May 25, 2011
Notre Dame middle distance runner Jack Howard has concluded the academic portion of his Notre Dame career but still has some unfinished business on the track. The All-American and BIG EAST champion will participate in the 800-meter run at the NCAA East Regionals being held this week – May 26-29 – at the University of Indiana in Bloomington. Howard qualified for the NCAA Regionals by winning the BIG EAST championship in the 800 with a time of 1:48.24 on May 8, helping the Irish to a second-place finish. He also was a member of the 4X800 relay team that won that event in a time of 7:24.91. The Libertyville, Illinois resident graduated from Notre Dame in 2010 with a degree in mechanical engineering and was a graduate student during 2010-11. He is no stranger to the NCAA Championships as ran in the 2010 regionals in the 800 as a senior. Howard won All-American honors in the 2010 NCAA Indoor championships, when he finished seventh in the 800 with a time of 1:49.48 in March of 2010. This past March, he took All-American honors for the second time as he was part of Notre Dame’s distance medley relay that finished fourth with a time of 9:30.16. Earlier this spring, und.com’s Maura Jones had a chance to talk to Howard about Notre Dame track and his career with the Irish.
When do you remember realizing that you had a gift for running? It was probably sometime in high school. I had been running track since I was in sixth grade, and you learn during recess that you’re one of the faster people. In high school I actually started to get serious about it and realized I could actually have some success with it.
What is your earliest memory of running competitively? I can remember doing summer track in sixth grade and running sprints, 100 and 200. I didn’t really know what I was doing, just going out there and running.
What is your favorite part of track? I like the meets and the competition. I would say the relays are fun because you get to do something with four people. It gives it a little bit more of a team atmosphere.
How did you come to run at Notre Dame? I knew coming into college that I wanted to run, but I also wanted to go to a school with really good academics. Notre Dame sort of had everything. It had really good academics, gave me an opportunity to run, good spirit, good size, just everything, so it was just the perfect fit.
Can you indentify what the most difficult part of racing middle distance is? The most difficult part would probably be bringing together both long distance training and short distance training. You have to be able to bring together longer distance running and sprinting to run a good middle distance race.
What has been the best place you have traveled for track? We were in Los Angeles earlier this spring, it was eighty-degree weather, we were out there for five days, and it was sunny and beautiful. As far as environment goes, it’s hard to beat California. I also love the Drake Relays. That meet is in Iowa, but the meet has such a great atmosphere. Also the Armory in New York is an indoor track, and we’ve had Big East there three of the past four years.
Out of all of the races that you have run, which race are you most proud of? At indoor nationals this year we ran a distance medley relay. I ran the 800 leg on that relay- it goes 1200, 400, 800, mile. It was nationals, a really big stage, and twelve of the best teams in the country that make the meet. When I got the baton, we were in eleventh place, I think, and when I handed it off to Jeremy (Rae) for the mile we were in fourth. It was one of my fastest splits ever. It was great just to be able to do that on such a big stage, with the stakes so high. We ended up getting fourth, and we were pretty happy with that.
What is your favorite track memory? There are a lot. One of my favorites would probably be from outdoor Big East from two years ago at Villanova. It’s a two-day meet, and going into the second day we were 60 or 70 points behind Louisville, which is a lot for a track meet. They had one hundred-some points and we had thirty-some points and were in second place. You never hear of that big of a lead especially not going into the second day of a meet. As the day went on we just kept getting more and more points and they weren’t scoring a lot. By the end we were down by three or four points, and there was still a jumping event going on. Eric Quick ended up beating out one of the Louisville guys, and long story short, we ended up winning by a half of a point. They were pretty mad after that, but to win by so close of a margin to get another Big East title was really cool.
How do you hope to achieve your goals this year? Coming in this year my goals were kind of centered on the big meets- Big East, nationals, Drake- and running well at those meets. My goals weren’t really centered on getting any specific times, the thought process being that if I make it to regionals and nationals and run well at Drake and Big East, the times will come. As far as what I’m doing to accomplish these goals, I’m just trying to stay consistent. That’s really all you can do. The work has been put in the past five years really. I’m just trying to stay healthy, stay consistent by training, and keep working hard.
What do you study at Notre Dame? I graduated last year with my degree in mechanical engineering. This year I am called an unclassified graduate student, a non-degree seeking graduate student. I’m taking undergraduate business classes and courses I didn’t get to take but am interested in and that will help me in the future. I’m taking intro to accounting, finance, business law- that sort of thing. It’s been pretty interesting. It’s nice because I only have nine credits this semester, but I’m still getting something out of it.
What dorm were you in and what was the best thing about it? I lived in Dillon for three years. Just the culture of the dorm and all of the people are really great. I wasn’t involved with the dorm too much because I was really busy and away most of the weekends.
What is something that is unique about you that most people wouldn’t know? I went backpacking through Europe for three weeks over the summer with some of my friends who graduated. We went all over. We went through Spain, made our way through Italy, Eastern Europe, Germany, France, ended up in Dublin and Amsterdam- all of those places. It was a ton of work. We were constantly getting up early to catch a train and find a hostel that was cheap and safe. We got to see a lot of cool things and it was a really cool experience.
What is your favorite place on campus? I love the dining hall because you can just hangout with your friends for an unlimited amount of time, and there is a lot of food. Maybe it’s not the best food, but there’s a lot of food. It’s a good place to just hangout.
When have you felt happiest in the past five years at Notre Dame? I’ve probably been happiest just when all of my friends have been around. Last year was a really fun year because I lived with my best friends in a house. Whenever we got to hangout with each other, not even necessarily doing anything special, but just enjoy each other’s company was the best. That might have been on a track trip, but other times we’d just be hanging out in the living room.
Where are you from and what do you miss most about home? I’m from Libertyville, Illinois, which is a suburb thirty minutes north of Chicago. I miss my high school friends the most. I grew up in Texas, so I probably miss the weather there most. I had only lived in Libertyville for two years, but my high school friends were really close. I have really great friends here too, though.
In what ways have you grown since coming to Notre Dame? I think I’ve just become more mature and gotten smarter in terms of everything like academics, work, and in track. I’ve learned what I can and can’t do and my limits as far as injuries. I would say it’s just been overall maturity.
Have you had any really great or interesting experiences at Notre Dame? One thing that sticks out is that the one time when they were doing construction on the Basilica they had scaffolding all around it, and I came to visit one of my friends who was staying here over the summer. We climbed Stepan, and then were like “why don’t we climb the Basilica?” We ended up making it up to the clock tower, but once we got there, there were no rails on the side of the scaffolding so we decided to cool it there. It was pretty cool to be up that high and see all of campus. That was an amazing experience.
For what would you like to be remembered? I’d like to be remembered as a hard worker, that the success that I’ve had in any area has been from hard work and dedication. I’d like to be remembered as a good role model.
What is something you want to do before you graduate? There isn’t anything too specific. I want to finish out my last season on a high note, and enjoy the last two months that I have here. I’d like to win Big East, both the individual 800 title and the team title. The number one thing on my mind is to make it to nationals. I’ve never been there before, so if I could do that it would be great.
Do you plan to continue running competitively after graduation? I’m still a little undecided at this point. I don’t think that I will run at the same level that I am running at now. I’m going to take some time off. I’ll be working so it’ll be a little bit different. I can see myself eventually doing some road races though. A lot of it also depends on how this season ends up. If I’m able to improve a lot in these next few months and end the season with some really fast times, it might be worth it to keep going at least until next year when the Olympics are. I’d give it a shot, but if I’m not doing track running I’ll just stick to casual running.
What are your plans for after graduation? I currently have a job in Washington, D.C. with a company called Technomics that does weapons cost analysis for the Department of Defense. It’s kind of engineering, a lot of math, and a little business, which I like. I didn’t want to go into a strictly design engineering role, so this is also math and business related. I’m excited to move to DC because I hear it’s a really cool city. I start there in mid-July.