For a woman who’s been profiled more often than the Texas Seven, runner Sarah Ali-Khan still doesn’t mind dealing with the media. “You know what,” said the third year post-grad student, “I really don’t mind talking to [reporters]. Sometimes they ask the same questions like ‘What got you started in running?’, ‘How long have you been in Canada?’ and ‘what does it feel like to win a race?’, but its not so bad.” In case you’re wondering, the answers to the above questions are: she’s not sure, four years and good. If Ali-Khan keeps running at this pace, she’ll have a lot more sound bite-inducing questions to answer.
The Baie-D’Urfé native and New Zealand resident is running out of trophies to win. She was named to the Quebec Student Sports Federation All Star Team in both track and cross country and won the conference athlete of the year award in both, thanks in large part to an astounding 14 gold medals. Oh yeah, did we mention that she ran the fastest 1000m in the CIAU this year and added to her McGill record of eight medals at the National Championships with a gold and two silvers. There’s also the six McGill and four QSSF athlete of the week awards crammed into her trophy case along with a whole bunch of other goodies to numerous to mention.
Remarkably, it has taken only a few years for Ali-Khan to become such a dominant runner. “I have been running competitively for four years now,” said Ali-Khan in her charming Kiwi accent. “I ran in New Zealand, but not like I do here. I thought that it would be a good way to meet people and do something outside school.” She attributes much of her success to track and field coach Dennis Barrett. “He taught me all I know about running competitively.” As for role models, Ali-Khan looks up a fellow Oceanian, Kathy Freeman, one of the premier runners in the world and owner of two Olympic gold medals.
Like most student athletes, Ali-Khan has had trouble balancing schoolwork and athletics. “During the season we train every night for a couple of hours. Plus we have meets on the weekend. It’s gets hard to do that stuff and still go to class and do labs,” said Ali-Khan who’s in the third year of a daunting six or seven year pharmacology program.
With all that studying and practice, Ali-Khan has little time for anything else. “I used to do heaps of stuff before I came to McGill…,” she said, her voice trailing off. She does sheepishly admit to occasional indulgences like Survivor and Sex and the City, but says for the most part “I don’t really watch TV.” Ali-Khan has a wide range of movie preferences, listing the polar opposites Blade Runner and Erin Brockovich among her all time favorites. She particularly enjoyed the latter because of the spirit of the title character. “I like Erin Brockovich because the character was tough and determined. I tend to like movies about strong women.” Ali-Khan also likes to snowboard, but worries about the danger it poses to her track career. “I would like to do it more, but I can’t get past the thought of breaking my ankle.” The sound you just heard was track coach Dennis Barrett breathing a sigh of relief.
As for her running career, Ali-Khan isn’t sure what the future holds. “My immediate goal is to do well in cross country events this summer and to possibly compete at the nationals.” Next year, she plans to return to the track and cross-country teams and continue her neverending quest for a Ph.D. “I haven’t really thought about running after school is over. I guess the next step would be to hire a coach and train a lot to try to compete on [an international stage]. But I don’t know if I’m good enough for that.” For someone who only took up competitive running at 24, anything is possible.