Kallie Van Orden focuses on the girl in front of her.

Parker Mildenhall thinks about his girlfriend and past runners who have had success at his school.

Sarah Callister goes over words of inspiration she memorizes.

During a 16-lap race, it'd be easy for runners to let their minds wander, so each athlete in Thursday's 3,200-meter run preliminaries at the 2009 Simplot Games had his or her own way to stay focused on the track in an effort to post one of the top 14 times to qualify for Saturday's finals.

Having to circumnavigate Holt Arena's 200-meter track so many times to complete the race provides a different set of challenges compared to an outdoor run, but those who competed Thursday didn't seem to mind.

"It's not bad. It's an easy way to get the pace," said Mildenhall, a junior with the Judge Memorial Bulldog Track Club based in Salt Lake City. "You can get focused and find that mental place. It's easy to stay in there. It never gets dull because you're always trying to do something out there."

Van Orden already knew how it felt to see the same things over and over again while running.

Because the southeast Idaho weather isn't conducive for much outdoor training, Van Orden and her Panthers teammates took to running the halls of their school to keep in shape after cross country.

"It doesn't really get boring for me," said Van Orden, a junior. "I just keep going and going."

Van Orden finished in 12 minutes, 38.76 seconds, which was the 24th-best time out of the 47 girls who crossed the finish line.

Even though she didn't make the final, the area athlete doesn't regret competing in the Simplot Games.

"It was scary, but all the girls are way nice," she said. "I made a lot of new friends, and it was just a good experience."

Rather than bemoan the constant circling around the orange and black wooden track, Callister, of Ogden, Utah, went as far as to call the two-mile her favorite race.

With the strategy involved in running the event, the senior doesn't find the 16-laps monotonous at all.

"You need to get out into position, and then the first mile, you have to be relaxed as possible and conserve because the race doesn't start until the second mile," said Callister, who posted the second-fastest time - 11:23.06 - in the girls' preliminaries.

After her race, Callister didn't even sound winded while talking, and she didn't have to dig into those motivating words stored in her mind to get her through the difficult stretches of the race.

"I just ran easy," she said. "I didn't even want to push because I want to be relaxed and run fast Saturday."

Despite winning the third of four boys' heats, Mildenhall's time of 10:14.25 wasn't good enough to advance to the medal round.

He has one more year to try, and he understands the quality of the annual event's competition.

"You walk in and realize there's so much talent in one place. It's really awe-inspiring," he said. "You think there's so many kids from the area who are good at something, and they all get together. That's incredible."