Ostrander Makes U.S. Team In Cross Country, Plans To Approach Worlds In Serbia With 'Curiosity and Courage'

By Mary Albl of DyeStat

Photos courtesy Allie Ostrander

Allie Ostrander defines herself as a runner – plain and simple. The 27-year old has experienced success in events ranging from the steeplechase to mountain trail races and enjoys all of them. 

“I think in the past I’ve pigeonholed myself into one thing and that didn’t ultimately make me feel very happy or fulfilled,” Ostrander said. “I think it made me feel more pressured. I don't want to do that. I think I want to be a diverse runner. And just do what makes me happy and excites me.”

What excites Ostrander now is cross country. On January 20, Ostrander, an NCAA Cross Country runner-up in 2015 as a Boise State freshman, finished a dramatic (think diving across the finish line) fourth place at the USATF Cross Country Championships. That qualified her to compete at the World Athletics Cross Country Championships in Belgrade, Serbia on March 30. She leaves on March 27.

“I think the main idea (for Worlds) is to show up with curiosity and courage,” said David Roche, Allie’s coach. “World Cross Country is a special beast, in the sense it can be really tough, it can be really stressful. So what I really want her to do is get there and really enjoy the experience.”

Rewind to September 2023. Ostrander, who resides in Seattle and is represented by the outdoor brand NNormal, finishes in 20th place at the Pikes Peak Ascent – a grueling 13.1-mile race in Manitou Springs, Colo. that finishes at the 14,115-foot summit of Pikes Peak.

Ostrander, who grew up in Kenai, Alaska and regularly competed in the annual Mount Marathon Race in Seward (she won the women's title in 2017) is no stranger to unique challenges of the terrain.

So, Ostrander knew her performance at Pikes Peak was not indicative of what she felt like she could do. That’s when she connected with Roche. 

“He sent me a message after my race at Pikes Peaks, which was a really, really tough day for me,” Ostrarander recalled. “And he was just offering support and if you ever want to talk about training for trail racing just let me know. And at that point, I knew, I am definitely doing something wrong because I had never felt less prepared for a race. I was doing workouts that I knew I was in good shape from what I was doing, but I just performed really badly there and so I was like, ‘I would actually love to pick your brain about this.’”

That exchange eventually blossomed into full-time coaching. The philosophy behind Roche’s team he coaches with his wife Megan – “Some Work, All-Play” (SWAP) – a science-based approach to improving speed and long-term development, long-term fulfillment, while loving the process – was in line with what Ostrander was seeking and needing. 

“Allie’s so smart, so coachable, and works so hard, it kind of quickly morphed into a more formal coaching thing but started as a way to train for trails,” Roche said of their connection. 

Ostrander, who has been one of the most publicly open and vocal professional athletes in the sport of running about her struggles with mental health and addressing her long journey with an eating disorder, has been hard at work with the mental and physical aspects of the sport and herself.  

“She is just an awe-inspiring athlete and I mean that in the full sense, an all-around athlete,” Roche said. “She’s good at all these running things, but I imagine we could pick up something entirely different like cycling and she’d be fantastic at it. The thing we really need to focus on at this point in her journey is first your health needs to be at the forefront of everything we do. That is not just for performance and races, but also to make it fun. She loves training, she loves the process, but let's make sure health is our top priority, even as we take some risks in training.” 

Roche said the decision to run the USATF Cross Country Championships was because they needed something to train for in the winter. Ostrander also voiced a desire to focus on something speed based that was away from the trails and track. The 10km (6.2 miles) race ended up being the perfect fit for a re-introduction to higher-intensity, higher speed, while also competing against world-class athletes. Roche explained besides health, speed and power has also been at the forefront for Ostrander. 

“She's an absolutely aerobic monster. Some of her tests, I have never seen anyone test anywhere near where she does aerobically,” Roche said. “Those two things (speed and power) have gone hand-in-hand to create an approach where there’s a lot of cross training, a lot of pure speed via strides and hill strides, and limits maybe a little higher running volume right now.”

Ostrander explained the buildup wasn’t ideal for USAs. Small hiccups came up here and there in training, but she toed the line for her first cross country race in more than five years with a strong support system, a sense of trust in the process and some blind faith she was ready to go. 

Ostrander stayed back but still connected to the main pack for more than almost half of the race. Feeling good she was able to slowly move up in the field. 

“I felt about the same tiredness at kilometer 8 as at kilometer 3 so I feel like that was a good sign to how my body was responding to the intensity of the race and that gave me confidence,” she said. “And passing people gave me a lot of positive momentum going into the finish.”

In a rather symbolic finish, Ostrander dove across the finish, out-leaning teammate Callie Logue for the fourth-place spot, clocking 33:52.5 as Logue finished in 33:52.7. 

“It showed I'm obviously always going to put everything I have into my races and training and that race ended up being literally inches,” Ostrander said. “I was giving every inch I could, and that's been my philosophy my whole life. Obviously things aren't always easy and they don't go as planned but I always am going to walk away from a race or a session knowing that I gave everything I could to be successful.”

Success and happiness for Ostrander nowadays looks and feels different. She finds that with her puppy – now dog – Georgie. She has a large and faithful following (45,000+) on YouTube, posting important, yet humorous and witty training-based videos, featuring her partner Spencer Brown. Recently, her happiness has been in the form of a splash of Vitamin D. She spent part of February in Boulder and New Mexico training. She was able to stay with the Roche’s at their home in Boulder. 

“What drew my wife and I to Allie was we would watch her videos not because of the running stuff, but because we thought she was very, very funny, and smart,” Roche said. “And so having her (stay) was really fun from a training and coaching perspective, because I can go to the track with her and pace her through workouts and see the work ethic in person. But the most fun thing was hanging around before and after dinner and Georgie her dog would play with Leo our baby, and that time that goes beyond coaching and is just trust. What I also tell Allie, and any athlete really is it’s not about the coach, right? But in the process hopefully as a coach it’s not just going to be about training, hopefully I can make the life process a little bit more fun, too. And when she came here, she did that for us, too.” 

Happiness has also come in the form of contentment as she’s been pursuing cross country while indoor track is going on around her. That external noise, coupled with the internal pressure she’s battled with for years, is something that she’s learned to slowly silence. 

“My mentality has changed and I feel like I have to put a lot less stock into running results into the way they relate to my personal worth, and know I am a worthy person no matter what the results are and that really makes racing more enjoyable,” said Ostrander, a former Brooks Beast athlete. "I know that (results) don’t reflect on who I am, it reflects on what my performance was that day and I think that having that knowledge makes me more open to putting myself out there, also it makes me less reliant on being at a certain race. Before I would have thought I have to do indoor track because people care about it. And now I’m like, ‘I don't have to do indoor track because that's not what I care about right now. Not basing decisions off external measures but more what makes me fulfilled.”

Roche said the plan for Worlds is using this as a building block to her spring season on the track and trails, keeping in mind they want her to be 100 percent in May and June. He mentioned some possible track races in California and go from there. 

“We are going to put our chips on the table this year and take a few more risks when it comes to training a little bit later on that we’re not going to take for World Cross quite yet because we don't peak too soon,” he said. 

A three-time NCAA collegiate steeplechase champion, and someone who has experience on the national and international stage, Roche said the end goal is again, not a results-driven thing for Ostrander. 

“What we are trying to do now is get it to the point where the races are celebrations, including these really, really big races, so that none of them are so much on a pedestal,” he said.

A two-time U.S. Olympic Trials Qualifier, Ostrander did address the fact it’s an Olympic year and a desire to one day be back at that stage competing for a spot on Team USA. Her last attempt at the Trials was in 2021 when she was in the depths of her eating disorder treatment. 

“I would love to be at an Olympic Trials at some point in my life where I really feel like my buildup has been ideal, I feel ready, I feel fit, and I'm prepared to compete for a spot on the team,” she said. “I don’t know when in my life that will be, but I really, really hope that happens at some point, because if my training lines up and my fitness is there, I would say that I'm 100 percent going to try.” 

Roche, who describes Ostrander as a “damn smart” and wonderful person who lifts everyone up she encounters, said her “broken roads” journey has made her the individual she is today with her story still very much being written. 

“That’s the cool thing in thinking about an Olympic year like a lot of people get really vulnerable and there’s going to be some incredible stories told,” Roche said. “And my message to Allie is, ‘Why not you?’”