Not Scared of the Moment

By: D. Scott Fritchen

Shortly after 5:45 p.m. on Saturday, January 31, inside the Cliff Rovelto Indoor Track, junior Vienna Lahner, over the final 50 meters of her fateful run, saw the yellow numerals upon the screen slowly turn, as if almost creeping, as if the universe, pulling for her in this golden moment and cheering her on, slowed down time. Then, in a flash, Lahner crossed the finish line at the DeLoss Dodds Invitational, her heart racing, the sweat pouring, as she stood in her Kansas State uniform, and awaited the final result.

Year after year, K-State women had tried to surpass the seemingly impassible, one by one they fell short, their dream crushed, a second here, a second there, only to leave the track wracked in disappointment.

Lahner knew the record for the mile-run by a K-State female was 4:39.06 set by Deb Pihl in 1983. Lahner knew the number so well. Why, just a year ago on February 7, 2025, on the very same indoor track, she attempted to break the record, but she finished with a time of 4:50.69 — a time that seemingly taunted her throughout workouts.

Now Lahner stood and waited. Five seconds, 10 seconds, 15 seconds. Finally, after about 20 seconds, the screen revealed her official time: 4:38.84.

Lahner now owned the record for the fastest mile ran by a K-State women's athlete in history.

"I turned around, and Deb Pihl said, 'You got it!'" Lahner says.

They met each other in a long embrace, Lahner and Pihl, and a torch that Pihl carried for 43 years was passed to the junior from Spring Hill, Kansas, once scared to achieve great heights, yet now perched at the greatest height of her life, with Pihl as her biggest cheerleader.

"Deb was probably the happiest person for me," Lahner says.

Lahner found her parents, Peter and Andra, in the stands. Andra was staying with her daughter in Manhattan and had driven her to the track meet shortly before 3:00 p.m. Her parents had seen her run her first 5K in the third grade, had seen her set five school records at Spring Hill High School, had applauded her First Team All-America honors at the NCAA DII Championship in the 1,500 meters while racing at Adams State, and were so excited to have their daughter closer to them in Manhattan.

And now? A record-setting daughter.

"It's about discipline and commitment," Lahner says. "A lot of it is just about confidence. If you'd told me that I'd get even remotely close to this record, I wouldn't have believed it. I used to get so upset with my parents or coaches for thinking I could do something because I was so scared of it."

The long climb to this day arrived with Trey and Stephanie Brokaw's smiling faces as the pair of K-State assistant coaches took Lahner around the K-State track and field facilities and the Manhattan community shortly after Lahner completed her freshman season at Adams State.

Although Lahner loved her time at Adams State, it is located in Alamosa, Colorado, with an elevation of 7,544 feet above sea level, which caused her altitude sickness and iron levels that continued to plummet.

Little could Lahner predict, with the Brokaw's help, she one day would climb to a summit bigger than she could imagine.

"They're awesome," Lahner says. "The whole last year, Trey has been watching me struggle with the ability to wrap my mind around whether or not I can do things, so both of them just have instilled a bunch of confidence into me. For the last month and a half leading up to that, they were constantly telling me I was capable of it and to be ready for it to happen.

"They told me not to be scared in the moment."

All of the training and months and weeks and days and hours came down to this: A couple weeks prior to Lahner's conquest, she performed a mile-prediction workout in which she ran eight 400-meter dashes with a one-minute rest between each set. The mile-prediction workout predicted this: Lahner could break 4:38.84.

Meanwhile, the Brokaw's also predicted this: Lahner could break 4:38.84 as well.

Then it happened. A blast from a starter's pistol. Arms and legs flying. Bodies cruising along the purple lanes inside the Cliff Rovelto Indoor Track.

"My strategy was to sit in third or fourth place as long as I could," Lahner says. "I hung on for a long time and stared at the back of the girl's head in front of me, then I dialed back in with 400 meters to go, and I figured out what I needed. Then you're hurting and you run what you can run. A lot of it was to stay calm and finish it up as best I could.

"I was trained so well in practice that the race felt a lot easier than I'd anticipated in the moment. It just had me set up to feel really good and to feel strong for a long time. I realized at some point that I was going to be capable of doing it. I knew what I had to run for the last 200 meters and thought, 'I know I can do this.' I was set up so well. I knew exactly what I had left and I knew I still had it."

And then came the final 50 meters. And time slowly ticked down to the end of a race that Lahner will never forget.

"It felt longer just because I was trying to analyze so much in the moment," she says. "Crossing the finish line, it felt like it took forever."

She slept little that night. Congratulatory texts poured in. Teammates and friends sent photos of her conquest from their perspective near the track, each photo telling the same sweet story of victory. Texts from family members, high school friends who she hadn't spoken with in forever, her high school coach, high school teachers, and old teammates from Adams State — all rejoicing in her feat. A few days later, she even received a hand-written card.

"So much support and encouragement," she says. "The day after, I thought about it all day. I kept trying to relive it in my head. I kept thinking about the moments, how it felt, and looking at pictures people sent me, and still trying to wrap my head around it as much as I could. It was difficult to register."

She smiles at the photos of her and Pihl embracing after the race.

"Deb has always been really supportive," she says. "She always tells me good luck before all my races, and she asks me how they went if she didn't see them. Going for her record last year, she knew I was trying. I've had her support for a whole year."

Exactly when did it all set in?

"I don't even know if it really has set in," she says. "It's so funny. It was such a huge moment for me. It's one of those things where you know that you did it, but it feels so significant still and it just feels — you're in such a different position than you were the day before that it's hard to wrap your mind around it."

But there's a story, a lesson all right, to be told within this remarkable milestone.

"A lot of it is progressing over time and wrapping your head around capabilities," she says. "It's about digging deeper and discovering your limits and trying to expand your limits."

Lahner pauses.

"It's about," she says, "the will to keep going."

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Vienna Lahner

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