Chanelle Price gets serious about cross country
Make no mistake... Easton senior Chanelle Price – who is the 3rd best outdoor prep 800 runner of all time – does not see herself as a cross country athlete. At least not long term. "Once this season is done, cross is done," declared the U.S. Junior World team, USATF 800 Finals Qualifier shortly after her 5th place finish in the Gettysburg Invitational. 
"When I get to college, they'll train me for the 800 all year round. I'll still do distance, but (for high school) it's just ten more races and I'm done. I'm counting down."
And so is her competition. With good reason.
Price has only been running cross country since her sophomore year. She had told her coaches in her freshman year that cross was just not for her. "But they sat me down and told me before my sophomore year that to get my (800) times faster, I'd need a base."
So she started running cross country.
"I won my first race, but I was just doing it for fun. It did put pressure on my back. I had just wanted to sit back in the middle of the pack and race." Well, winning that first meet changed Price's perspective, and her competitive nature took over.
She would go on to finish 16th at states and take home one of the coveted medals.
The result of the 2005 XC base? A 2:06.23 at USATF Juniors the following summer.
Junior year cross country saw a 3rd place finish at PIAA states, behind only Foot Locker finalist Neely Spence and Big Spring star Lara Crofford.
The result of another year of base? Well, if you don't know, you've been living under a rock. But we'll reel them off for you...
a 2:04.96 indoor after winning the mile that day. A 2:05.85 PIAA outdoor championship. That was followed by the incredible summer run of 2:04.24 (Island Games in NYC), 2:02.76 (Nike Outdoor), 2:02.38 (USATF Outdoor T&F Champs - with the pros and her current PR), and a closing 2:04.34 (IAAF World Youth).
Quite a year. And one she hasn't quite been able to assimilate. "I think about it (Nike Nationals, the Czech trip, running with the professionals) every night before I go to sleep. It's not going to sink in for a few more years. I'll have to go back and watch the tape."
Well, it was all real.
Price returned from her US and world travels at the beginning of August. And she was in need of some rest. Three weeks to be exact. Which placed her cross country training back a bit, and meant that coming into Gettysburg, she was only racing on a little under three weeks of distance training. And when we say distance, we mean about 15 to 20 miles a week. (Remember, she's an 800 runner). She had dipped under 19 minutes for 3rd place at Gettysburg in 2006, so her 19:25 5th place this year didn't exactly make her happy.
There's that uncoachable competitive nature again. But with Price, the temptation to do something too hard, too soon, is tempered by a world of experience, if not by patience. "I just can't take it out because these girls have so much mileage under them. But it is hard for me to be patient," Price adds.
The opening six minute pace was right where she was told it would be. And so was the 12 minutes for two miles. "And that's where I broke down. So that's what I have to work on," she continued. "I'm going from a 2-minute race to a 20-minute race and the mentality is different. It's hard for me to be patient, but by the time states comes around, I'll be ready."
Make no mistake. Price has begun her march toward what she believes is her destiny. To become the first high school girl to break two minutes in the 800. (Note: Currently PA has two of the top three individuals in the 800, with the 2:00.07 by Upper Dublin PA's Kim Gallagher and the incomparable Mary Decker ahead of her).
That march toward the 800 record – for the third year in a row – includes the painful hills and valleys of a cross country campaign. And for someone with the rare range of 200 meters to 3-plus miles, it's those 3 miles that she feels.
But this year, there's something else different about Price's approach.
"A coach put it to me this way... 'you're at a mark where it's the little things that are going to get you down to two minutes... the eating habits, the weightlifting, the cross country'."
And it's those little things that Price has taken to heart.
She is thinking about everything she eats. She is going to train harder than ever during cross country. She is weightlifting every day.
"I'm really serious about it this year. Because in the 800, I'm going to be going for that two minutes in every single meet. It's going to be a tough year, but it's going to come."
But ahead of the assault on two minutes, Price isn't just letting her final cross country season ever go without setting a big goal for the state championship meet. "I definitely want to try to win it this year."
And if you know Price, you know that is simply her growing confidence, her incredible work ethic, and her unwavering competitive nature showing through.
"Neely (defending champ Neely Spence) is going to be a tough, tough competitor. I know for me track is what I want to do and cross country is what she wants to do. She's going after this like I'm going after the track titles. It's going to be hard to overcome someone like that, but I definitely will try."
So, does Price see Foot Lockers in her future?
"No. No way. After states, I'm done."
