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An NCAA cross-country runner in college, former Palo Alto High School student Amy Rogg has had no problems getting in shape for this weekend's Miss California USA pageant.

Rogg, 23, is competing as "Miss Palo Alto" for the pageant, which is held at Agua Caliente Resort & Spa in Rancho Mirage near Palm Springs. It begins Friday (today) and runs through Sunday.

Upon entry to the pageant, organizers told contestants to choose the top five cities they would like to represent. Rogg, who served as student body president while at Paly, got her first choice -- Palo Alto.

"I pretty much grew up there," Rogg said in a phone interview this week. "I have so many memories there, and it's so homey to me."

Now working as a production assistant and writer for TV Guide Network in Hollywood, Rogg attended Addison Elementary School in Palo Alto starting in second grade. Her father, Bill, works for the Palo Alto Unified School District as a music teacher.

After finishing middle school at Jordan, Rogg went to Paly, where she served as president of the student body.

Rogg said that she entered the competition to have a new experience. The preliminary judging will begin Saturday and consist of a swimsuit and evening gown segment. The field of 136 contestants will be narrowed to 15 for Sunday's finals. Judges will conduct a two-minute interview with Rogg and all contestants Friday, which counts as one-third of the competition.

"I honestly don't really know what to expect," Rogg said. "I'm kind of a mix of emotions -- curious, nervous, anxious, excited. I'm trying to be as confident as I can."

Preparing for the pageant has helped Rogg learn more about herself.

"I kind of behave like a guy's girl," Rogg said. "I'm not very girly; I don't get my nails done every weekend or my hair done every month."

The pageant taught her to embrace her feminine self and forced her to articulate her thoughts better, she said.

A bubbly and energetic personality, Rogg discovered her passion for television after taking a broadcast journalism class at Paly.

"The second I took that class, I knew this was my calling," she said. "I wanted to be a TV personality and tell the world 'what's up' through the television medium."

She attended Pepperdine University in Malibu and graduated in April 2008 with a bachelor's degree in Television and Film Production. She worked as an anchor and weathercaster for the university's news station, NewsWaves26.

She is currently filming a documentary, "Chance," a series she hopes will help high school and college students find clarity and direction in life.

Besides television, her other passion is running -- something she took up after finishing ahead of every boy in her physical education class during a 1-mile run in fifth-grade, she said.

She described herself in middle school as a "speed demon that won every race." She continued running cross-country at Paly and at Pepperdine, where she competed in the NCAA Division I finals for two years.

In 2005, she ran a marathon in Rome while studying abroad in Italy.

Though her parents now live in Redwood City, Rogg remains fond of Palo Alto. She recalled running The Dish at Stanford, frequenting downtown and occasionally visiting Greer Park and Foothills Park during her high school days.

She is returning to town this Thanksgiving to visit her best friend from Paly.

But first, she will shed her running shoes for heels at this weekend's pageant, where she hopes to be chosen to represent California in the Miss USA pageant.