The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
Rhiannon Johns' Drive To Excel Sets Her Apart
5/23/2013 12:00:00 AM | Women's Track & Field
May 23, 2013
Driven. Focused. Determined.
Those three qualities are part of the makeup of UAB distance runner extraordinaire Rhiannon Johns.
Oh, and dedicated is certainly a characteristic as well. How else could she have run more than 21,000 miles since she arrived at UAB? How far can 21,000 miles get you? Try going from the east coast of the U.S. to the west coast. Nearly 10 times!
And because she possesses those characteristics, when she runs her last race for the Blazers at some point in the near future, Johns will depart as one of the most accomplished student-athletes in school history.
All-American on the track. Academic All-American in the classroom. The native of Sault Ste. Marie, Canada can list both of those on her resume.
Johns holds UAB outdoor records in the 5,000 and 10,000 meters, and the indoor mark in the 5k. She has captured of Conference USA titles in the 10,000 and qualified for the NCAA Nationals two years ago in the 5,000. The list of achievements goes on and on.
She hopes to add to her long list of athletic achievements starting this week when she joins seven UAB teammates at the NCAA East Regional Preliminary meet in Greensboro, N.C. Johns has qualified in both the 5,000 and 10,000 and will be looking to move on the Nationals in Eugene, Ore. next month.
But as successful as she has been on the track, that performance has only been exceeded academically. She graduated last May with a nearly perfect record in earning her math degree and is now in graduate school.
"Rhi Johns has been the epitome of a student-athlete while she's been here at UAB," said Blazers' head coach Kurt Thomas. "What she has accomplished on and off the track is just tremendous, and a tribute to her as a person and her own hard work. We see student-athletes come in every year and it takes time to balance the two roles of student and athlete. Several do well at both, but then some, like Rhi excel at both, every day, not every now and then."
Johns only knows one way to go about her business and the attribute has contributed largely to her success. "If I'm going to do something, I'm going to do everything I can to do well at it," she said. "Sometimes that means having a ridiculous schedule and not being able to do some social things because you have other stuff to get done. But I think in the long run, it's way more rewarding to be successful in what you're putting so much energy into."
It was certainly not a foregone conclusion that Johns would eventually become the distance runner that she is. In fact, she was not a highly-recruited student-athlete when she was wrapping up her high school career in Canada. She says it's "mind-blowing to think of where I was when I came out of high school as to where I am now."
How did she arrive at UAB from a Canadian town located five hours north of Detroit? "I email people," she said. "I found a list of good academic, Division I schools and I put a little profile together. I emailed schools and said, "Hey, I want to come to the States and run. The thing that really did help me was I had a 32 ACT score, so that was a huge things that helped me get here.
"I think about coming out of high school, and I think should not have gotten the scholarship that I did," she said. "As an international kid, I was not fast. I think I had the slowest PRs of our recruiting class that year. But luckily, everything just started to work out."
When she arrived at UAB, Johns found that her workload was in some ways lighter than what she had experienced in high school. "I actually found that it was a bit of a break when I came to college," she said. "In high school, I ran track, cross country, I was the yearbook editor, I was in the band (she played the saxophone) and I played badminton. I did everything. When I got here, it was like, all I have to do is do math and run."
Johns has made the most of her college career and relishes the opportunities she has had while at UAB. "As far as the highlights since I have been here, I would say the life experiences of getting to go to California, to get to travel to all these places and to run against really fast people," she said. "Other than being able to do that in a collegiate setting, I don't know how else you would do all that. I'm grateful for that whenever I think about it. It's such an incredible thing to get to do."
One thing Johns has had to face is training under three different distance coaches since she's been at UAB. She was recruited by then-head coach Ray Stanfield, who also was the Blazers' distance coach. Then, Blake Boldon followed as her distance coach and for the past two years, Tony Houchin.
To many that would have been an obstacle, but Thomas gives Johns a lot of credit for how she has been able to adapt to each of her coaches.
Rhi is unique because she has had three different coaches during her time here," Thomas said. "She came in and adapted to Coach Stanfield's training and did well as a freshman. Then Coach Boldon came the next year and Rhi adapted to another coach's training. And she got better. Then 14 months later, Coach Houchin came in, and she again had to adapt to a new training philosophy, and she excelled again. They're all good coaches, but that speaks to her ability to adapt and continue to get better."
Johns has adapted to Houchin's coaching so well and improved at such a level that she is planning to continue to train under him the next year after her eligibility at UAB is completed while she works toward finishing her Masters degree.
Thomas says that Johns' determination to succeed is something he admires as a coach. "But even more so, her toughness is very impressive," he said. "Most people can't endure anything for the time that she has to focus for training every day. She simply wants to be really good, run fast, and is willing to do what it takes to be better, and can handle that pain no matter what. She is truly special."
Her senior year has been another success for Johns as she's stayed healthy and has posted personal bests in both the 5,000 and 10,000 meters this spring. One of her few disappointments came at the Conference USA meet earlier this month when she finished runner-up in both of her specialty events, each by the narrowest of margins to UTEP All-American Risper Kimaiyo (two seconds in the 10k and one second difference in the 5k).
"As frustrating as it was to come in second twice, I was happy with how I ran," she said. "I don't think there was much else I could have done. A week later, I looked back and realized those two races made me better.
"In terms of results, I can always find positives in results, but at the same time, it's really hard to be satisfied in running because there's always somewhere you can be faster," Johns said. "I ran 16:01 (in the 5k) at Mt. SAC and I'm the kind of person that's going to be happy because it was such a huge PR, but then I look at that 1.24 seconds that kept me from breaking 16 minutes and it was driving me crazy. Rationally, it's just 1.24 seconds, so who cares? But at the same time, it's about breaking a certain barrier that you want to get under."
It's that competitive nature that has propelled Johns to elite status among collegiate distance runners.
Johns says she will definitely miss her teammates when she wraps up her UAB career. "I've seen a lot different team dynamics since I've been here, too, being here so long," she said. "I think where we are right now is the best it's ever been. I love my teammates, I love having people to run with. We have a lot of good people who can run really fast right now and it's mutually beneficial for practice and everything else."
Down the road, she plans to utilize her degrees and become an actuary. But she's not ready to put the spikes away just yet. This summer, she will run at the Canadian Nationals meet for the first time in her career and her excitement for that opportunity is apparent. Johns also is optimistic of landing a spot on the Canadian World University Games team.
But before that, she will wear the UAB colors in the same way she has for the last five years, beginning first at NCAA Regionals this weekend and hopefully, at the Nationals at Eugene in June.
