heather prepares to take her spot atop the ceremony podium. that s when audrey smoot of indi indiana university brings her back down to earth. audrey won the first heat just before heather s, besting heather s time by slightly more than 1/10 of a second, but she didn t fall down. she s like, i actually won. i was like, oh, sorry, i ll just scoot on over to take second there. it was just one of those funny things, that i was just on cloud nine and thought i d won everything, and it took someone to say, hey, move over! heather s second place overall finish in the 600 meters adds a crucial eight points to minnesota s team total. eight points was exactly the margin of our victory for the team that day. so it s kind of a happy coincidence that if i hadn t gotten up and finished the race, we would have lost or tied. heather graduates from the university of minnesota in december 2009, but coach wilson
other two weren t that far away. and then as i was coming around the final curve of the race, i heard the announcer say, and watch out for heather dorniden. the crowd can t believe what it s witnessing. oh, my word, she s going to do this! she can do this! people were just jumping up and down, going crazy, and just in awe. the decibel level went way through the roof. and that was what was so electrifying. it was just a crescendo kind of thing. it just got louder and louder and louder and louder. we had more energy and electricity in that meet than the hoover dam. heather runs her heart out, catching her competitors, one at a time. he inches her way to the lead runner, the race is neck and neck, and in the very last moment, she completes her unbelievable finish, edging out
the home crowd can barely contain its enthusiasm as the gun sounds for this three-lap race. one lap down, and all is going well for the nine-time all-american. my plan for the race was to just hang out behind whoever was leading it and then take it at the end. but as the pack finishes lap number two, something happens. i was cutting in to try to get to the inside lane before the first curve. i was kind of running and then felt something on, like, my right foot, and then when i tried to correct that, somebody must have stepped on my left foot, so i kind of felt like i was hog-tied and just went down. heather does a face plant in the middle of the track. stfts like the wind got taken out of the whole crowd. it was just like, ahh! i didn t really know what happened for the first step and the second step is when i really
just went down. and i think i actually got the words oh, no out as i was falling. friend and former teammate, elizabeth yetzer, can barely watch. the whole stadium just like, oh, my gosh! you know. and, of course, you re thinking, there s she s done. the rest of the pack bolts past heather, leaving her several yards behind, entering the final lap. but with the heart of a champion, heather gets up. it took a while for everybody to catch their breath and then go, oh, my lord, something very, very special is happening here. i knew that i needed to continue to run and just earn some points for the team. she starts to make her move. to me, they re all bodies and they re targets out there. i had my first target in sights and i started catching her, and after i had passed my first person, then i saw that the
i think that was actually the first thing i said, was, i didn t expect that. march 2nd, 2008, at the university of minnesota in the twin cities, it s the last day of the tightly contested big 10 championship of women s indoor track. unless you win the national title, nobody really cares, if you re 10th or 12th or whatever. but if you win a big 10 title, that s a big deal. senior heather is in lane four of the second heat for the 600 meter finals. i think my coaches were kind of expecting me to really put it forward and try and win that race and, sure, my parents thought the same thing. throughout her college career, heather set several school records for the track team. a win here will help propel minnesota to the top of the big 10 standings.