Running With the Sooners: Liam Meirow

Time is of the utmost importance for Liam Meirow. It is how he is evaluated in his cross country competitions, with a mere second being the difference in first or second place, and it is the difference between a successful dish and one destined for the trash can. Every second counts for the redshirt sophomore from Colorado, but he was able to pause from his routine as a student-athlete to talk about where he grew up, what he enjoys about running, and what he's doing when he's not running 75 miles a week. Be warned, however, that if you weren't hungry before you started, you might be by the end.

ON HOW HE GOT STARTED IN CROSS COUNTRY:

“Before I got really dedicated to running, I played soccer, basketball, baseball, I wrestled and I was a big skateboarder and snowboarder. Growing up in Colorado that was my main thing -- skateboarding and snowboarding. In middle school I ran track but I wasn't a distance runner. I did long jump, high jump, sprints, relays, kind of a little bit of everything. I always ran our middle school Turkey Trot, which was a 5K, and I won that a couple of years even though I wasn't a distance runner. My dad was like 'go out for the cross country team' my freshman year of high school. I went out for the team and ended up being the fastest runner as a freshman. My high school wasn't very good so it didn't say much. It did give me a lot of confidence and every year I just became better. I did a little bit of everything until my sophomore year in high school, then I just focused on running. Eventually I decided I wanted to run in college.”

ON HIS FAVORITE PLACES TO RUN:

“One of my favorite spots is when we go to Thunder Road. It's on some gravel roads around some farms. It's really nice out there and peaceful with no cars to distract you. Back home, I like to run on Tenderfoot Mountain Trail that's right in my backyard. It's a rocky, single track that you can overlook the lake that I live on, Lake Dillon, and all of the mountains. One of the most interesting places I've run was before my senior year of high school I did a mile race at the top of Pikes Peak, which is over 14,000 feet. They hosted a mile race that had an elite field and somehow I got into it. I was the only high school student and we did a 200-meter loop in this parking lot at the top of a mountain. ”

ON WHAT HE ENJOYS MOST ABOUT RUNNING:

“Honestly, I run because it's the sport that enables me to have potential to be the best at something. I also have a huge passion for running and just love being a student of the sport. It just enables me to be the best at something and allows me to win.”

ON HIS HOMETOWN OF DILLON, COLO.:

“I grew up in Summit County which is in the mountains, right where Breckenridge is. Dillon is a tourist resort town that's at 9,300 feet elevation and about an hour west of Denver. I grew up with snow six months out of the year. It's a huge tourist town. We have about 20,000 people who live there year round and then the rest are tourists. During Christmas and Fourth of July, the town will have a population over a 100,000. It's one of the most beautiful places in the world.”

ON HIS COOKING:

“I love cooking. I like cooking Italian food, but I love it all - baking, breakfast stuff, pastries, just really anything. I have a near obsession with it. I enjoy the whole cooking world. My dad had a few small restaurants and, growing up in the kitchen, I started to love cooking, especially cooking efficiently. I like making different things and trying new stuff that tastes good and helps my running. I think nutrition is a huge part of running fast. I try to find the sweet spot between food, and, since I am a college student, something that is cheap, tastes good and is healthy. That's the trilogy of cooking for me. Almost everything I cook, I post on Snapchat, like on my story, so everyone kind of sees what I do. Sometimes it will be a video, sometimes it will be my food. I have these captions that say 'okay' or 'all right.' It will be a picture of chicken parmigiana and the caption will say 'okay,' something really subtle for what I think is a glorious meal.”

QUICK FIRE:

Favorite food: Pancakes - I love making all different types of pancakes and ethnic cuisines like Chinese and Ethiopian

Favorite television show: Breaking Bad

Favorite movie: I like the chick flick genre. Most recently it is The Age of Adaline

Favorite band: My favorite band of all time is the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I listen to Artic Monkeys, Smashing Pumpkins, J. Cole, and Kendrick Lamar. My sister, Haile, has a band called Rosechild, so I'll give a shout out to her.

Three words used to describe you: creative, determined and brutally honest

Major at OU: Human resource management in the Price College of Business. I came into college doing health and exercise science because I was interested in the physiology behind running. I decided I didn't want to do anything with that after college. I'm studying business to cover a few bases and open a few doors after college. It's just a good background to have.

Favorite class you've taken at OU: The one that's been most useful for my future and current status was Business Writing. I created my résumé in that class and wrote a couple of cover letters that I still use to this day.