The Finishing Kick With Mahmoud Moussa
November 15, 2017 | Cross Country
The last month of racing for Mahmoud Moussa has been a payoff for years of hard work and thousands of miles added up. The fourth-year junior started out his season with two strong runs at the Sundodger and Dellinger Invites, but then had a disappointing run in Wisconsin that could have shaken his confidence. Instead, Moussa responded by turning in the performance of his career, going right to the front at the Pac-12 Championships and carrying it to a stunning fifth-place finish and All-Pac-12 First Team honor. Moussa backed that up with an 18th-place finish at Regionals last Friday to earn All-West Region and help the Huskies advance to the NCAA Championships. As the men prepare for Saturday's race at Louisville, Moussa talked about keeping the faith, UW's team dynamic, and beating his older brother Ammar's best Pac-12 finish.
GoHuskies.com: What do you think has made the big difference for you turning a corner this year?
Mahmoud Moussa: A lot of it has been consistency. I've been consistently healthy for my whole career, week after week, long run after long run. Through that all, a big part of it for me is just faith. Faith in God and faith in myself, and staying the course when things aren't going too well. Those are my two biggest things – consistency and faith.
GH: Have there been moments that tested your faith along the way?
MM: For sure, your faith is always challenged. You're constantly being tested and you have your trials but for me it's always been about that belief, not just in running but in life, that things can get better you just have to be patient. That's always been my mentality and I feel I'm reaping the rewards of that right now.
GH: Talk about the Pac-12 race. You got out in the lead pack and just never seemed to waver. Was that the plan going into that day?
MM: Coming off of Wisconsin, it was a pretty bad race, and that was one of those moments where you're having that faith being tested. I remember coming off that race and thinking nothing had really changed from the week before. I was still the fittest I'd ever been, I've still been crushing these workouts, I'm in great shape. Relying on that faith helped me have confidence going into Pac-12s. I thought, 'yeah I can run with these guys, I'm going to run in the front until I no longer can.' So that's what I did, I thought I'm going to run in the front until I can't, and that "can't" came a little later than I thought it would, so that was a good thing.
GH: How did your brother influence your running career? He obviously had a lot of great accomplishments, so was that inspiring or intimidating to be coming up behind him?
MM: I started running because he was running. In high school I was a freshman and he was a senior so we were on the same team then. He was really good, I wasn't very good. So I think throughout my whole career I've kind of been, not necessarily in his shadow, but his accomplishments were so high that whatever I did seemed pretty mundane. But seeing him do it, I've been able to go to him and ask advice on training. He knows what worked for him. I did touch base with him a lot this summer and this year that led to me getting a higher Pac-12 finish than he ever did. (Ammar Moussa had finishes of sixth and seventh at Pac-12 Cross Country for Colorado).
GH: What was his first reaction to your Pac-12 finish?
MM: He was in a state of disbelief. He was like, 'What is going on right now?'
GH: What was your first thought when you crossed that finish line in fifth-place?
MM: It was just really cool because it's something that I've dreamed about for so long, being able to compete with the top guys in the conference and the top guys in the country, and I've always aspired to get to that level. Being able to do that took a lot of hard work that feels like it paid off. Being able to break through and be at that level, and going forward to nationals knowing that yeah I can run with these guys, and if I'm feeling good, the sky is the limit.
GH: Then this past weekend you followed that up with another strong run at West Regionals, so was that another good step in the right direction?
MM: I kind of just did the same thing, I just got to the front, and the plan going in for me was we're going to run 6-7k and see how the team's doing and if I need to close hard I'll close. I remember coming up at 7k and I was getting ready to make a move and start racing, and Andrew (Gardner) comes up next to me, and Colby (Gilbert) was already next to me, so I was excited, then (Andy) Snyder comes up next to me and it was like 'All right, the whole squad's here!' So that was super exciting to be able to be with all those dudes and knowing that we punched our ticket.
GH: The team has had four different number one runners this year and three different top finishers at the past three meets. What does that say about this group?
MM: I think that's one of the key signs of a good team, that on any given day your one could be your three, or your four could be your two. Being able to have that for the first time in my career, where our parts are so interchangeable that if you're feeling good then you could be the guy that day to lead us. It's a really good feeling to have a team that is consistent enough that not everyone has to be having an absolutely amazing day. That's something you can draw confidence from knowing that your teammates are right there with you.
GH: How excited are you now to get to Saturday and go give it a shot?
MM: Personally for me I've never been more excited for a race. There's only so much you can control on race day. The one thing that you really can control is how tough you are and how much belief you put in yourself and put out there. Whether you feel good or feel bad, whether you're sick or not, those are variables you can't control, but the only thing you can control is how hard you're going to run with what you have. Whatever the result may be, walking away knowing that we've put the work in, we've done everything we're supposed to, and we're tough on the day – then the sky's the limit.
GH: It is an interesting mix in the top-seven, with several fourth or fifth year guys and then the two freshmen Talon and Tibs mixed in.
MM: It's a pretty interesting dynamic, we have a lot of older guys, and then we have our freshmen. Coming in and having Talon and Tibs, they were superstars in high school and they're helping us enormously right now, and I'm really grateful for that. It feels like this has been our four or five year journey right now, and they're being plugged in and helping us finish off what we started. So it's about us setting the right example for them, making sure they see that we're doing the right things so they can hopefully avoid some of the mistakes we made. I made a lot of mistakes along the way, so being able to help them learn from our mistakes will help them have a better and more consistent career.
GH: What are you studying now?
MM: I'm majoring in molecular, cellular and developmental biology. I've just always loved science. Knowing how the human body works. Right now I'm taking a medical physiology class, and it's the most interesting class I've ever taken, because I'm just able to see how the body functions, and that relates back to running, knowing how my physiological systems are working from the scientific standpoint is really cool. I hope to end up in the health care field one day, which is something I've been around my whole life and something I think is really important.
GoHuskies.com: What do you think has made the big difference for you turning a corner this year?
Mahmoud Moussa: A lot of it has been consistency. I've been consistently healthy for my whole career, week after week, long run after long run. Through that all, a big part of it for me is just faith. Faith in God and faith in myself, and staying the course when things aren't going too well. Those are my two biggest things – consistency and faith.
GH: Have there been moments that tested your faith along the way?
MM: For sure, your faith is always challenged. You're constantly being tested and you have your trials but for me it's always been about that belief, not just in running but in life, that things can get better you just have to be patient. That's always been my mentality and I feel I'm reaping the rewards of that right now.
GH: Talk about the Pac-12 race. You got out in the lead pack and just never seemed to waver. Was that the plan going into that day?
MM: Coming off of Wisconsin, it was a pretty bad race, and that was one of those moments where you're having that faith being tested. I remember coming off that race and thinking nothing had really changed from the week before. I was still the fittest I'd ever been, I've still been crushing these workouts, I'm in great shape. Relying on that faith helped me have confidence going into Pac-12s. I thought, 'yeah I can run with these guys, I'm going to run in the front until I no longer can.' So that's what I did, I thought I'm going to run in the front until I can't, and that "can't" came a little later than I thought it would, so that was a good thing.
GH: How did your brother influence your running career? He obviously had a lot of great accomplishments, so was that inspiring or intimidating to be coming up behind him?
MM: I started running because he was running. In high school I was a freshman and he was a senior so we were on the same team then. He was really good, I wasn't very good. So I think throughout my whole career I've kind of been, not necessarily in his shadow, but his accomplishments were so high that whatever I did seemed pretty mundane. But seeing him do it, I've been able to go to him and ask advice on training. He knows what worked for him. I did touch base with him a lot this summer and this year that led to me getting a higher Pac-12 finish than he ever did. (Ammar Moussa had finishes of sixth and seventh at Pac-12 Cross Country for Colorado).
GH: What was his first reaction to your Pac-12 finish?
MM: He was in a state of disbelief. He was like, 'What is going on right now?'
GH: What was your first thought when you crossed that finish line in fifth-place?
MM: It was just really cool because it's something that I've dreamed about for so long, being able to compete with the top guys in the conference and the top guys in the country, and I've always aspired to get to that level. Being able to do that took a lot of hard work that feels like it paid off. Being able to break through and be at that level, and going forward to nationals knowing that yeah I can run with these guys, and if I'm feeling good, the sky is the limit.
GH: Then this past weekend you followed that up with another strong run at West Regionals, so was that another good step in the right direction?
MM: I kind of just did the same thing, I just got to the front, and the plan going in for me was we're going to run 6-7k and see how the team's doing and if I need to close hard I'll close. I remember coming up at 7k and I was getting ready to make a move and start racing, and Andrew (Gardner) comes up next to me, and Colby (Gilbert) was already next to me, so I was excited, then (Andy) Snyder comes up next to me and it was like 'All right, the whole squad's here!' So that was super exciting to be able to be with all those dudes and knowing that we punched our ticket.
GH: The team has had four different number one runners this year and three different top finishers at the past three meets. What does that say about this group?
MM: I think that's one of the key signs of a good team, that on any given day your one could be your three, or your four could be your two. Being able to have that for the first time in my career, where our parts are so interchangeable that if you're feeling good then you could be the guy that day to lead us. It's a really good feeling to have a team that is consistent enough that not everyone has to be having an absolutely amazing day. That's something you can draw confidence from knowing that your teammates are right there with you.
GH: How excited are you now to get to Saturday and go give it a shot?
MM: Personally for me I've never been more excited for a race. There's only so much you can control on race day. The one thing that you really can control is how tough you are and how much belief you put in yourself and put out there. Whether you feel good or feel bad, whether you're sick or not, those are variables you can't control, but the only thing you can control is how hard you're going to run with what you have. Whatever the result may be, walking away knowing that we've put the work in, we've done everything we're supposed to, and we're tough on the day – then the sky's the limit.
GH: It is an interesting mix in the top-seven, with several fourth or fifth year guys and then the two freshmen Talon and Tibs mixed in.
MM: It's a pretty interesting dynamic, we have a lot of older guys, and then we have our freshmen. Coming in and having Talon and Tibs, they were superstars in high school and they're helping us enormously right now, and I'm really grateful for that. It feels like this has been our four or five year journey right now, and they're being plugged in and helping us finish off what we started. So it's about us setting the right example for them, making sure they see that we're doing the right things so they can hopefully avoid some of the mistakes we made. I made a lot of mistakes along the way, so being able to help them learn from our mistakes will help them have a better and more consistent career.
GH: What are you studying now?
MM: I'm majoring in molecular, cellular and developmental biology. I've just always loved science. Knowing how the human body works. Right now I'm taking a medical physiology class, and it's the most interesting class I've ever taken, because I'm just able to see how the body functions, and that relates back to running, knowing how my physiological systems are working from the scientific standpoint is really cool. I hope to end up in the health care field one day, which is something I've been around my whole life and something I think is really important.
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