Florida Gators

DES MOINES, Iowa – Life is slower for Cory McGee these days. It's much simpler, too.
 
After winning six SEC titles, racking up 10 All-America honors, and two national runner-up finishes as a middle-distance runner for the Gators, McGee signed professionally with New Balance and moved to Boston in fall 2014. She spent nearly five years there, exploring and finding fulfillment in her interests outside of running. Volunteering for Boston Community Gardens. Taking in art museums. Connecting with young professionals as gifted and dedicated to their crafts as she was.
 
Another bonus: training practically around the corner from New Balance's headquarters. McGee could stop in, meet designers and get a behind-the-scenes look at the products she wore every day. 
 
All of it excited her. The girl from tiny Pass Christian, Miss. — which she says has more churches than stoplights — was a young woman in the big city, living out her dream as a professional runner.
 
As much as McGee loved Boston, though, everything moved too fast. Traffic and toll roads stressed her out. Ditto having to use a parking garage for grocery shopping. She knows those are simple parts of everyday life for much of the country. For a 20-something who grew up in a town of roughly 4,600 people? Needless hassles. She says she wasn't cut out for the brutal New England winters either.
 
McGee's running career brought its own ups and downs.
 
Following her junior season with the Gators, she finished third in the 1,500 meters at the USA Track and Field Outdoor Championships, qualifying her for the 2013 World Championships. She made the next two USATF Outdoors finals but finished well off the podium, missed the final at the 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials, cut her 2017 season short due to injury, and finished 21st at last year's USATF Outdoors. Success on the slightly less competitive indoor circuit offset some of her outdoor struggles, but McGee knew she needed a change.
 

Most of all, she wanted everything around her to slow down. She had to eliminate all the unnecessary stressors. McGee just wanted to run. That's why she moved to Boulder, Colo., last December and joined a six-woman training group headlined by reigning world champion steeplechaser Emma Coburn.
 
"Boston was a really cool city to be in at that point in my life," McGee said. "But it wasn't right for me. When there were times running wasn't going as well as I wanted, I would almost dive deeper into some of the distractions. Boulder is a lot like Gainesville. It's a lot more relaxed and a lot more my speed. I don't stress out. It's a lot easier for me to just get out the door and go train.
 
"This year is definitely the most dedicated I've ever been," she continued in her customarily upbeat tone, through a bright smile that never seems to leave her face. "I'm just hyper-focused for the first time since, really, I was at UF. It's been really cool to be in Colorado and sort of be ok with not doing anything besides training and just letting that intensity come back."
 
With McGee's life once again moving at a far more comfortable pace, her times are dropping. She set personal records in her signature indoor and outdoor events, meaning she enters this week's USATF Outdoors in Des Moines with arguably her best chance to medal and make the World Championships team since 2013.
 

 
That year was a product of everything coming together for McGee. She had an Olympian and former teammate, Genevieve LaCaze, to push her through the collegiate season, which ended with McGee's runner-up finish in the 1,500 at NCAA Outdoor Championships. Two weeks later, McGee, not even 21 years old for a full month, stunned a field full of professionals and captured bronze at USATF Outdoors in Des Moines.
 

An American making the World Championships or Olympics team at that age in the 1,500 has proven to be a rare feat as of late. At the last six USATF Outdoors, only three women under the age of 26 finished in the top three. McGee is one of them.
 
"It's funny, because I never felt young, mostly because I'd been running against a lot of those women years before," McGee said. "It didn't seem as unusual as it may be in hindsight."
 
Now 27 years old, McGee is by all accounts entering the prime of her career. And pulling another surprise in Des Moines this week would be a heck of a way to kick it off. McGee is ranked eighth, but if the race turns tactical, as championship races are known to, seeding goes out the window.
 
"I know I'm better now than I was (in 2013)," McGee said. "U.S. Champs, the 1,500 especially, is pretty unpredictable. That's what makes it such an exciting race."
 
Regardless of how things shake out this week, everyone should be following @CoryMcGeeRuns on Twitter. The random thoughts McGee shares with the world are not only funny, they're endearing and relatable. Not everyone can run a mile in less than four minutes and 30 seconds. Most everyone can relate to bizarre post-nap food choices.
 
McGee relived and provided context for some of her recent Twitter gems, and the results are hilarious.
 

The kitchen is a lawless place when i wake up from a nap. Any combination of food is suddenly acceptable in my mind.

— Cory McGee (@CoryMcGeeRuns) July 19, 2019

 
"While I was tweeting this, I was eating granola with whole milk, matched with a clementine San Pellegrino, which is disgusting. I woke up from a nap, went in the kitchen, opened the fridge, snatched the San Pellegrino clementine flavor—it's really sugary and delicious—and just started drinking it. And then I was like, I have to eat something. I had my bowl of cereal. I thought, this is such a foul combination of food. That's just one of many, many times I find myself eating really bizarre combos after naps."
 

Tryna get reincarnated as a dolphin so i can do that thing where they swim in a circle and confuse a bunch of fish then just laugh together while they're feasting.

— Cory McGee (@CoryMcGeeRuns) July 18, 2019

 
"My first dream job, before I ever was a runner, was to be a dolphin trainer. I have that in one of my earliest journals. This isn't that surprising. I used to want to be a dolphin trainer, so why wouldn't I get older and want to be a dolphin?"
 

WHY is "dust in the wind" playing when I'm trying to get my nails done and relax? Asked for a pedicure, got an exestential crisis.

— Cory McGee (@CoryMcGeeRuns) July 16, 2019

"I was at a nail salon in Boulder, and first they were playing "Chattahoochee" by Alan Jackson. And it was fantastic. Then "Dust in the Wind" came on and suddenly I felt really sad."
 

You guys ever buy yourself a present online and include gift wrapping just for that extra-special feeling? Write yourself a haiku poem on the card, perhaps? No, ok just wondering

— Cory McGee (@CoryMcGeeRuns) June 25, 2019

 
"I actually phoned a friend on this one. I bought myself a brand new wallet. My previous wallet was a small black wallet that didn't have any designs on it. I bought it in Nashville because my wallet had been stolen, so I got this small, plain black wallet. I dropped it on a plane a year later. The flight attendant calls over the intercom, 'We have a male wallet at the front of the plane.' Ever since then my teammates have been teasing me I have a guys' wallet.
 
"A few weeks ago, I wanted to settle this and bought a wallet, a hot pink one so no one could say it was a boy wallet anymore. I decided to make it extra special and write a poem. In the end I settled on writing a haiku poem from the perspective of the wallet.
 
She gives and she takes.
I hold onto what she makes.
For once, please say thanks.
 
"My sister helped me out. I don't know why I'm telling you this."
 

Yeah being an adult is cool but do you guys remember Word Art

— Cory McGee (@CoryMcGeeRuns) May 14, 2019

 
"I used to type my parents' grocery lists with Word Art and all these different animations, pictures and stuff. I lived for Word Art. It was one of the highlights of my childhood."
 

Super embarrassing when your suitcase is open and your toothbrush is at the luggage claim just flying solo and your sister yells "grab Cory's toothbrush" and everyone looks at you. Help me.

— Cory McGee (@CoryMcGeeRuns) December 22, 2018

 
"I can't believe this happened! I was at the New Orleans airport flying home. (My sister) was with me and I have an electric toothbrush with a big carrying case, and that was loose on the belt, which was unbelievable. A few of my things were just trailing the suitcase on the belt. It was really embarrassing."
 

Every time I'm at a hotel and order EXCESSIVE room service with zero self control I realize why it's good I haven't let myself begin online grocery shopping. It's too dangerous.

— Cory McGee (@CoryMcGeeRuns) December 6, 2018

 
"At a restaurant I'll be like, I probably shouldn't get a whole order of fruit, plus a couple eggs, bacon and the whole thing, and then also maybe some yogurt and a coffee and orange juice. But for some reason when I'm having room service, rules don't apply. I'm like, sure, I need an entire carafe of coffee and a large orange juice, and the three sides I sort of want. I just don't have any self-restraint whenever I order room service. I don't know if it's because there's more space, like I'm not limited by the size of a table. That might be it. I don't know."
 

Yeah I've seen a couple scary movies but how about when Simba and Nala disobey the adults, lose Zazu, go to an elephant graveyard and encounter a dozen hyenas wtf this is what nightmares are made of

— Cory McGee (@CoryMcGeeRuns) July 23, 2019

 
"First off, if you wanted to watch the original on TV you had to pay like 15 dollars, so I figured I might as well go see the new one. I was hesitant to go see the new one, because the best scene in The Lion King is when Rafiki breaks open the fruit and wipes it along Simba's forehead. Well, they eliminate the fruit and replace it with twigs. I've known this since the trailer came out a year ago, and I was actually going to boycott seeing the new one because of that. But I decided to go at the last second a few days ago.
 
"I forgot how terrifying it is when they go to the elephant graveyard. It's definitely way scarier than any zombie movie, or any scary movie available today. I did enjoy it. I didn't cry. I thought I was going to. But if you forgot, The Lion King is actually a pretty scary movie.
 
"Those are some of my best tweets! Thank you for letting me relive those."


Note: McGee runs the women's 1,500 meters prelims Thursday at 6:30 p.m. on NBC Sports Gold (paid subscription only), and the final Saturday at 4:42 p.m. on NBC.