During the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Eugene, Oregon, on July 8, Brigham Young University distance runner Kenneth Rooks fell — and then got up and won the 3,000-meter steeplechase.

The victory — as well as his tenacity — has thrust him into the national spotlight. After the race, he was widely featured in headlines and on social media.

He joins this episode of the Church News podcast to talk about overcoming hurdles and to share how his membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has made him a better athlete.

Subscribe to the Church News podcast on Apple Podcasts, Amazon, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, bookshelf PLUS or wherever you get podcasts.

Transcript:

Kenneth Rooks: I have had a lot of success with running. But I do know that it’s not the most important thing. It’s really important to have that eternal perspective in just life. So, it’s embracing that things will be hard; that’s normal, and it’s going to be OK, and I will recover. Like, I’m not going to be hurting for forever. I think I learned from this last race in particular that, you know, if I fall, I can get up, and I can still be successful. And that has a lot of parallels with the gospel. You know, with the Savior, we can fall, we can access His Atonement through repentance, and we can get up, and we can become clean, and we can be able to, you know, receive eternal life someday, even though we have fallen.

1:03

Sarah Jane Weaver: I’m Sarah Jane Weaver, editor of the Church News. Welcome to the Church News podcast. We are taking you on a journey of connection as we discuss news and events of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

1:19

Sarah Jane Weaver: Brigham Young University runner Kenneth Rooks’ remarkable comeback — after falling to win the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the U.S. Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Eugene, Oregon, on July 8 — has thrust him into the national spotlight. He joins this episode of the Church News podcast to talk about overcoming hurdles and to share how his understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ has made him a better athlete. Kenneth, welcome to the Church News podcast.

Kenneth Rooks: Thank you. It’s an honor to be here.

1:52

Sarah Jane Weaver: Well, I want to start and have you, first of all, tell us: What is the steeplechase?

Kenneth Rooks: The steeplechase — yeah, it’s not a super well-known event. It’s 3,000 meters, so seven and a half laps around the track. Each lap has five barriers that you’re supposed to hurdle or get over, and there’s a water pit after one of those barriers. It’s a fun race. It’s a little bit random how it’s put together, but I like it. I’m really glad that my coach, Coach [Ed] Eyestone, [BYU’s director of track and field], helped me get into it in college. 

Sarah Jane Weaver: And so, you’re running with wet feet?

Kenneth Rooks: Yeah, I’m running with wet feet.

2:32

Sarah Jane Weaver: Well, and recount for us what happened at the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, because it feels like everybody is talking about it.

Kenneth Rooks: It’s been exciting. Definitely going into the U.S. championships, I recognized I had an opportunity to be one of the top three in the race that could have an opportunity to compete at world championships coming up. And I was just preparing myself to just give it everything I had, no matter however I placed, and I ended up falling in the race, two laps into the race. And at that point, I was a little bit deflated, but I got up and decided to continue. I actually, before the race, thought about what would I do if I fell, because I’d fallen in practice a few weeks prior.

And so, I wanted to make sure I had some sort of a plan: If I fell, what would I do? Because sometimes you fall in the steeplechase, because those barriers, they don’t fall over; they’re not like hurdles. And I had that plan. And it was easy to make that decision to keep going and just work my way back up slowly. I definitely was not expecting to win after the fall, but I’m competitive, and when I got back up in the pack, I was just racing, and I ended up winning.

And it was super exciting, super fun. It’s incredible to think about what I was able to accomplish, just “What did I do?” There’s been a lot of really awesome opportunities, and I’ve been able to also bless a lot of people’s lives in indirect ways through my performance there as well.

BYU’s Kenneth Rooks crosses the finish line to win the men’s 3000-meter steeplechase final during the U.S. track and field championships in Eugene, Ore., Saturday, July 8, 2023.

Ashley Landis, Associated Press

4:13

Sarah Jane Weaver: And the obvious connection here is that there are so many similarities between the steeplechase and life. So, you fall, you have to get up, you have to keep going. What is the lesson here for you?

Kenneth Rooks: Well, I think the lesson that I learned is that it’s really important to just choose to keep going. And I would definitely not be talking to you right now if I decided to just throw in the towel at that point. But I was able to accomplish a lot more than I thought that I would be able to, just because I decided to get up and keep going. And I made other decisions later on in the race to dig deep and to just move my way up and win, but it just all kind of started when I made that decision to get up and keep going.

5:00

Sarah Jane Weaver: Well, and when you went down, did you think about quitting?

Kenneth Rooks: Yeah, I mean, the thought went through my mind. You’d normally — like, when you run, you have some good thoughts that come into your mind and some negative thoughts, and you have to deal with those. That’s why I’m really happy I had that plan beforehand, because I was able to deal with that thought and be like, “Do I stop? Do I just quit? Or do I keep going?” And so, I was able to actually make that decision fairly quickly.

I mean, I took about a lap to just feel like I was getting back into a rhythm, and during that time, trying to just tell myself to stay calm, stay relaxed. So, it’s a process. But, yeah, there’s negative thoughts, and they will come. A lot of times before races, especially, when I’m preparing, I just remind myself that, you know, there’s opposition in all things, and this is natural, and I need to just respond and try and do my best to choose what’s good.

6:00

Sarah Jane Weaver: And so, as you prepare for a race, there’s obviously physical preparation that everyone thinks about. But for you, there’s also mental preparation, this “What do I do if —” scenario.

Kenneth Rooks: Yeah, there is that mental preparation. I think that a lot of my mental preparation was going into things other than falling, and that was a small portion of my preparation. Part of the preparation is just race plan, talking with my coach, like, “What are we going to do? What could we expect in the race? What might other people do? How can I focus on my race, and what can I do to stay present?”

I actually have been meeting with someone at BYU, talking about sports psychology and how to be mentally prepared and ready for races as well, so, that’s helped. Visualization helps. And then just practicing, going into workouts every week and putting yourself into uncomfortable positions, physically and mentally, and learning from those experiences also helps you prepare for races. And each race, you learn something, and you can take it into the next race.

7:12

Sarah Jane Weaver: Well, and I want to kind of back up and talk about running in general. Because it’s not an instant-gratification sport; you could obviously have some talent or some proclivity to being a runner, but if you’re going to be successful, you have to do it every single day, over and over and over, miles and miles and miles. How do you train for this?

Kenneth Rooks: Well, I have a mileage plan with my coach that has a certain mileage that I should be running every week.

Sarah Jane Weaver: And what is that, just out of my curiosity?

Kenneth Rooks: I’m probably running, on average, 70 miles a week right now, which is actually lower on the BYU team. Actually, there’s a lot of guys who are doing 80, 90 miles a week, but that’s what’s worked best for me. It’s, I mean, it’s worked out great for me. But, so then we’ll have workouts, usually two hard workouts a week and then a long run on Saturday, to help us hone our skills to racing and being fit for that.

8:15

Sarah Jane Weaver: And when did you start running?

Kenneth Rooks: Well, I started track and field in seventh grade. I wanted to kind of follow after my dad’s footsteps — he ran in high school, and he ran two years into community college — and I recognized I did well in the endurance-type things in PE; I was good in the mile, I usually did good in endurance-type sports, or at least for the running part of, like, basketball or football or soccer. So, I eventually tried out cross country my sophomore year in high school; that was my first year doing cross country, because I had a really good track season my freshman year. Before that, I was playing football. But that’s how I got into running.

I think I mentioned earlier how I got into the steeplechase a little bit, because I ran the 800 and the 1,600 mainly in track in high school. But going into college, Coach Eyestone thought that I would be good at the steeplechase, and I gave it a try and took to hurdling really well, quickly, and I ended up qualifying for the NCAA national championships as a freshman before I began my missionary service.

Elder Kenneth Rooks, third from left, serves in the Uganda Kampala Mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Courtesy Kenneth Rooks

9:21

Sarah Jane Weaver: Well, I want to also talk about your mission, because you obviously were having a great freshman year, and then you stepped away from that to do something that would not allow you to train the way other athletes your age would be training. And this also came during the COVID pandemic. 

Kenneth Rooks: Yes.

Sarah Jane Weaver: And so, tell us where you were called and how that played out.

Kenneth Rooks: Yeah, so I actually could have gone out on my mission immediately after high school. And so, I knew I wanted to go on a mission — I knew I wanted to be a missionary — but I prayed about it and felt that I should go to college for a year. I felt like I’d be more prepared if I did that, and so that’s what I did. And towards the end of my freshman year in college, I got my mission call to the Uganda Kampala Mission. I was there during the summer of 2019, from July up until March, when 2020 hit; got sent back. That was definitely unexpected. I don’t think any of us at the time thought that we were going to get sent home, but I was home for about two and a half months.

That was a hard time, but I got a reassignment to Orem, Utah. I was a missionary there for about six months, from June up until the end of December. And I actually, ironically, got assigned to be a missionary over the same stake that my coach lives in. And then I was able to have the opportunity to go back to Uganda for the last little bit, which I didn’t think was going to happen, but I was blessed to be able to do that, and I finished off my missionary service there and came home July of 2021.

11:06

Sarah Jane Weaver: So, could you run in Uganda?

Kenneth Rooks: Actually, the very first two transfers of my mission, some of the missionaries that I lived with, we all would get up in the morning, we’d run a little bit. But that eventually died out. People got less excited about running after a little bit. But it was hard at times; I wasn’t able to run all the time. And I actually gained 25 pounds in my first nine months. So, I got out of shape. But that’s OK — my main focus was not running at that time; I was focused on just being a representative of Jesus Christ and trying to serve the Lord at that time.

And I knew that if I did get out of shape, if it was in the cards — like, if the Lord wanted me to be successful as a runner after my mission — that He would help me get back into shape. And if not, then I knew that that was also a possibility. I really wanted to be competitive in running after my mission, but I was willing to accept that there’s the possibility that I may not be able to get back into shape. But I trusted that I would be able to. And I think it helps knowing that a lot of my teammates have gone through the same process. They’ve been on missions, and they’ve come back, and they’ve gotten back into shape. And so, just trusting that my body can remember where it’s been and it can get back there has helped out.

12:27

Sarah Jane Weaver: Well, tell me what your mission, and especially the pandemic, taught you about overcoming trials.

Kenneth Rooks: I think that my mission blessed my life a lot; there’s a lot of really good things from my mission. But missions are also hard; there’s a lot of challenging times. And one of the things that I learned from my missionary service is it’s really, really important to just be focused on the positive and be focused on just, like, doing the best you can.

You’re always working on trying to be better as a missionary. And I think having that mindset has helped me in my life to just try and focus on just, like, doing the best I can and understanding that if I give all I can give, you know, the Lord can make up the rest, and that’s OK. And I can improve, and I can keep getting better. That’s helped out a lot. It’s also cool to teach others about Jesus Christ and to see them change and to repent and see that effect that it has on their lives, to see how it can bless them, and also just see how I changed. That was truly a blessing, and you get close to the Lord at that time, yeah.

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, Elder Kenneth Rooks was reassigned to serve for several months in the Orem, Utah.

Courtesy Kenneth Rooks

13:39

Sarah Jane Weaver: And when you think about and talk about hurdles — probably, you’re going on your mission, things are going well, you’re adjusting to being in Uganda. And then you’re home, and probably there’s no place that felt further away from Uganda than Washington, where you’re from, or Orem, Utah, where you’re reassigned. How did you deal with the differences there?

Kenneth Rooks: Well, the gospel of Jesus Christ is the same everywhere; the approach may be just a little bit different. In Orem, Utah, I mean, there’s a lot, lot more members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but it’s still the Lord’s work. The same principles apply; it’s just a little bit different. I wasn’t teaching as many people in Orem, Utah, as I was in Uganda, but I still felt the Lord working through me. I felt like I was a missionary. I didn’t feel out of place. That was a blessing of my missionary service in Orem.

Coming home from my mission was a little bit tough, you know, adjusting back, but I know the Lord’s been watching out for me. And I know that the gospel of Jesus Christ is true. I know that as I trust in the Lord, that He can help me out, and He can help me through those challenges. And He’s helped me a lot in those hard times.

15:01

Sarah Jane Weaver: I have a daughter who’s a COVID missionary; she also served in two places. And I think that there was some unique preparation for life from that, that missionaries got the best of several experiences. I want to talk about coming home from your mission, returning to BYU, getting in shape. Was that hard? Did that come natural? Was there a point when you had to say, “I’m going to commit to this”?

Kenneth Rooks: Oh, getting back into shape, it was difficult, partially because I actually — we had an activity on P-day before I went home where someone wanted to race me. And so, we raced, and I pulled my hamstring in our little sprint race. And so, I didn’t actually — I couldn’t run at all from May up until the end of my missionary service because I pulled my hamstring pretty bad. I had a nice bruise. So, when I got back, I had to not only get back into shape, I had to heal from that. And so, it was really tough getting out and running for that first little bit. Just being patient and just taking it a little bit at a time.

16:10

Sarah Jane Weaver: You know, one of the interesting things about track and field is that you can’t fake it. It’s just something that you have to work so hard at. Do you have people that you look up to, that have influenced you, that would be role models to you?

Kenneth Rooks: Yeah, I think all my teammates, I look up to them in some way. I’ve had the success that I’ve had, but I learned a lot from my teammates, and I have a lot of teammates who I think are better than me, and maybe not in the steeplechase, but maybe in other things. And I’ve looked up to my coaches in high school and my coach now. They’ve all really been good examples to me in regards to running.

16:51

Sarah Jane Weaver: And since you’re talking about your teammates, I want to follow up and ask you: How did you end up at BYU? You know, you have success in track and field and cross country in high school. You’re thinking, “Maybe I could do this on a collegiate level.” And then, what led you to Brigham Young University?

Kenneth Rooks: When I grew up, it was not always my dream to come to BYU. It was also not always my dream to be a collegiate athlete. Like, if you asked me my sophomore year in high school, I would have said I don’t want to run in college. But my mindset changed during my junior-year track season. I had a really breakout season that year, and I had run some times that I realized, “OK, I can actually run in college, and I can actually get a scholarship.”

And at that point, I started looking at different colleges. BYU was the one that stood out the most to me. I actually was looking more at the Utah schools, partially because I think I wanted to be in an area surrounded by more members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for my college experience, but also because tuition at BYU was a little bit — I mean, it’s a lot more affordable than in-state tuition is in Washington. And even though I was getting a scholarship, that was important to me, for some reason.

But coming to BYU, I felt like it was a good fit for me. I’m studying civil engineering; they have a good engineering program. I considered Utah State quite a bit because they have a very good engineering program. But coming on my recruiting visit to BYU, I felt a really good fit with Coach Eyestone and the team. And I felt like that was going to be a big enough part of my life — although I had other things that I was going to be focused on — that was going to be a big enough part of my life that I felt like I’d be better coming to BYU. So, that’s kind of how I ended up coming there.

18:48

Sarah Jane Weaver: And I want to talk a little bit about your victory, because following that win in the steeplechase, you were a popular topic on social media. Did that feel surreal?

Kenneth Rooks: It did feel surreal. Definitely before my race, I was not expecting to have the kind of response that it had. But seeing, like, how I performed, I understand why there was that kind of response, but it is cool to see who gave me some shoutouts and who was saying, “Good job,” and yeah.

BYU athlete Kenneth Rooks stands on the podium after winning the steeplechase event at the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Eugene, Oregon, on July 8, 2023.

Courtesy Kenneth Rooks

19:21

Sarah Jane Weaver: And I have to ask you, because you have been a topic of conversation in some of the Church News morning meetings — we love your story — and everyone wants to know if you’ve seen or if you love “Chariots of Fire.”

Kenneth Rooks: Well, I learned the “Chariots of Fire” song on the piano when I was growing up. But I’ve never actually seen the full movie, but I liked the music.

Sarah Jane Weaver: So, I saw the movie as a little girl and can’t remember much of it, but we should probably both go check that out on Netflix or something.

Kenneth Rooks: Yeah, well, I know my coach made mention after the race, like, it was kind of like “Chariots of Fire” how I ran. I know in the movie, there’s a guy who falls down, gets up and wins.

20:05

Sarah Jane Weaver: Yeah. Has it made you more recognizable on campus?

Kenneth Rooks: It has made me a little bit more recognizable on campus. But I’m not taking classes right now. So, I haven’t really been recognized as much around campus, because when I’m on campus right now, I’m around the athlete building, so I’m already recognizable around there, but yeah.

20:24

Sarah Jane Weaver: And when you talk about being on campus and training, you have another big event coming up, because in the win that you secured, it also allows you to go to the next step. Tell us about that.

Kenneth Rooks: I was able to win the U.S. championships, which is awesome in and of itself. But I also have the opportunity to compete at the world championships, and I am so excited for that opportunity. It’s amazing that I’m going to be able to go compete there against some of the best in the world, and I’m just looking forward to it.

21:00

Sarah Jane Weaver: Now, Kenneth, you also had some obstacles to overcome in high school as you were injured your senior year.

Kenneth Rooks: My senior year in high school, I wasn’t able to finish my season. I pulled my hamstring in practice, right before the regional meet, and I wasn’t able to compete at state my senior year. And that was hard for me. It just took a little bit for me to take it in. I also do play the piano, and I do sing, so, there was actually one day where I was alone, and I was just playing the piano and just singing. And this was just, like, two days after I’d pulled my hamstring. I’d received a priesthood blessing, and people had said lots of prayers, but I just kind of started crying. That is, like, a moment where I really feel like I felt, like, the Lord’s love for me really strongly, that He cared about me, He knew that this was hard for me, and even though it wasn’t working out how I wanted it to work out, that I knew that He loved me, and I knew that He was going to watch out for me.

And so, I have had a lot of success with my recent running. But sometimes, we don’t always have that success. But I do know that whatever situation I’m in, I know that the Lord loves me. Sometimes, even after maybe races that haven’t gone quite as I wanted to, sometimes I’ll feel that, you know?

Kenneth Rooks and his parents. Kenneth won the steeplechase event in the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Eugene, Oregon, on July 8, 2023.

Courtesy Kenneth Rooks

22:36

Sarah Jane Weaver: So, do you feel like especially with distance running, you kind of have to have a long view that both in running and in life, sometimes in the short term, we think all is lost, and then when we get far enough away from that, we realize it’s actually not?

Kenneth Rooks: Yeah, it’s true. I think having an eternal perspective is really helpful. I have had a lot of success with running. But I do know that it’s not the most important thing. It’s really important to have that eternal perspective, in just life and everything that you do.

23:09

Sarah Jane Weaver: And I want to talk about your membership in the Church. How has that influenced your life?

Kenneth Rooks: I think that membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has shaped my life a lot. I don’t know where I would be today without the gospel of Jesus Christ and without my knowledge of the plan of salvation. I just feel like my life would be a lot more empty without that. I feel like my life has a lot more meaning because I know about the plan of salvation. I know that God loves me, I know that His plan is for me. And I’m not perfect — I am working on improving and working on trying to follow the gospel every day — but I’m so grateful for Jesus Christ in my life.

And He’s in my life because I’ve been a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. And He’s also in my life because my parents have also been able to teach me and bring me up. And I am so grateful to them for teaching me the gospel of Jesus Christ and the plan of salvation and for helping me grow that belief.

24:12

Sarah Jane Weaver: So, well — and that’s a good place to kind of wind things up today. We have a tradition at the Church News podcast, where we always give our guests the last word, and we always ask them the same question. And that question is: What do you know now? And so, Kenneth, what do you know now, after winning the national championship in steeplechase and after preparing and running that race?

Kenneth Rooks: Well, I think it’s important to embrace, just, the hurdles and the barriers in the steeple. You got to make those fun. You got to look forward to those in some respects. So, it’s embracing that things will be hard. Something I’ve learned a lot with my running is just accepting that it’s going to hurt, and it’s going to be hard. That’s normal, and it’s going to be OK, and I will recover. Like, I’m not going to be hurting for forever; It’s just for a limited amount of time. I think that’s one thing that I’ve learned.

I think I learned from this last race in particular that, you know, if I fall, I can get up, and I can still be successful. And I think that has a lot of parallels with the gospel. You know, with the Savior, we can fall, we can access His Atonement through repentance, and we can get up, and we can become clean, and we can be able to, you know, receive eternal life someday, even though we have fallen. And I’m so grateful for the Lord and His hand in my life. Something, actually I was thinking about this before, when you mentioned, “How does it feel with everyone saying different things on social media after the race,” or whatever. But something I do sometimes before I go and compete is I’ll pray and ask the Lord to use me as an instrument in His hands in some way. And most of the time, it’s usually just small things that I’m able to be an instrument in His hands. And I feel like I ended up being an instrument in His hands in a little bit of a bigger way this time, and that’s kind of humbling.

But I’m just grateful for the opportunity I have to run. I love it, and I’m grateful for the parallels it has with the gospel. And that’s probably part of the reason why I love running so much, is because it does have those parallels, and it’s helped me out in my life as well.

26:54

Sarah Jane Weaver: You have been listening to the Church News podcast. I’m your host, Church News editor Sarah Jane Weaver. I hope you have learned something today about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by peering with me through the Church News window. Please remember to subscribe, rate and review this podcast so it can be accessible to more people. And if you enjoyed the messages we shared today, please make sure you share the podcast with others. Thanks to our guests; my producer, KellieAnn Halvorsen; and others who make this podcast possible. Join us every week for a new episode. Find us on your favorite podcasting channels or with other news and updates of the Church on TheChurchNews.com.