Elise Dykstra
Henry Hansen crosses the finish line at the Wartburg cross country course.
Henry Hansen, a junior on the cross country team, strives to compete and break records. Whether it is childhood board games or cross country practice, Hansen wants to win.
Hansen’s personal record in the 5k is 16:05, and he aims to break 15:40 this year. Hansen hopes to set the school record his senior year, which was previously set in 2002 by Ryan McCurran at 15:21.
Hansen also participates in a number of activities outside of cross country including swim, track, band, choir, and theater. No matter what he does, Hansen is always competing.
The following interview has been edited and condensed.
What are your goals this season? I want to be a top 30 finisher at state and get my time under 15:40.
What has your time been so far? My best time has been 16.05 at Ames.
What have you been doing to prepare? Just making sure to get fully recovered in between workouts and having high effort in practice. I’ve been eating better. Making sure to get protein in. Getting better sleep at night.
Do you have anyone you consider a role model to you to do this? TK [cross country coach Tyler Ketelsen]
Is there anyone in your family you look up to as a role model? Occasionally, when [my sister] Janae is around, she buys me food and forces me to eat it.
You’re very competitive. Very competitive. With everything.
Is there anything you do not competitively? No, subconsciously, everything’s competitive. Board games as a child. Even choir.
Have you ever experienced the downsides of that high competition? No. No, it’s always good. Yeah, I like to run next to someone and chase them down. Sometimes you get upset after a meet when you don’t meet your goal. I just use it as fuel for the next meet. So then I show more effort at practice because I don’t want to have to do bad again.
So what’s going through your head when you’re out there on the last mile, it’s a hot day, how do you motivate yourself? I’m trying not to mentally take myself out of the race. Even if I’m running a slower time because it’s hot, I just, even if I’m not running my best time and I know that, I just still show high effort because I know that’s going to help me prepare for my next race.
When the team practiced in Colorado, you were sick, and you still did those hill workouts. Yeah. Because if you’re sick, you can still do the workouts because it’s not like you’re physically injured. So it’s going to help you. Sometimes you’ve got to push through the pain to see progress.