After capping off arguably the best cross country season ever for a high school runner from Colorado, Katie Rainsberger is doing something fairly unnatural for her.

She’s slowing down.

“I’m trying to take a week pretty easy and off,” she said, “but if I don’t run I get a little moody.”

Who can blame her?

Rainsberger went from Arizona, where she claimed the fastest girls’ time in the nation, back to Colorado, where she won her second consecutive state title and led the Kadets girls’ team to their first cross country team title in the program’s 49-year history. Then she finished a week ago in Portland, Ore., where she won the Nike Cross Nationals in a course record time of 16:56.80.

She won every high school meet she was entered in – and sometimes did so in her training shoes.

When looking back at her season, it’ll be remembered best for her utter dominance.

Her career, though, might be remembered as something more.

“She’s an amazing runner and just a terrific role model,” Air Academy coach Steve Rischling said. “People just want to be around her and want to be like her. She always put the team and others first.”

When she was asked how she’d remember this season best, the articulate senior struggled to find the words.

“I think this is the best season yet,” she said after a pause, “but hopefully not the best ever.”

At Nike Nationals, Rainsberger pulled away around the 2-mile mark from a girls’ field that included 26 state champions and never looked back.

And after finishing sixth the past two years there, she was 45 seconds better than her 2014 time at NXN and 13 seconds better than Portland’s Ella Donaghu who took second in 17:10 on Dec. 5.

“There was a moment of doubt that I thought I might have went too early,” Rainsberger said. “I trusted my training and, yeah, it was amazing. It’s something I’ve been working for and dreaming about for a long time.

“This wasn’t just from the training I put in this season,” she added. “This is from years and years of working toward this.”

Rainsberger finished the race not far from Eugene, where she’ll run for the University of Oregon next year. She had also mentioned Stanford and Michigan as interests before deciding to become a Duck.