By LARRY MAIER
Baldwin star excels in X-country, track, classroom
Last summer, Nicole Yokum spent some time finding herself. Her family frequently vacations in Finland, visiting their mother Seija's relatives. But for much of this trip, Nicole was alone. She took a seminar on Finnish language and culture and spent a month with a group of students in a rural section of Finland. For that month and in that place, life was laid back, quiet, and completely natural.
"I really found myself there," recalled Nicole, a senior at Baldwin High School, during a recent interview. "Being away from the fast pace of New York and Baldwin. I was comfortable there."
Finding herself alone in the woods is nothing new for Nicole. In recent years she has spent a lot of time there, far ahead of the pack at high school cross-country races.
Nicole is the two-time defending Nassau Class A Cross-Country Champion. On Nov. 19, she competed in the state Federation meet in Wappingers Falls, after placing 16th in the state Championship meet in Utica a week earlier. Nicole also excels on the track, having won outdoor and indoor county championships at both 1500 and 3000 meters. But cross-country is her first love.
The "loneliness of the long distance runner" syndrome seems to suit Nicole. During the Fall season, Baldwin was unable to field a full girl's cross-country team, so Nicole often trained alone.
"I think that's what makes running the hardest sport there is," mused Nicole about the solitary nature of the sport. "My hardest competitor is myself and I enjoy that."
In fact, her favorite workout is her Sunday "long run" which, most of the time, she completes alone.
What makes Nicole such a strong runner? It's a combination of things really. It starts with her frame. Nicole stands 5 foot 4 inches tall and weighs 105 pounds. She appears to have been built for distance running.
And there is certainly some natural ability involved. Nicole competed in her first 10K, a "mini-marathon" she ran with her mother in Central Park, when she was in fourth grade. She remembers doing "pretty well for someone my size", completing the race in about an hour. The next year she returned and ran even faster. She has been running faster ever since.
But Nicole's greatest gifts are her true love of running and the physical and mental toughness that allow her to separate herself from the pack time and time again.
A star is born
In the 7th grade Nicole joined the track team. "It was something to do after school," Nicole recalled. "But then I got hooked. They figured out pretty quickly that I was a distance runner."
Middle school practice wasn't all that challenging for Nicole and she found herself running after practice and on weekends. Eventually, her growing love of running forced her to give up her other favorite sport, basketball.
"I'd run 6 miles after school and then go to a basketball game that night," laughed Nicole. "It was too much."
For Nicole, running is more than just racing. It helps define who she is. "I'm not really sure what it is, I just love running," said Nicole. "There's a whole body effect - something it does to my mind. I run for me. I can have a really bad day and still have my run and feel better."
The right stuff
A week before last year's Nassau County X-C Championships, Nicole felt a pull in her right hamstring. She continued to practice that week, trying to ignore the growing tightness in her leg and wondering if she would be able to run at the championship meet. Nicole not only ran, she won. Later, she had to be carried to the victory stand to receive her championship award. "I didn't know whether I was doing the right thing," recalled Nicole about her decision to run in the meet. "I was really crazy to do that."
But Nicole's toughness goes beyond her ability to endure physical pain. Living the life of a top distance runner is not easy for a 17-year-old high school senior. Her routine can be tedious; school, practice, dinner, homework, sleep, repeat. She misses out on a lot, like Friday night parties and late night phone calls with her friends.
"Being a committed distance runner makes you a bit of an oddball," said Nicole, aware of the fact that her structured lifestyle is a lot different than that of most of her classmates, "If I want to do well at running, I just can't do those things and I know it."
By the way, Nicole's commitment to excellence has carried over into the classroom as well. She is 5th in her class and carries a 4.0 GPA while taking honors classes. She was recently named as one of eight female student/athletes selected from all Nassau County high schools to represent the county at the Women's Sports Foundation annual awards dinner.
"I have made a lot of sacrifices because this is what I love to do and it is more important to me than other things," said Nicole, who hopes to attend Dartmouth College in the Fall. "I don't feel I should hold myself back. If people think I'm crazy than that's the way it is."
