Competition will get underway Thursday at the Drake Relays with the Thursday Evening Distance Carnival.

Junior Lisa Koll, however, will not compete on the blue oval at Drake Stadium.

Instead, Koll — the defending NCAA champion in the 10,000-meter run — will travel to Berkeley, Calif., with her teammates Grace Kemmey and Guor Marial.

“I’m really excited to race,” Koll said. “I haven’t raced in so long. I’ve missed that feeling, I’ve missed being competitive.”

Koll will be making her season debut in the 10,000-meter event after being forced out of competition with a lower-back injury suffered in late January.

The injury kept Koll out of training for several weeks, which put her behind in her preparation to defend her title. Now, halfway through the outdoor season, both Koll and her coach are excited to see how far along she is.

“I’m anxious to see where she’s at, but I’m also anxious to get a race in so we can go back to work,” said coach Corey Ihmels.

When it came time for Koll and Ihmels to decide when and where to come back to competition, there were many factors weighing on their minds.

The level of competition will be higher in the distance events at Berkeley than in those at Drake, which will allow Koll to run a better time in her first time out. The weather was also a factor in choosing sunny southern California, although it is forecasted to be sunny and warm in Des Moines this weekend as well.

“I’m not going to lie, my heart is a little broken that I’m not running at Drake,” Koll said. “I wish I could be here for that. Unfortunately, Coach Ihmels and I had to choose performance over sentiment.”

It was a difficult decision for both Koll and Ihmels, but ultimately the timing was right, allowing Koll enough time to get ready for the postseason meets.

“The 10k is like the marathon, you can only run it a couple of times a year,” Ihmels said. “Our only other opportunity to run a really good 10k will be two weeks before the conference meet, and I don’t feel good about running her then.

“That would be like saying the conference isn’t important to us, but the conference is very important to us.”

Another factor in determining Koll’s comeback time was the status of her teammate and close friend, Kemmey.

Kemmey struggled in her race at the Stanford Invitational in late March, leading Ihmels to re-assess her training and keep her out of competition since then.

Ihmels said Kemmey isn’t as comfortable in big races without Koll lining up next to her. This will be the first time the duo has run together since the indoor season’s ISU Open, Koll’s last competition.

“I don’t think I understood how much having [Lisa] there has helped Grace,” Ihmels said. “There’s an extra spring in her step knowing she’ll be traveling with Lisa this weekend.”

Ihmels is looking for Kemmey to gain an NCAA-qualifying time this weekend and said she is capable of doing so.

Koll also said her goal for this weekend is to run an NCAA automatic qualifying time, which will allow her to focus on fine-tuning her training and form going forward. She also said she doesn’t know what to expect this weekend, but feels good about where she is at in training.

After redshirting during the cross country season and missing all but one competition during the indoor season, Koll is anxious to get back to competition.

Managing that emotion will be vital for her success this weekend, but that is something she said she is good at doing.

“I love it, I live off of it,” Koll said. “As long as I keep myself calm and utilize that energy in the right way, then it will work out well.”