Julianna Miller Senior Profile

DURHAM, N.C. -- Recently, GoDuke.com sat down with senior Julianna Miller to learn more about the San Diego, Calif. native.

GoDuke.com: What has been your favorite place to compete with cross country?
Julianna Miller: I really do enjoy the Wisconsin course a lot. Unfortunately I have never had a good race there in the two years that I've been there. It's beautiful; we go in the fall when the leaves are all changing. It's really well-kept. It's a really good spectator course so there are a lot of people around. There are not too many loops so it's one of my favorite cross country courses. I also really liked the course down in Clemson that I ran my freshman year. It was in an orchard and it was really exciting because it was my first ACC meet.

GoDuke.com: Have you had a chance to race at Panorama Farms at all? That's where ACCs are this year.
JM: It's really pretty up there. We went earlier in the season. It's this one guy's property. It's really scenic and it is definitely hilly, but it's a really pretty course.

GoDuke.com: What is a road trip memory you will always carry with you?
JM: It's hard to think of just a single one. Every trip is filled with lots of bus rides singing and hotel room movies and really fun team-bonding things. But my freshman year, we drove up to Penn State which is about a nine-hour bus ride and a bunch of us were like “Yeah, we're going to get a lot of work done,” because nine hours there and nine hours back, that's eighteen hours of just being able to sit there and do work. It ended up that none of us did any work. We all just watched movies and talked. It was fun, but not very productive.

GoDuke.com: Is there one race in your career that you look back to in your life where everything came together?
JM: For cross country, a race that sticks out in my mind was last year, one of our first races at WakeMed. I hadn't raced in over a year. It was my first time back and I ran a PR and I exceeded my expectations, so it was definitely a confidence booster and an exciting race at that. The rest of the team also did very well so it was a good way to start off the season and it was just exciting to see what everyone could do.

GoDuke.com: What is one lesson competing in cross country that you feel like you could use throughout the rest of your life?
JM: I definitely have learned determination, hard work, and facing adversity in cross country. But I would also say that I have learned a lot about having passion and confidence in what you do. Cross country has taught me that confidence can be really powerful and can really make a difference mentally and physically when you're out there in a race or in a workout. In terms of passion, running is something that I am really passionate about so it has been something that I can devote myself to wholeheartedly. It is something that has taught me that passion can be really important in what you do. I am hoping that after competing in cross country and track is over, I can find something that I am also as passionate about that I can devote myself to.

GoDuke.com: Do you think you will continue to run whether just recreationally or continuing to compete?
JM: Yes, definitely. I couldn't see myself not doing it.

GoDuke.com: What would you say has been your proudest academic achievement here at Duke?
JM: I finished my Spanish minor and a lot of the Spanish classes at Duke are pretty challenging and they might not be the most exciting. There are a lot of Spanish literature classes. I took a class on Spanish playwrights of the golden age so it was like Shakespeare in Spanish – very difficult classes for me. There is a lot of reading and writing in Spanish so I was pretty proud of myself after finishing up those requirements.

GoDuke.com: Do you think you could do this entire interview in Spanish?
JM: I think I would get pretty far. I would definitely have some glitches here and there but I think I should get pretty far.

GoDuke.com: What does it mean to you to put on the Duke uniform?
JM: It means the world to me. I am so honored to be able to be at a school like this and to be able to represent a school that is held to such a high academic and athletic standard because that is so hard to find. It is really something I think about every time I put on a Duke uniform – how special it is and how lucky I feel to be able to race while wearing Duke. Even wearing Duke here at practice makes me very proud and honored.

GoDuke.com: What do you think you are going to miss here at Duke when it is all over?
JM: There is a lot. I am definitely going to miss the team. That's probably the number one thing, the team and just the athletic community at Duke. From the get-go, you just enter this community that is so special and there are so many different types of people. On our team, I have spent every day with these girls. Especially when you are away from your family at college, they become your family. We are all very unique and have so many different personalities on our team but we all get along so well and I have made so many memories with them so it is definitely going to be something I miss for sure, just being around them all the time. I am still going to be in contact with them and carry these memories with me wherever I go.

GoDuke.com: Do you have any pre-race routines?
JM: Not really. I used to in high school. I used to have weird superstitions about different socks and whatever but I dropped that in college. Now I don't really have any prerace routines. Usually in the hotel I try to hang out with my teammates and relax a little bit. Usually going through the course, I try to visualize the race a little bit in positive ways, but that's about it.

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Julianna Miller Senior Profile

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Julianna Miller

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Julianna Miller Senior Profile

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