This week’s campus celebrity is Marnie Kinnaird ’14, a kinesiology major from Oak Park, Illinois, who has had an exceptional, record-setting track season this spring. While an injury prevented her from running cross-country in the fall, it certainly didn’t hold her back from this semester’s track season. In fact, she comments, “It was the 6th track season of my life but it was the very first time ever that I have completed a full track season without getting seriously injured.”
Not only does Marnie run cross-country in the fall and track in the spring, but she is involved with directed research through Oxy’s kinesiology department. In addition, she works for an event crew through athletics that helps out with high school meets on campus. When she isn’t doing research or helping athletics, she’s setting records. During this past track season she ran the 4th fastest women’s 5000-meter time in Occidental’s history!
However, the training involved with running track and cross-country is intense. She comments, “We run a lot. Every single day…there isn’t really an offseason.” Once cross-country is over, they only have a few weeks off before track training starts and the same goes for the end of the track season. But their efforts are rewarding and it helps to have supportive teammates cheering on the sidelines. Marnie comments on her teammates, “The team atmosphere is by far the best I’ve ever experienced in my life, especially this year. It’s really cool being a part of an environment where everyone supports each other and wants you to succeed.”
After Oxy, Marnie intends to go to graduate school for kinesiology and after that she isn’t sure what she wants to do, but is considering becoming a professor at a university. Her plans for the summer include camping and road tripping to Texas with her teammate Lydia Harmon and for the majority of summer she will do research for the kinesiology department, involving “analyzing the muscle activity and movements of running form drills.” And, of course, she adds that she will also be training with her teammates for the upcoming cross-country season. Hopefully she’ll set even more records next season!
When asked what she likes to do in her spare time, Marnie replied, “Nickelhacking, steaming vegetables, and early bed times. I also enjoy the occasional jam sesh with my friends in B-Y and competitive Monopoly games.”