putting myself in competitive situations and proving to myself that I could do it.”
The first run back for Burdon was something of a turning point mentally, as she ran up at Whistler in Canada on a vacation, with her mother there to provide support. The elevation, the hills, and the time off made for a frustrating day’s work.
“I was just really grateful that I had my mom with me because she was very encouraging and kept me grounded and just accepting that it’s going to be hard and that is normal. Cross country is trying to be as comfortable as you can in discomfort. That’s part of the journey. It’s the same with life, there’s highs and lows and with running they really take those to extremes. It was a low, and that’s totally fine, and you can embrace that,” Burdon says.
“I could choose to feel sorry for myself and dwell on what happened or I could put it behind me and take away what I needed to and really focus on doing what’s best for myself and knowing that that will be enough and that I can do something really special at the end of this year outdoors. Just enjoying every day and training and being with my team.”
There’s something gritty about cross country that not all other sports can understand. You know ‘I am literally pushing my body to its maximum capacity,’ and I know there are six other people on the course doing it with me ... We love each other at each other’s worst.Katie Rainsberger
Rainsberger had dealt with an injury in her final track season at Oregon and her return to racing brought a new appreciation, but she admits she was overly focused on results during her 2018-19 season.
“Last year I thought there had to be a certain outcome or result and I was kind of getting wrapped up in that and this year I’m just going into each race as an opportunity to grow and be the best version of myself, and the outcome doesn’t matter. As long as I run as hard as Katie Rainsberger can run; and I think the whole team has kind of adopted that mindset. So going into championship season we’re not so focused on the result but we’re excited about what we can do.”
The move has also been fruitful for the pair in the classroom, where both have excelled in their new majors: Rainsberger in Medical Anthropology: Global Health and Human Evolutionary Biology, and Burdon in Psychology.
Rainsberger says she’s currently exploring ideas for her thesis and says she is “really interested in going on to do research in that field. I really like environmental physiology—how where you live and how you’ve been raised affects your phenotype. Basically just what kind of role your environment has on your physiology.”
Burdon shifted from Human Physiology at Oregon to Psychology at UW and says she “absolutely loves it.”
“I didn’t know what I would do with human phys because I didn’t want to do something in the medical field and it’s pretty specific, so I love Psychology and I think everything I’m learning applies to my life and I think it allows me to be more mindful,” Burdon says. “I want to be a sports psychologist which I’ve realized through studying Pyschology here. All the classes here have been really valuable and the professors are very engaging.”
When the two get to the starting line in Terre Haute at the NCAA Championships, everything they’ve been through together and learned about each other will boil down to the fact that they know the other will give the maximum.
“When we both line up,” says Rainsberger, “I know that she’s going to give everything that she has that day and there’s no soft ‘good luck’ but it’s like we look at each other and we know what has to be done.”
Burdon says the same about her teammate. “Katie always races with her heart and gives it her everything. She is a very passionate runner and a great leader on our team and role model for young aspiring athletes.”
Their paths will ultimately go in different directions, but not before another 6k together this Saturday. Whatever the result, the two will know they helped lay the foundation to build Washington back up into a national championship contender.
