Former KXC Star JP Machemehl has some helpful hints

JP Machemehl was a freshman at Kempner the last time KXC made it to the UIL State Championships. The team placed sixth over all and were led by senior Jayme D’Agnolo. JP recently graduated from Texas A&M where he was a standout cross country runner and one of the team leaders. JP has been dominating the Houston road racing scene lately and took on his first triathlon a few weeks ago. JP has some words of encouragement for his successors on the regional championships this weekend. (JP is #1793 on the right of the pic)

KXC: When did you start running?

JP: I started running my sophomore year. Coach Spano got me to run. My sophomore year I ran my first two mile race in 14:30. I improved by a whole minute the next race and then by district I was placed on varsity. I was the seventh guy and I placed 16th and ran 17:10. Frank Gonzales won it in 14:58 but I think the course was three miles.

KXC: When was the first time you ran at regionals?

JP: The first time I ran was that year. It was at San Jacinto. I was the last runner for Kempner and placed 125th.

KXC: What were the team’s expectations going into regionals?

JP: Well, they lost D’Agnolo but they had Cody (Manuel), Frank (Gonzales) and John (Rainbolt-who was the state champion for 3200m in 2002) so they figured they had the same shot at going to state as they did the year before. They knew they could go to state. The goal for any cross country team is to have five people have a good race on the same day. Unfortunately everyone had a bad race on the same day. We ended up bombing it and the team placed 6th. The years 98, 99, 2000; that three or four year span were just solid years for Kempner. We had a handful of good guys who just hung with it. Chris (Pine ’04) and Eric (Shepard ‘04) and a couple others continued it, but after 2000 we never had that solid talent. I can definitely tell that this year’s team is a lot stronger than we have had in the past 4 or 5 years. It comes in waves, Kingwood has always had the top talent but they don’t really have it anymore. Those 4 or 5 years we were just hot.

KXC: What advice would guys for this Saturday?

JP: The obvious answer is to always stay positive. The Paavo training method has been successful and it has been working. I mean Shalin ran a 15:40 something and I don’t think anyone has run that since John and I had been there. I think believing in your training, believing in your coach. Stay together as a team. Find each other out there. Any good cross country team has all five guys run their best race on the same day and within one minute of each other. If you can have a good group time like that it is a good showing. Finding each other out there on the course, you realize you trained together and it will encourage each other during the race. Stay positive. Listen to coach’s advice during the race. Whether it was Coach Mixon (KHS) or Coach Waters at A&M, if I actually did what they told me I would push through that pain threshold. Just listening to the coach helps a lot. Just group up and if they are smart about it, it is definitely something that will help them out during the race. From now until Saturday it is important to do the little things right. Streching, drinking water, resting, eating right. The smaller things actually do play a big part in the race

One of the things I always had success with was that I never really thought about the race too much. I didn’t stress about it. You always have to visualize the race the night before. I always did that the night before. I thought about strategy. I didn’t think too much about the race, I didn’t worry about it. I just mentally prepared myself with a race plan. Then during the race I would make sure I was sticking to my race plan, mile by mile k by k. Try not to take it three miles at a time. Take it mile at a time or half mile at a time. Have the most positive attitude you possibly can and everything will fall into place.

As far as I’m concerned I haven’t seen a Kempner team this strong since the team that made state in ’98. I have seen some individuals but not a team. The Spencer/Shalin race was the best race I have ever seen at district bar none.

KXC: Thank you so much for your insight. Will you be there Saturday?

JP: Yes, I will definitely be there. Good luck everybody.

KXC: JP improved a lot from that 14:30 two mile race. Before he graduated from KHS he ran three mile cross country in 15:50, he ran the 3200 and the 1600 on the track in 9:37 and 4:26 respectively. He ran for Texas A&M and by his junior year he led the cross country team in a lot of their meets.

I also have an interview with former KXC star John Rainbolt and I will post it tomorrow.