During a break in practice, Montana Martinez glances over at the soccer team and thinks that would hurt a lot less than her workout.

Before delving further into thoughts of her former sport, it’s time to line up with her cross country teammates for another speed workout. There’s barely been time to calm her heart rate and breathing, and Martinez is running around the University of Hawaii’s practice field, which the sports share.

Martinez came to Hawaii to escape wintery North Dakota and take a shot at a new sport. After a bad experience playing soccer at North Dakota State last fall, she ran track there in the spring, then called up UH. A relative newbie to cross country, Martinez has been the team’s top finisher in all six races she’s competed.

"I had a bad experience with the place in general and coaches," said Martinez, who is from Southern California. "I ended up running and wanted to go somewhere with the complete opposite weather so I came here."

A lifelong soccer player — both of her parents played in college — Martinez wanted to attend college outside of California. She looked at a bunch of schools before committing to NDSU. After soccer season there, she was ready to quit. She dabbled in cross country and track in high school and joined NDSU’s track team where she ran a few distance events as a redshirt.

That’s when she realized her soccer days were over.

"Once I started track, I realized soccer wasn’t going to be satisfactory for me," Martinez said.

She eyed schools in Arizona and Hawaii because of the weather, and called coach Carmyn James, who oversees the UH track and cross country programs.

"I just decided I’m going to transfer here and I contacted Carmyn and told her I wanted to run," Martinez said.

Martinez’s impact has been immediate and somewhat surprising in that she doesn’t have an extensive cross country background like her teammates — though she has done a few marathons.

"It’s rare for somebody to come in and make the type of impact she has right away," said cross country coach Tim Boyce. "She’s got a good amount of talent and redshirted the track season (at NDSU) and ran a few very competitive times."

Martinez’s goal for the season was to simply remain healthy. Now that she’s done that, she wants to improve her times and be competitive at mainland races. The Rainbow Wahine will race at Saturday’s Big West Championships in Riverside, Calif.

"This season, my goal coming in was to stay healthy and not get hurt because I was coming off an injury," Martinez said. "Now that I’m not hurt, my goal is to keep improving every race."

Martinez said she enjoys her new school, team, and running longer distances. Boyce noticed the latter, and said he has to rein her in on occasion.

"She has a really strong work ethic and loves to put in the time," Boyce said. "Hour-and-a-half and two-hour runs are something that she thrives on. Another strength is she doesn’t know how good she is yet. She’s testing her limits every race. As we get more time together, we can really help her strengthen her weaknesses and capitalize the strengths she has."

With her work ethic and athleticism, Boyce sees a promising future ahead for Martinez. Since she didn’t run cross country at NDSU, she has three more years of eligibility left.

"If she can stay with this sport and continue to do the things she’s been doing thus far, she has a chance to be a really competitive runner at this level," Boyce said. "She’s leading our team but I think given time, she has the chance to be a solid Division I runner, which is pretty cool for someone who didn’t grow up as a distance runner."

MONTANA MARTINEZ
Class: Freshman
Major: Psychology
High school: Redondo Union High, Redondo Beach, Calif. 
Factually speaking: UH’s top finisher in all six races this season. Placed seventh with a 5-kilometer time of 19:30 at Chaminade Invitational. Placed 19th with a 6K time of 23:20.4 at Bronco Invitational. Appeared in five games as reserve midfielder for North Dakota State soccer team last year.
On winter in North Dakota: “I’m like ‘why am I the only one outside right now?’ I was hibernating and it was driving me crazy.”