By MARK MOSCHETTI
Seattle Pacific Sports Information
 
SEATTLE – She focuses on the future …
 
… by poking into the past.
 
Books. Photos. Articles. Even oral accounts of what was or used to be.
 
During the summers of 2019 and 2020, when Elizabeth Thompson wasn't out on the roads logging some training miles in preparation for the fall cross country season, she was on the third floor of City Hall as an intern at the Municipal Archives helping to catalog some of Seattle's 170-year history.

"I found that bingo used to be outlawed because a mayoral candidate actually got shot over his bingo debt," she said. "Plus I worked on this project where I was scanning photos from the 1970s and '80s of different houses around Seattle. It was super-cool to see all these different neighborhoods and how they progressed."
 
 

For the Seattle Pacific senior, chasing down some interesting facets of years gone by has proven to be just as much fun as chasing down a runner in a different-colored uniform on the trails or the track.
 
"I always knew I wanted to go into something with history," said Thompson, who is pursuing that as one of her three majors (Classics and Honors Liberal Arts are the other two). "It's so important for us to preserve the history we have right now for future generations. That's how we learn from the past."
 
When Thompson's focus shifts back to training and racing, she has been compiling a nifty little archive of her own for the Falcons. In her three years, she has gone from not even making the travel squad for the conference cross country meet as a freshman to becoming part of the team's scoring pack at the NCAA nationals last fall as a junior.
 
"I'm a lot more resilient than I was freshman year," she said. "I've learned that if things aren't going my way for a workout or a season, you can't control those things, but you can control how you act in the moment. I think because of that, I'm a stronger runner and a stronger racer because I don't let a small mishap or a slow start keep me from achieving the goals that I want."
 
TOP-QUALITY RACING IN HIGH SCHOOL
As much as Thompson has delved into her summertime internship in Seattle's archives, she started life about as far from here as one can possibly get – 2,700 miles away in Winchester, Virginia, where she was born 21 years ago.
 
The family moved to Montana when Elizabeth was 8, then relocated to Portland in 2015, just before her junior year in high school.
 
"I joke that I just slowly moved out west my entire life," Thompson said with a laugh. "Every place I've lived has been pretty different, especially moving from Montana to Portland, with just the increase in diversity of people and opportunities. I'm so glad I moved to Portland, because I wouldn't have come to SPU without that move."
 
Thompson was part of two top-caliber high school cross country programs before joining the Falcons: Flathead in Montana for two years, then Sunset in Portland as a junior and senior.
 
She placed 19th in the Montana state meet during her sophomore season. At Sunset, she was 59^th in the Oregon Class 6A (large school) state meet as a senior and helped the team take second place. She also ran at the Nike Team Nationals following her junior and senior seasons, placing seventh and 11^th, respectively.
 
"Coming into college, it made me a better freshman athlete because I realized what it means to compete at a high level," she said. "And being connected to a lot of other collegiate athletes from those programs, they gave me a lot of pointers and advice for how to be successful in college."
 
Seattle Pacific hadn't been on Thompson's radar – "I applied on a whim," she said. But an acquaintance of her father's knew Falcons cross country and track associate head coach Chris Reed. Thompson came up for a campus tour and knew this was the place for her.
 
"Before I committed to run here, I committed to this school," she said. "Just where it is, the (academic) program, and the beauty of SPU. Then in talking to Chris and Karl (Lerum, the Falcons head coach), I realized this is a running program that I wanted to be a part of."
 
'I CAN RUN WITH THEM'
Thompson raced in all four regular-season cross country meets as a freshman in 2017, but didn't compete in the Great Northwest Athletic Conference or NCAA West Regional meets. During the winter indoor season, she anchored the fourth-place distance medley relay at the GNAC Championships. In her outdoor debut a few weeks later at the Ed Boitano / Puget Sound Invitational, she anchored the winning 4-by-400-meter relay.
 
"I love the relay aspect – that's one of my favorite races to watch and compete in," she said.

 

By her sophomore year, Thompson had picked up the pace. She was a top-25 finisher and the team's No. 5 scorer at GNAC cross country, scored again at West Regionals, and ran at the rainy, muddy nationals in Pittsburgh.

An injury kept her out of indoor track. But at GNAC outdoors, Thompson moved up from her non-scoring 11^th-seeded position in the 1500 to snare eighth place and contribute a valuable team point as the Falcons beat Central Washington by just four to claim the crown.
 
Looking back at that 1500 race, "I beat a lot of people who were beating me by a lot in cross country. It made me realize that, 'If I can beat them in track, why can't I go and beat them in cross country? I can run with them,'" Thompson said.. "It gave me lots of confidence and made me realize all the goals I didn't think I could achieve, I really could achieve."
 
Added associate head coach Reed, "She's a lot more confident now than she was. Early on, I think she believed in herself, but there was some trepidation of, 'Am I good enough? Do I belong?' Her belief in herself over the years has grown, as well."
 
Last fall, Thompson ran in every cross country meet, scoring at GNAC and NCAAs. She ran the 800-meter leg on the second-place distance medley at GNAC indoors, and, in her lone outdoor race before spring sports were halted because of the coronavirus, won the 800 at the Boitano / Puget Sound meet.

 

"She's definitely a reliable person to have on the team. She has found many ways to contribute," Reed said. "Some of it is what she brings to practice. But she has done some cool things in races.
 
"Elizabeth is such a team-first person," Reed added. "She cares deeply about those around her and it has led to a lot of her success."
 
Even while others such as fellow senior Dania Holmberg are going to be setting the pace at the front of most cross country races, Thompson knows that her job in the chase pack is just as crucial.
 
"Going into it, it's knowing that every single place matters," Thompson said. "Even more importantly, knowing where I am in a race, I'm going to be around my teammates, like Libby (Michael) or Kelsey (Washenberger). I know that if I'm up there, I'm going to pull them along with me. If it's not my day, it could be their day. So I want to do whatever I can to get as far up as we can get."
 
 

Holmberg loves knowing that someone such as Thompson is there getting it done every time.
 
"She really does pour herself into everything that she does," Holmberg said. "She's always looking for a way to get better, regardless of what the outcome is. Even though I'm not racing right next to her, I know she's putting everything she's got into the race – and that inspires me to do more, too. It's really reciprocal.
 
"She's always looking to be the best teammate she can, both relationally and competitively."
 
LET'S RACE – ANYTIME, ANYPLACE
Ask distance runners what their favorite sport is, and most will pick cross country over track – the scenery, the terrain, the fact that they're not running in circles.
 
Thompson likes both – "It matters what season I'm in," she says – but actually prefers the track.
 
"I really enjoy the mile (indoors) and the 1500 (outdoors) for how quickly it's over, but also for seeing how fast I can run," she said.

 

The shutdown of athletics caused by the coronavirus meant Thompson has been training mostly on her own for several months. But she has managed to find some pleasure in that, as well, as she got into trail running.
 
"It was just enjoying the scenery of running," she said. "It makes you realize why you run and what running will look like after college when you don't' have a team to work out with every day."
 
Still, there's nothing like racing. She won't get to do that this fall, as sports have been canceled. However, a limited winter cross country season might be in the offing if GNAC personnel and coaches can work out all the details.
 
"It will be a very interesting path to run cross country in January," she said with a smile. "Honestly, I'll be excited for whatever racing opportunities we get. If it's an 800 or a 6K, I'll be happy about it. It means I get another race in an SPU jersey."
 
INSPIRATION FROM SEA LEVEL TO SUMMITS
Whether it's finding success in her running shoes or in balancing her academic workload, Thompson draws some of her inspiration from women who have achieved great things.
 
 

One of them is Seattle Pacific running and coaching legend Doris Heritage, who still makes her way to a handful cross country and track meets every year.
 
"We're so lucky to have her so close by. Having her show up for meets is the coolest thing we get at SPU," Thompson said.
 
 

Another one was the subject of a middle school book report. The late Japanese mountaineer Junko Tabei was the first woman to ascend the Seven Summits (the highest peak on each of the seven continents). That included Mount Everest in May 1975.
 
"She overcame so many challenges, not just having to climb all seven summits, but doing that as the first woman to do all seven," Thompson said. "She did a lot for that sport, and all of us realize that this is something women can do, even if it's a male-dominated area."
 
Tabei's feat is the kind of achievement that certainly makes its way into the archives of history. And whether it's climbing mountains, or something far more consequential – or even if it's filling up her own page in the archive of SPU cross country and track history – Thompson knows the value of preserving what has happened in years gone by.
 
"Right now, with this tumultuous time," she said, "looking back to see how others have handled issues like this and getting those voices that haven't been heard and allowing their voices to shine now – that's super important."
 
Just call it Elizabeth Thompson's way of focusing on the future …
 
… by poking into the past.