‘It was a total failure in terms of my running’

When Dunedin middle distance runner Rebekah Greene chose the University of Florida from a potpourri of US scholarship options, her aim was to be a better runner – but that was one thing money couldn’t buy.

Now intent on qualifying for the World Championships over 1500m, Greene admits to a tough time in Florida from 2017 to 2020, yet still sees the US college system as offering the gold she never discovered. ‘‘It’s a really hard one when people ask me because essentially I went there to improve my running and I not only didn’t improve I got significantly worse,’’ says the holder of the New Zealand resident mile record.

‘‘It was a total failure in terms of my running, but I don’t like to deter people away from the idea of it just because I had a bad experience. It can be really good. You live and train and race like a professional and have the best resources and facilities at your fingertips.’’

While Greene considered East Coast universities Florida, Stony Brook and Villanova, she now feels California would have aligned better with the culture and climate she came from. ‘‘It was probably a bit too much of a drastic change from Dunedin to Florida.’’

Greene got injured, was told she was too heavy, put on a diet, was burnt out by the regime, and then developed a heart condition.

‘‘I was overworked,’’ says Greene, who now coaches as well as chasing global competition. ‘‘I felt like I had a lot of guilt around that, because they’re paying so much for you to be there and when you don’t perform you feel really, really bad.

‘‘There’s a lot of pressure for coaches to get a bunch of 20-yearolds to perform really well. When they get under a lot of pressure then it starts to come out in the training, they push you too hard. I had really bad advice around nutrition and overworking.’’

She suggests smaller colleges with fewer financial stresses as worthy options for young Kiwi sports stars.

While Greene was self-aware enough to reject some of the dietary advice at Florida, she says it could be ‘‘very dangerous’’ for those susceptible to acceptance.

‘‘I was told to eat hardly anything, told to count calories and only eat 1200 calories a day. That’s just never been me so I never did that,’’ she says.

Her other tips are to be careful about the coach, and not to make sport the be-all-and-end-all.

‘‘The coaches all say that they’ve got your long-term interests at heart, but some of them really don’t. Look at it holistically like the academics and the environment.’’

As well as the education, there’s one more bonus, she adds. ‘‘On the financial side, I feel like when you’re younger, you don’t think about it, but when you get to 30 – like I am this year – not having a student loan is pretty massive.’’