When he tells Cassie Peller, she offers advice. Having begun running competitively in sixth grade, she relates.,”

Cross country coach Dave Uhrich's 11-year-old son Steffen recently began competing in organized running. Naturally, Uhrich had concerns regarding Steffen's training habits.

When he told Cassie Peller, she offered advice. She can relate because she began running competitively in sixth grade.

She did not offer the concerned parent-friendly pointers, though. Instead, she pulled her running log out of her bag during a team plane ride to Boston and told Uhrich to read it.

How is a Division-I athlete's running log pertinent to a middle school kid? The log dates back to 1999, when Peller was in seventh grade. Not a day missed, not a mile uncounted.

"You're crazy," Uhrich told her.

Peller, a junior, records not only her running but also keeps a journal. She began it in February 1999 and has written about each of the 2,800-plus days since. As a hobby, she collects friends' birth dates and pastes them to her bedroom wall. Facebook.com has made the hobby easier, she said.

"I have a lot of strange quirks," Peller said. "I'm only missing two dates."

Her organization contributes to her success – both in the classroom, where she is a physiology major, and as an athlete. Some might call her behavior obsessive. Whatever it is, it works.

Peller plans to attend graduate school, aspiring to be either a college professor or a counselor to people with eating disorders.

Different than most, she admits that running is more than something she enjoys. It's a part of her life – and a huge one at that. When deciding where to go to college, track and cross country were the determining factors. Peller is stronger in track, where she runs the 1,600 meters indoor and the 1,500M outdoor.

Peller said good runners are mentally "sick," because an element of their personalities enjoys enduring torture.

"With Cassie, I never worry about her not training hard enough," Uhrich said. "But sometimes, I have to tell her to back off so she doesn't wear down."

During Marquette's Sept. 15 meet at Notre Dame, Uhrich noticed that she seemed lethargic. She burned out. Peller, who had never averaged more than 55 miles per week in summer training, ran 70-mile weeks consistently this past summer.

"I believe the summer is when you make your game," she said.

She and junior team member Scott Mueller kept track of each other's workout regimens during the summer. One week, Mueller bet Peller he would hit 130 miles before she could run 80. Peller reached 80 miles, and then Mueller gave up at 127.

"I was like, 'Come on! Three more miles, man!'" she said.

Peller thinks Mueller is more passionate about running than anyone she knows. Mueller thinks the same is true of her.

"I would say she's definitely the hardest worker on the team," Mueller said. "She's one of the hardest workers I know, in general."

Before the Big East Championships, Peller decorated the locker room to motivate teammates. At the championships in Boston, Peller placed 13th of 131 runners. As a team Marquette was less impressive, with the women finishing fifth of 16 teams.

"Yeah, it bothers me a little," she said. "As a captain you feel responsible in a way, but you can also say, 'OK, we're very young.'"

In all likelihood, the women will miss the NCAA Championships for the first time since 1999, though Peller may qualify individually. She said an individual bid does not cut it, though.

It presents an imperfect scenario – and imperfection seems to bother her more than it does most others.

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