The night before every race, track runner Ellie Barada eats salmon with rice for dinner. That gives her carbohydrates, iron and protein.
Four hours before a meet, she has oatmeal and a banana. Two hours before, a granola bar and apple sauce. And one hour before, she eats some pretzels and honey.
She followed the same schedule before racing in the final of the 800 meters at the USA Track and Field Under 20 Outdoor Championships earlier this month. She finished second, running a personal best of 2:02.72. She is one of two athletes from that race who will go on to the U20 World Championships in August in Eugene, Ore.
“I wanted to put myself in a really good position, that's what I was most nervous about, was just getting good position,” she said, “because every single girl in that race is really good, and I feel like I'm not necessarily used to a race where everybody's really good.”
With minimal competition at her level in high school, the national and international races push her to run faster.
“Each 800 I was running was kind of me going into it, knowing I was just going to have to push myself all alone, which sometimes gets difficult,” she said. “So, I was just excited to you know how people that were going to push me and pull me along.”
After the world championships, Barada will continue her career at the University of North Carolina. She said making the national team has been a goal of hers all season. Aside from running her last high school season, she also trained with male freshman and sophomore high school runners to help push her in practice.
“It's like, kind of been in the back of my head since the beginning of the season to try to make the U20 world team,” she said. “So, just knowing that it's something that I've been working towards, it's really cool to get to do that.”
Barada has about eight weeks to train before competing in the world championships. She’s planning one more race and time trial before then.
“It's kind of like my first taste of international racing, which is hopefully something that I could get into in my future,” she said. “I'm very grateful for the opportunity to be able to be in races like that.”
