BY DENNIS CHASE
TRAVERSE CITY -- Marissa Treece will try something new Saturday.
The Notre Dame sophomore, and former Glen Lake state champion, has never run a race longer than 10K.
On Saturday, though, she'll be in the Cherry Festival 15K field.
"I want to compete and run well," Treece said.
Treece, coming off a "disappointing" track season, has been running 65 to 70 miles a week to prepare for the fall cross country campaign. This will be her first road race of the summer.
"I feel like I'm getting back in shape," the 19-year-old said. "I'm doing more miles. I'm getting more confidence in my training, in my ability to run that far (15K)."
Actually, Treece has been running longer distances than that in training.
"Last Sunday I did a 14-mile run," she said. "I've been alternating 10 and 14 (mile runs). I'll bump it up to 11 and 15 pretty soon. I want to get my mileage up before I go back to school."
Grand Valley State's Susie Rivard won the women's 15K a year ago in 1:00:59.2.
"The other weekend when I was doing a 14, I went through 9.3 (15K) at 1:02:22," she said. "It's just a matter of getting in there and racing and doing it at that time."
Treece had a tough first year at Notre Dame.
Her cross country season was disrupted when she came down with mononucleosis. Then, after competing in the World Junior Cross Country championships in Scotland in late March, she had little time to get ready for track.
"When I got back from Scotland I took a couple weeks off," she said. "Coach and I talked about redshirting because I only had about three weeks to get back into racing shape. That's not enough in order to compete at that level."
Still, Treece gave it a go.
"It was a struggle," she said. "I didn't have the base. I didn't have the speed. I didn't make it to regionals even. It was pretty disappointing."
