ORJ Interview w/ Jeremy Rae

Last weekend, Jeremy Rae became the first Canuck born in the year 1991 to run under a 4-minute mile by winning the illustrious Meyo Mile in 3:59.62. We sat down with Jeremy, currently a sophomore at the University of Notre Dame, for an exclusive post-race interview.

P&P: Congrats on the race dude. I can't imagine how awesome you must feel.

JR: Thanks man. It was a crazy race.

P&P: Alright, let's get down to business. You're enough of a hotshot now that you kinda know what sorts of questions to expect from interviewers post-race. Well this interview's going to be asking all the questions that those other interviewer's are afraid to ask. I want my readers to get to know what makes you tick.

JR: Haha sounds good.

P&P: I want you to describe, in detail, what you did 24 hours leading up the race. Do you have any specific pre-race rituals or traditions?

JR: Skipped all my classes Friday. Screw 'em, it's the Meyo mile! Did a light 30 around 3. Bugged my girlfriend for a while until she had to race, then I literally played Black Ops till 1 in the morning and I got tired. Woke up around 9, did a shakeout, then played more Black Ops while blasting The Carter III by Lil' Wayne until I went to the track.

P&P: PS3 or XBOX?

JR: PS3.

P&P: Damn son. I have it on the Box.

JR: You play Zombies much?

P&P: Yeah! That's like all me and my roommate do.

JR: What level do you usually make it to?

P&P: Usually 7; our best is 9.

JR: That's it? Are you serious?

P&P: Two guys.

JR: Me and my buddy routinely make it to the 30s.

P&P: Pix or it didn't happen.

JR: Dude I posted a [Facebook] pic like a month ago.

P&P: Sorry, I'll work on creeping you harder in the future.

JR: Hahaha you'd better.

As you can see in the picture, Jeremy has made it to level 30 while playing as both characters.

P&P: Maybe I'm just missing out on some of the tricks. I just learned there were other rooms like two days ago.

JR: LOL you've got a lot to learn.

P&P: Such as?

JR: Well, have you ever gotten the mystery box?

P&P: No!

JR: You're kidding. You are playing Black Ops right?

P&P: That's what the game case says.

JR: Alright. First thing's first: Don't EVER buy the guns in the first room. Go right to the doors. Should be a 6 barrel shotgun on the wall; you won't need a better gun till level 5.

P&P: That already helps me out so much, I only have ever used the 2-barrel.

JR: I feel bad for you.

When he's not running or playing CoD, Jeremy enjoys fishing, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and hanging out with his fellow runners, ideally in as little clothing as possible.

P&P: Take me through what you were thinking when you hit 400 to go.

JR: My team was going crazy. That corner at the top of the homestretch went apesh*t when I took over the lead; they were definitely the reason I hit the last lap so hard. The last thing coach stressed to me before the race was "patience", so I just kept asking myself whether I had gone to early.

P&P: Worked out anyways.

JR: Yeah, even when I took over the lead, there was never really any part of the race that felt taxing. To tell you the truth, 60s aren't that big a deal for me anymore. My last two races have been 54-57 or faster, so that actually felt kinda slow.

P&P: Do you ever listen for or hear specific people during your race or is it just a bunch of noise?

JR: That race was probably the loudest one I've ever been in, so I only heard my coach on the first lap telling me to ball up and get on the rabbit and one of my roommates on the final homestretch yelling "t*ts" over and over. He absolutely loves saying that whenever anything good happens.

Aside #1: This makes intuitive sense; t*ts are almost always synonymous with good things (exception: breast cancer)

P&P: So you ran a better time on the weekend than Alan Webb did a couple weekends back. What do you think would happen if you two went toe-to-toe?

JR: Hmm.. I'm sure he'd win if it was just the two of us. But I would have loved to be in that Boston mile this past weekend. The winner went 3:54 and I could have seen exactly how fast I am right now.

P&P: Actally I was talking about who would win in a fistfight. Not to scare you or anything, but he does a lot of upper body weights according to Sub-4 and has shown us he has a naaasty temper.

JR: Oh he'd kick the sh*t out of me. I'm not saying he's a good fighter, but I've never been in a fight in my life so I just assume I'd do very poorly.

Welcome to the Gun Show. Look at Lagat's expression; he knows what's what.

P&P: When you posted your time to FB, it got a ridiculous number of likes. Do you think you'll ever get that many likes on a single item again?

JR: Never. And I'm kind of depressed about it. Nothing I could possibly write would ever get more likes than that.

P&P: I don't want to sound like I'm getting ahead of myself here, but what about if you someday qualified for the Olympics?

JR: Maybe. My teammates were joking it'd probably take like "Olympic Gold Medal", or "World Record 3:41!" Although at that point I bet people would think I was lying.

P&P: You should unfriend them then, no doubt.

JR: Hahaha.

Aside #2: Make sure all of your Facebook friends are painfully aware of your PBs by means of random status updates.

P&P: How did you and your team celebrate post-race?

JR: The after-party was sweet; my team was putting a lot of pressure on me cause it's been like 5 years since they had a sub-4 party. At sub-4 parties, you had to wear sub four pieces of clothing and 2 shoes count as 2 items so you need to be pretty selective.

P&P: That's awesome. What did you pick?

JR: Singlet, red Canada half tights and my sandals. It was four items but oh well. It's harder for the women thought, bras and underwear take up two which doesn't leave you with much.

P&P: Ahh yeah.

JR: I also got doused in champagne when I walked through the door, from the guy who was yelling t*ts earlier.

Aside #3: T*ts guy, you are quickly becoming my new best friend.

P&P: One last question: do you know if Nick has any "Stop J Rae" t-shirts left? Have you ever thought, considering your recent success, of starting up your own clothing line?

JR: I didn't think he ever made Stop J Rae t-shirts. He made some for JP [Malette] way back when. If I were to make my own clothing line though, it'd have to involve flannel in some way. Flannel hoodies are my jam.

P&P: Plus it gives you an opportunity to make provocative bedsheets. Think of the possibilities!

JR: Haha yeah that's a great idea.

P&P: I'll start work on it now. First piece'll be "I finish the mile in 4 minutes. Guess how long it'll take me to finish with you?" What do you think?

JR: Thumbs up.