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Siri, how do you get to cross country nationals?
The troublesome thing with the iPhone personal assistant is that there is more than one way to answer every question. It's not just about what a person asks, but why. There isn't one right answer, because there isn't really a right question.
For DePauw senior Siri Retrum, the way you qualify for nationals is to work hard for four years and finish as one of the top individuals at the regional meet. She finished 16th at the Great Lakes Regional on Saturday. That's a good response, but it's not complete.
A more literal answer is to take a bus to the course in Hanover. That's certainly true, and the trip there is one of Retrum's favorite parts of the journey. That doesn't paint the whole picture, either.
The truth is there isn't one answer, because there isn't one way. It's a path that starts in childhood, diverts and starts again, then comes back to the obvious. To get to nationals, you've got to be fast.
Retrum is certainly that. She ran the 6k regional race in 22:21 at Calvin on Saturday, three seconds from her personal record and tenth-fastest in DePauw history. The record is 21:01 set by Lauren Reich.
Retrum first discovered she was fast in sixth-grade. She had grown up a swimmer in a family of swimmers. She started competing in the pool when she was five. Her four siblings, three older, one younger, were all invited to compete in swimming or diving at Division I colleges.
But swimming wasn't her dream. Retrum watched at track and cross country meets and knew at an early age exactly what she wanted to be: a hurdler.
It seemed like a great fit. She swam the individual medley, using her versatility and athleticism, key traits in hurdles, and she was a sprinter in the pool, just like hurdles.
Plus she grew up running around the backyard, leaping and bounding around the obstacle courses set up by her older siblings. Hurdles was going to be awesome.
Retrum told her mom about her plans when she got to middle school: she was going to be a wonderful hurdler. It was the only thing she dreamed about.
Of course, she had never actually hurdled. She was a swimmer. She hadn't even run.
"My mom said, 'Why don't you try cross country to see if you even like running?'" Retrum said. "I did, and I found out I was good at cross."
Her success as a distance runner made her want to hurdle even more. On the first day of track practice that spring, she went straight to the hurdles.
Later that day, her coach politely sent her back to the distance group.
Retrum grew to embrace and love running. She was a high-level recruit at Columbus North High School and had made plans to join her sister at Indiana University, but something just didn't seem right.
In May of her senior year, she backed away from IU and started searching for a college that was a better fit.
She'd heard of DePauw, but didn't really know about it. Her first visit to came in June '10, after nearly all the students had gone home for the summer.
A few were still on campus, including some track athletes preparing for the 2010 nationals, Reich, the school's cross country record-holder, and Courtney Lauer.
The three went to lunch and Retrum was sold on DePauw's family atmosphere. That was all she needed from her college. It also helped that she'd be joining a team that had just qualified for nationals.
There are eight regional locations in DIII, with the top two teams at each advancing as full squads to nationals. Sixteen more teams are added as at-large qualifiers.
The regional races are spread around the U.S. on Saturday, and the at-large teams are chosen on Sunday.
Retrum, now 22, was joining a team her freshman year that had been to nationals when she was a senior in high school and from her first day on campus, the goal was to get back as a team.
She had a nice freshman season, running cross country in the fall and distance events during track season, but injuries started to limit her as a sophomore and junior.
The competitive highlight of that time, Retrum said, was competing in an alumni race and running alongside Reich, her inspiration and one of the reasons she ended up at DePauw.
As Retrum fought through injuries that limited her training, she focused on helping her teammates and trying to build a team that would be able to advance.
Last spring, rather than competing in track, Retrum joined a friend to study abroad in New Zealand, taking science classes and exploring the Kiwi's terrain. She did much of that on foot, running 5K races and a half-marathon.
She also became part of a local running club and learned how they train in a different culture (It's pretty much the same, she said).
The rest and relaxation of taking a season off did her body good. She came into this season healthy and in the best shape she's been.
She was named the North Coast Athletic Conference Runner of the Week on Sept.16 and finished eighth at the NCAC meet on Nov. 2.
Entering regionals, her plan was to race hard and do everything she could to put up a high finish to help her team qualify for nationals. Making it as an individual hadn't entered her mind until a few weeks ago.
"It was always a team goal. It has always been in the back of my mind how awesome, what a big honor it would be," Retrum said. "Even going into last week I always thought about it as a team. ... They are family. We're together every single day. They are my sisters. They are my best friends."
She cherishes going on "therapy runs" with the other girls and talking about everything and joking around on trips while riding in the back of the bus. "It's just so much fun," Retrum said.
There is still one bus trip left, the one that takes her to nationals. The rest of the team is going to join her for support and, hopefully, coach Kori Stoffregen said, for their own inspiration. If they get a taste now, it might help them get back next year.
"It's like anything else that the NCAA puts on, it's a big time show," Stoffregen said. "This is by far her best year and I'm just really happy she qualified because she's been a hard worker for four years."
So that, after 11 years of competitive running, is how Siri (it's a Norwegian family name passed on from her grandmother, though she appreciates the Apple device because if finally taught people to pronounce her name) gets to nationals.
She'll take it easy this week and only run 50 or 60 miles. She'll go on a bus. She'll joke around with her teammates. She'll wake up, have some coffee, toast, peanut butter and a banana. And then she'll do what she loves for one final time.
"It's sad but it's also really exciting having one last opportunity to run for DePauw," Retrum said. "The culmination of my whole cross country career ends this weekend. ... I just want to go out and enjoy every single second of it."