Meghan Ford ends season healthy, motivated for track season

Dec. 20—JAMESTOWN — This fall was perhaps the least prepared Meghan Ford has ever been for a college cross-country season.

It didn't seem to bother her much though.

"I came into the season rusty having only done easy running all summer at altitude, so I spent the first half of the season doing consistent workouts to make sure I was ready to go the latter half of the season," said Ford, a former runner for Jamestown High School and current South Dakota State University athlete.

Ford said coming into this season, knowing that she had several injuries in the past during college, she was extremely cautious with training going into the season.

"In the past, my best races have come at times where I've just been healthy on the start line, and not trying to force fitness to get back to where I used to be before the injury," Ford said. "This time I just did enough work to get me to the season healthy and I was just excited to be able to race even if it meant I felt like I didn't train as much."

This year was Ford's first season without injury since her freshman year cross-country season in the fall of 2021.

After high school, Ford made the move to Furman University in South Carolina but after two years with the Paladins, she made the decision to transfer largely because she was dealing with recurring injuries and illnesses that made it very difficult for her to improve her times and physical fitness.

Ford transferred to South Dakota State in 2023, but the move did not put an end to her injuries.

Ford was forced to sit out for the entire 2023 cross-country season with a stress fracture. The former Blue Jay tried to get back in competing shape for the 2024 indoor track and field season but things didn't go according to plan.

Ford ran for a couple of months leading up to the 2024 season but that ended quickly with another stress fracture — this time in her tibia. At that point, she made a decision to correct and strengthen her body by basically starting from square one.

Ford attended physical therapy three days a week last year.

She began practicing her heel striking again to take the load off of her forefoot and lower legs to try to prevent more stress injuries to that area. She also had strength assessments and gait analyses done and found some imbalances that she had to work a lot on to correct.

That process brought her to the fall of 2024.

After running for most of the cross-country season, Ford experienced some peroneal tendon issues in her ankle. The former Jay was able to finish out the cross-country season, but the ankle injury prevented Ford from running the indoor track and field season.

Instead, she spent that time recovering and training for her fifth collegiate cross-country season.

The training worked.

While Ford only competed in three meets this season, she remained healthy through all three.

"I can attribute much of my growth to all of the adversity I've faced in my running career in the last four and a half years," Ford said. "I have tweaked things after every injury to see if those could solve the issues, but the things I have changed that I think kept me healthy and strong all season were eating as much as I possibly can of whole foods, fueling during workouts, and timing my fueling properly with the correct nutrients. I've finally figured out how to manage life stressors more. The fueling and lack of stress have also allowed me to get more quality sleep, so I can recover better between sessions.

"Anyone behind the scenes during my college career knew that once I could put together a season without injury, I could run this well or better," she said. "It was nice to finally be able to get to the end of the season in one piece to actually prove it. I wasn't surprised by how I ran at the end of the season, I was just happy that I could end the season being able to give it my best effort."

Ford's last meet of the cross-country season was the 2025 Summit League Cross Country Championships on Nov. 1.

"I always love the conference cross-country meet, it's such a team day for the SDSU men and women because we are both always in a position to win the team title," Ford said. "Going into the race I was just really grateful to finally be able to line up for the conference meet healthy, and excited to contribute to a low team score."

The former Blue Jay placed second out overall with a time of 20:00.7.

"I had thought about my race plan a lot going into the race, and I knew that I have good racing instincts and tactics, so I trusted my gut throughout the race to slowly work my way to the position I needed to be in to kick down second place before the finish," Ford said. "I have a good internal sense of pace, and cross-country races tend to go out pretty fast, so I let a good chunk of runners start ahead of me, and by the 3k mark, I set myself up to chase down Reagan Baesler from NDSU (North Dakota State University) who was quite a ways in front of me.

"This was exactly how I planned my race ahead of time, so I stayed calm as I chipped away at the gap between us until the last kilometer where I sat on her and waited for the last hill to start my kick," she said.

Ford's kick allowed her to pass Baesler and notch the runner-up finish. Jadyn Keeler of the University of North Dakota won the meet with at time of 19:21.

"I didn't really know how fast I had run until well after I finished, because I was just focusing on my placement during the race," Ford said. "I was very shocked to have run 20 minutes. That was a huge personal best for me and was a big defining moment where I got to see all of my hard work come together and celebrate with my team. Winning that head-to-head battle was also a great indicator of where I could be going into the regional meet, so it gave me a ton of confidence.

"Of course winning is also something I hope to do at a conference meet, but Keeler from UND is an extremely talented runner that has just placed (as an) All-American at outdoor nationals during the summer, so she ran away with the win," she said. "She makes everyone in the conference better ... I am hoping I can keep improving and close that gap for track season more."

Still a runner-up finish was not Ford's best race — in her opinion.

"My best race of the season probably came from the NCAA Midwest Regional Meet in Stillwater, Oklahoma, where I finished 13th and was the first individual out of qualifying for the National Championships," Ford said.

"I knew going into the race, with it being known as one of, if not, the hardest course in the country, the entire race was going to hurt," she said.

The Midwest Regional has a largely downhill first mile, which meant the race starts out very fast.

"I really went for it in the race running a five-(minute) flat first mile and fought to the very end so I was proud of my effort," Ford said. "My coach and I thought that the time and place needed to feel confident about getting into nationals would be 15th place and a time of 20:45 to 20:50 based on races held there in the past."

Ford ended up in 13th and ran 20:38 but still didn't make nationals due to how the qualifying teams and individuals sorted out in the results.

"I was only one second away from placing 12th which would have qualified me for NCAAs, so I was of course really upset about that, but that performance objectively was better than I had hoped for, so I am excited about what that means for the future, and the shortcoming will keep me motivated for track season," Ford said.

Ford's track season began two weeks after the cross-country season ended.

"All of the best runners in the NCAA go to Boston University to take advantage of their peak fitness and get in a fast 5K on the track," Ford said. "I ran in heat 3 of the 5K and ran a 16:04. It wasn't exactly what I hoped for on the day for a time, but I was able to break the school's record so I'm excited about that. My track tactics are a little rusty and I definitely need some more speed work, but it was a great test to see what I will need to tweak for track season when I race again in February."

For the indoor season, Ford will be running the mile, the 3K and the 5K.

"I have a couple goals for indoor season," Ford said. "(I want to set) a school record in the mile, (run) a sub 9:10 3K, and get a time around 15:45 to (15:)50 in the 5K. ... I'm definitely focusing on the 5K and 10K for outdoor track but the 3K and mile will help a lot with speed, and it's fun to switch it up. The 10K, once outdoor starts, will be the main focus — (I want) to get to the NCAA championships in the 10K."