ROCHESTER HILLS, Mich. – Fresh off graduation, former cross country and distance star Kinsey Gomez has signed a professional contract with the Hansons-Brooks Distance Project, taking her skills to the next level.
 
"It's crazy, I just moved out to Michigan, a city called Rochester Hills," Gomez said.  "I joined the Hansons-Brooks Distance Project, they're sponsored by Brooks running.  I'm so excited to be here, it's like my dream come true since kindergarten.  It's so surreal, but I'm so excited to see what happens now."
 
Training is the main focus for Gomez now, and competing against some of the best in the world day-in and day-out will surely pay dividends down the road.
 
"I just got here, it has only been a couple of days.  But they're really big into group training.  Every morning the girls' team goes out.  All the girls that aren't married live in a house together and we all meet every day to go run, sometimes twice per day.
 
"The team here had Desiree Linden go to Rio for the marathon and so that's obviously the focus, to get world class experience and be able to compete with anybody.  It's definitely a long-term approach."
 
Gomez closed out her collegiate career by earning Second Team All-America honors in the 10k at the NCAA Championships in Eugene, and has already set her sights on her first professional race.
 
"This fall I'm going to have my professional debut, in a couple of weeks at the Cow Harbor 10k in New York.  It's a 10k on the road, which I've never really run.  It's so exciting because it's something that I've never done.  I have no expectations, it's just excitement for what could happen.  In February I'll run the US Cross Country trials to try to make the US team for Worlds for cross country.
 
"I think I still want to have a track season and I really want to get my times down, especially in the 10k.  Doing a couple of road 10k's this fall and a half marathon in November, the Vegas Rock and Roll Half Marathon, I think that just having that base will really help me have a great track season.  And also being able to build off of the last track season that I had at Idaho.  It gave me a taste of where I want to go in the 10k.  There's still a lot of room for improvement, but you have to be happy with each improvement and last year was a huge improvement for me."
 
Long term, Gomez isn't afraid of setting the bar high.
 
"Obviously the Olympics are every four years so you have that time to build up to those goals and there are so many races along the way to there.  You can have those huge, giant goals like that, it's one of my bucket list goals, but you also have so many other, smaller goals.  You need those stepping stone goals to get to the big one."
 
With all that training, Gomez says she has found at least one way to stay balanced and well-rounded.
 
"My life has been pretty running-focused this past month.  I don't know, I'm really excited about what's to come.  Right now I'm really trying to solely devote myself to training and not spread myself thin with too many other things.  When you're running 80-90 miles per week naps are your way of being well-rounded."
 
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