She’s married, she’s fast and her teammates describe her as “psycho.”

And Cyclone runner Amber Garrett’s story proves these things to be true.

Garrett, whose last name was Grady until marrying her high school sweetheart last summer, has led the Cyclone women’s cross- country team every meet since the season opener in which she finished second on the Iowa State team.

In addition to “fast,” her teammates Mickey Skidmore and Erin Bresnan repeatedly call her “psycho” because, “If you look at the common denominator of all the runs that get out of control or too fast, it’s Amber.”

Garrett even ran on her wedding day. She loves running and isn’t quite so lovable when she can’t get her daily run-induced endorphin high.

For Garrett, running is always a good idea, even on days when she has to force herself to. But for her, those days are few.

“I want to run every day for the rest of my life unless I lose the ability to,” Garrett said.

She wants to compete in a western road race that stretches 100 miles. She also wants to beat world-class, ultra-marathon runner Ann Trason, a lifelong runner.

But running for life or a Division I school were not two things for which Garrett always planned.

Garrett is from Dunlap, an Iowa town of 1,200 people. She was one of five girls out for the Boyer Valley High School cross country team, and two of the other girls were her younger sisters.

Back then, Garrett said she had the idea Division I athletes were Olympic material. What’s more, she had no intention of having a collegiate running career.

That is until her senior year when Garrett decided she enjoyed running. At the state track meet that spring, Garrett took third place in the half mile and seventh overall in the mile.

Despite her respectable performances as a prep, Garrett did not get much attention from college coaches. She decided to pursue her newfound love for running at Benedictine College in Kansas.

She was looped into the program through a trip to China when her dad, who also runs, spoke to a priest on the trip. The priest then talked to the coach, who in turn recruited Garrett. Content to have the opportunity to continue running, she headed south to run Division III cross country and track.

Even though Garrett said she had no expectations, she said the situation was worse than anything she could have dreamed.

She said the baseball coach had to take the team to the second meet of the season because the running coach, who was also the football coach, had a game that day. Upon arrival, the teams stepped out of the van to the sound of the starting gun going off. The team had missed the race because it was an hour earlier than the coaches thought.

Garrett said the program was awful.

“The best run I ever had there was with a soccer player,” she said. Garrett also said she was the fastest runner of all the cross country runners, men included.

Knowing she needed a different program, Garrett decided to transfer and join her husband, then her fiancee, at ISU. Garrett called the Cyclone track office to let them know she was transferring and wanted to run for Cyclone teams.

Dick Lee, women’s track and cross country coach, said he had no previous contact with Garrett and had no knowledge of her running history.

“We had no idea that she would develop and become as good of a runner as she has,” he said.

Garrett had no idea about what she was getting herself into, either. Having the theory about Olympian Division I athletes, Garrett found ISU intimidating. She knew she wasn’t in Kansas anymore.

From the upstairs track, she spent two days watching the Cyclone track team practice before she mustered enough courage to officially walk on.

“I finally thought I’d regret it for the rest of my life if I didn’t go down,” she said.

But Garrett worked through the “huge” adjustment and found the ISU program was what she needed.

Garrett said she was able to keep up with the “Olympians” and she realized the “so-called Olympians weren’t making the Olympics.” In her sophomore year, her status went from walk-on to scholarship athlete.

Ever since, Garrett has been one of the leaders on the Cyclone distance squads.

“I think she’s a really talented runner. When she came here, she was in the middle. Through hard work and lots of mileage she has really really improved,” Skidmore said.

She was running number 5 last year and now she’s number 1. I think that’s really great.”

Lee, Skidmore and Bresnan agreed Garrett keeps things in perspective and has fun on the course.

Lee said she never fails to give her all in workouts or competitions, yet she maintains a balance with her social life, school and athletic career.

“Along with a couple others, she’s one of the kids who keeps people kind of loose through her sense of humor and teasing,” he said.

But Bresnan insisted Garrett is more than a fun and talented runner. “We all know it — she’s crazy,” he said, referring not only to Garrett’s competitive edge during tough workouts and recovery runs, but to her other theories as well.

Bresnan said another thing that contributes to the “psycho” mentality of her teammate is Garrett’s disregard for conventional medicine.

Garrett said medicine prolongs illnesses and forces people to buy more drugs. Instead, she drinks orange juice and hot chocolate and sits in the sauna to sweat out toxins and survive her colds.

Pushing the pace, sweating out toxins, Garrett gets the job done and she does it well, psycho or not. She has made herself into a strong runner since her days at Boyer Valley through hard work and dedication.

Try to catch, or just catch a glimpse of, the married, fast and psycho runner compete in her final home cross country competition on Saturday at noon.

It isn’t an Olympic competition, but it is the NCAA District V Championship meet.

Garrett will compete with the rest of her team in an attempt to qualify for the National Championships scheduled for Nov. 24.