The Supersonic Greyduck

Name: Jamie Andersen

Grade: Junior

Height: 5’ 11”

Hair Color: Blond

Eye Color: Green

Date of Birth: 01/05/2007

1. How did you get into running?

I used to go and run for twenty minutes at the YMCA with my dad when I was in middle school and before COVID, but really not much. It was more something I just knew I wanted to try out. When I got to Stuy, I went to preseason cross country practice in August extremely out of shape, and I have been on the team every season since.

2. What’s your favorite track memory?

My favorite memory has to be from a few weeks ago at the City Championships in the 1 mile. I came in ranked around seventh in the city I believe, but the way the race went, I ended up having an opportunity to get on the podium if I closed out the race strong and I managed to squeak out a photo-finish victory over two excellent guys from Hunter. I ran a seven-second personal best to become city champion, qualified for the state championship meet, and the national championship meet, and was getting congratulated by just about everyone there… for about fifteen minutes. Then I heard the officials had decided to disqualify me because I stumbled at the line and bumped into one of my competitors, meaning I lost all the accolades! I was pretty mad, but the confidence I got from that race is not shaken at all. 

3. What’s the hardest part about running?

The hardest part for me at this point is just about being consistent with my sleep, training, and the weekly mileage count. I have been able to be really consistent this past winter with running around 40 to 45 miles per week without a super low week in that stretch, but I still struggle to get even close to a consistent eight hours of sleep every night. Sleep is supposedly the most important thing you can do as a runner besides running, so if I can manage that this spring I will be very happy.

4. What’s one goal that you have both for yourself and the school?

If all goes according to plan, we could be heading into the spring season with four guys all running top ten times in Stuy history in the mile, making this probably the fastest the distance program has ever been and our team national caliber for sure. I think all of us are excited just to see how fast we can go individually, but more importantly in relays, because not too many teams in the country have four really strong guys on the same team. If we end up going to huge meets like Penn Relays and New Balance Nationals, I’m really excited to see how we rank nationally and maybe we can bring All American honors back to Stuy.

5. What are your plans for running in the future?

This upcoming spring season is all about running the fastest I can to have race times to show to college coaches. I am really just now becoming competitive for some of the schools on my list and if I can race well this spring, I will hopefully have some options to continue my career both athletically and academically. Running in college has been a huge goal (probably my biggest goal actually) for me I think since the beginning of sophomore year and I am closing in on the most important parts of that process.

Favorite Teammate:

I have to say Raphi Ramot—he is one of the funniest people I know and really pushes me in practice and races to be better, but also can drop some wisdom out of nowhere that sticks with me. I have never been more excited to see how far Raphi and I can go the rest of this year and next year and how competitive we can be within the state.

Pre-meet Ritual:

This year at least, I have to give it to a friendly competition between me and fellow captain Rayan Capanu. The day before all our races, Rayan and I always race the forty-meter sprint-strides we do at the end of our shakeout run. Maybe I'm superstitious, but it’s always the days that Rayan beats me by a good amount that I race well the following day. He definitely has the better record in those strides over me this year.

Post-Race Meal:

After cross country races we would always go to a restaurant called Community up near Columbia and I have some great memories of funny conversations and celebrations like after we won the Boroughs, or qualified for the States by getting third at Cities.

Favorite Running Shoes:

Right now I have been loving the Nike Vapor Fly 2s. I think they are designed for racing marathons, but we all bought them this year, and they make running workouts so much easier effort wise and save my legs from being super banged up after a hard effort. 

Best Running Song:

Last year I used to play “Armed and Dangerous” by King Von on repeat before a race, which I admit is a little crazy, but I was really locked in to race fast. Now I like “New Blue Sun” by André 3000 or something else just to cut the tension of race day and really relax before we have to run.