Maple Grove runner Dickerson finds success one mile at a time

As summer faded to fall during Mitchell Dickerson's formative years, he traded track spikes for a football helmet.

Three years ago, Dickerson made another transition, this time dropping dreams of football glory for a more realistic shot at distance-running success.

Now a senior at Maple Grove, Dickerson has made his switch look astute. He is a two-time Class 2A state cross-country meet qualifier. He earned all-state honors by placing 15th overall last fall in a personal best time of 16 minutes, 1.8 seconds.

He finished just 10 seconds out of the top 10. The near miss is serving as a jumping-off point for his efforts this season. He will try to move his name even higher among the ranks of a heralded senior class.

Dickerson recently spoke with Star Tribune reporter David La Vaque about making the change from football player to cross-country runner, putting it all together at the state meet last season and what it will take to go ever faster.

Q: How did you find your way into cross-country running?

A: My dad played football and ran track in high school. So I played football and he put me in the Track Minnesota Elite club. I ran with them for four summers and I went to nationals. I tried sprinting. I was fast but not that fast. So I switched to distance and I did a lot better than I thought I would. I played football right up until a few days before our first practices freshman year. I didn't know how much I'd play on the football team, but I knew I could have success in cross-country. It was one of the best decisions of my life.

A: I got some of that early on. But then they understood that because I'm better at distance running that I had a chance to excel. Actually, I recently had a friend ask me if he could come to cross-country practice and jog with me. He thought that's all we did. What people miss about running is that it's a mind game. Yeah, it's not a contact sport, but you've got to push yourself and that's not easy. You don't have 10 other guys on the field with you. And if you don't try your hardest every day, it's going to show in a race.

Q: You were about to set a personal-best time last year at the state meet. What went so well?

A: Having teammates at Maple Grove around the same speed helped get me in the mind-set to always go hard every day. At the state race there are 10 to 20 guys around and you're pushing them while they're pushing you.

Q: You did your best at state and you finished just 10 seconds out of the top 10. How did that help you set goals for this year?

A: I looked at the other 14 guys ahead of me and who would be back, and I thought about what I have to do to be around them and beat them.

A: I take each race as its own. I assess each mile within a race and go from there. I'd love to get top-10 or top-five but once I get into a race, I'm going for the other runners, not times.

Q: How did you approach your offseason training relative to your goals?

A: This summer I was mostly on my own. And this may sound weird, but every step I'd try to accelerate because it's easy to slow down.