When I was in 7th grade, I tried out for the Cross Country team. I decided to run Cross Country because my sister encouraged me to try since I always had a lot of energy and endurance. Before I started Cross Country, I wasn’t that much of a runner and did not train for it beforehand. When we had our first-time trial, I surprisingly did very well. I ended up being the 9th fastest runner on the team and was very encouraged to do well by my coach. I placed in the top 10 for many of our meets and ran on the middle school varsity championships for our conference as a 7th grader, I became the only 7th grader on the team to compete in this event. Our team got third overall out of 13 teams competing. We had a great season, and after that meet, we took a break and prepared for the spring track season. During winter, I took my training very seriously and started to run a lot of mileage. There were times where I ran up to 60 miles a week. When the spring season came around, I ran second in the mile with a time of 5:50. Unfortunately, we had one meet because our school decided not to put Track in our conference and we only competed against the schools in our hometown.
After that year, I wanted to improve even more as I began the 8th-grade, so I ran a lot of mileage and did many speed workouts over the summer. I remember my mileage was very high (around 70-75 miles a week), and I did a lot of interval training. I had a fantastic friend to train with, he was a grade ahead of me but was an outstanding runner and a great person to hang out with. He also taught me to run smart, not hard. It is so easy to run fast during distance runs, but one thing to keep in mind, it’s not always a good thing to run fast while training. I have learned that it is important to go easy once in a while so I don’t burn out during the actual races.
When I began my 8th grade Cross Country season, I became the fastest runner on my team and finished first at every meet. When we ran our conference meet, I placed 9th out of 84 competitors with 9 mins for the 1.5-mile race, which was 1 minute and 35 seconds faster than the previous year. That Cross Country season encouraged me to continue to run and achieve big goals. In spring, I ran my first half marathon while running a time of 1:25:21 as an 8th grader, where I placed 35th out of 3130 competitors. Two weeks later, I ran the mile in Track and placed first with a time of 5:30. I also remember I was a big show-off in my gym classes. Whenever we had fitness days, I was always the one who was excited to run. I had many people’s attention, which encouraged me to continue to run in high school.
When I began my freshman year of high school, I won many medals and awards along the way. For the 4k (2.5 miles), I ran a time of 13:59 and ran an 18:08 5k (3.12 miles) while earning a varsity spot for my high school as a freshman. I then ran Winter Track, which I did okay with. I was able to medal in my first race at an 800 relay and placed second with my team (I was the anchor). I ended up not doing track in the spring, and I was training for the half marathon again. I ended up running a faster time in the half marathon with a time of 1:22:24, placed 8th out of 2556 people as a freshman in high school. When I began my sophomore year, I ran so much faster. I achieved personal bests of 17:56 in the 5k, and in winter track, I ran a 10:51 in the two-mile. Of course, I still ran a half marathon in the spring with a time of 1:20:57 while placing 9 out of 2436 people. In my junior year, my personal bests got even better. My 5k improved with a time of 17:39 in Cross Country and Winter Track; I improved my two-mile and brought it down to 10:49 and ran a mile at 5:03. I ended up running Spring Track and ran the two-mile with a time of 10:43. Running kept me motivated, and I had many big goals coming up for my senior year and college.
Then, in the last month of my junior year, my life changed completely. On June 4th, 2019, I lost my aunt. She took care of my sisters, cousin, and me ever since our mom passed when we were little. I had to take on a lot of responsibilities at home. When I began my senior year of high school, I ran terribly. My times were not good and I remember moments where I couldn’t practice because I was so busy. I was also captain, so I had to lead the team and plan captain practices; while applying for colleges, being in school, working, and keeping the house clean, I had so much on my plate where I hardly had time to relax.
During my cross country season, I had so much trouble keeping my varsity spot. I remember I struggled to stay in the top 7, and I ran terrible times. During my winter track season, I also didn’t do that well, I remember my last winter track race where I placed dead last. It wasn’t a great year for me in general because I was so stressed and overwhelmed. I lost a lot of self-confidence and felt very unmotivated in both my running and my academics.
I remember I was always in a depressed mood throughout my senior year of high school because I had so much on my mind where I couldn’t focus much on my running. Throughout the years of running Cross Country and Track, I always had it to destress myself from other things in life, but when senior year came around, I started to feel that running enforced the stress I had. I began to think of running as something else I had to deal with and thought of it as a waste of time. I regret that I never spoke to people about it and just pretended everything was fine. That was a huge mistake because when people asked me if I am doing well, I always say that I am, but I become very moody and unmotivated when the day is nearly over.
In March of 2020, I was willing to run and do better in the spring season, but then the pandemic hit. When everything was on lockdown, I was very eager to hope that this would end within two weeks to continue our spring season. As weeks turned into months, I started to feel so much doubt that we may not have a season at all. When May came around, I knew we wouldn’t have a season and felt very discouraged. I had the mindset where everything I accomplished did not matter and wanted to quit running. There was so much uncertainty, which made it easy to feel unmotivated towards the future, but one thing that kept me going was both my high school and future college coach supporting me through this issue. During that time, they both encourage many of my teammates and me to run even if we don’t have a season in the spring. Their support helped me understand that even though we may or may not have a season, it doesn’t mean it will be like that forever. I was still willing to run in the fall and hoping to have a chance to compete.
When the summertime began, I was very encouraged to train well as I move forward to the fall season in Cross Country. Then, in mid-August, we heard that we’re not having a competing season for the fall. Which was upsetting but the truth, I wasn’t surprised. Of course, I would’ve liked to have a competing Cross Country season, especially for my first semester of college, but at the same time, there are many future opportunities to look forward to. After hearing this, instead of being upset about not having a season, I moved past that and used this time to train better so I can run faster once we have a chance to compete. One benefit was that we were able to be on campus and still had practiced during the semester.
Going through these experiences does show that not everything is going to be easy. This helps us know we are not always in control of what we do, and sometimes we have to deal with issues that cannot change. Currently, I am in my second semester in college, and as of right now, we have future opportunities to compete in the spring. I am looking forward to these opportunities, but I always will keep the idea of things changing in the back of my head because we never know what can happen next. Running will always be a significant factor in my life, and I will always think of running as a way to have fun and destress, either through competition or just running with my teammates at practice. I was also taught, especially being captain, that I’ve learned to become a leader and help people live healthy lives. I have an idea to be a personal trainer, a sports manager, or a running coach when I graduate college. That is the main reason I major in Sports management because I am interested in training people physically and mentally. Running has taught me to stay motivated in everything I do. It has made a significant impact on my life and taught me to live a healthy lifestyle.
After that year, I wanted to improve even more as I began the 8th-grade, so I ran a lot of mileage and did many speed workouts over the summer. I remember my mileage was very high (around 70-75 miles a week), and I did a lot of interval training. I had a fantastic friend to train with, he was a grade ahead of me but was an outstanding runner and a great person to hang out with. He also taught me to run smart, not hard. It is so easy to run fast during distance runs, but one thing to keep in mind, it’s not always a good thing to run fast while training. I have learned that it is important to go easy once in a while so I don’t burn out during the actual races.
When I began my 8th grade Cross Country season, I became the fastest runner on my team and finished first at every meet. When we ran our conference meet, I placed 9th out of 84 competitors with 9 mins for the 1.5-mile race, which was 1 minute and 35 seconds faster than the previous year. That Cross Country season encouraged me to continue to run and achieve big goals. In spring, I ran my first half marathon while running a time of 1:25:21 as an 8th grader, where I placed 35th out of 3130 competitors. Two weeks later, I ran the mile in Track and placed first with a time of 5:30. I also remember I was a big show-off in my gym classes. Whenever we had fitness days, I was always the one who was excited to run. I had many people’s attention, which encouraged me to continue to run in high school.
When I began my freshman year of high school, I won many medals and awards along the way. For the 4k (2.5 miles), I ran a time of 13:59 and ran an 18:08 5k (3.12 miles) while earning a varsity spot for my high school as a freshman. I then ran Winter Track, which I did okay with. I was able to medal in my first race at an 800 relay and placed second with my team (I was the anchor). I ended up not doing track in the spring, and I was training for the half marathon again. I ended up running a faster time in the half marathon with a time of 1:22:24, placed 8th out of 2556 people as a freshman in high school. When I began my sophomore year, I ran so much faster. I achieved personal bests of 17:56 in the 5k, and in winter track, I ran a 10:51 in the two-mile. Of course, I still ran a half marathon in the spring with a time of 1:20:57 while placing 9 out of 2436 people. In my junior year, my personal bests got even better. My 5k improved with a time of 17:39 in Cross Country and Winter Track; I improved my two-mile and brought it down to 10:49 and ran a mile at 5:03. I ended up running Spring Track and ran the two-mile with a time of 10:43. Running kept me motivated, and I had many big goals coming up for my senior year and college.
Then, in the last month of my junior year, my life changed completely. On June 4th, 2019, I lost my aunt. She took care of my sisters, cousin, and me ever since our mom passed when we were little. I had to take on a lot of responsibilities at home. When I began my senior year of high school, I ran terribly. My times were not good and I remember moments where I couldn’t practice because I was so busy. I was also captain, so I had to lead the team and plan captain practices; while applying for colleges, being in school, working, and keeping the house clean, I had so much on my plate where I hardly had time to relax.
During my cross country season, I had so much trouble keeping my varsity spot. I remember I struggled to stay in the top 7, and I ran terrible times. During my winter track season, I also didn’t do that well, I remember my last winter track race where I placed dead last. It wasn’t a great year for me in general because I was so stressed and overwhelmed. I lost a lot of self-confidence and felt very unmotivated in both my running and my academics.
I remember I was always in a depressed mood throughout my senior year of high school because I had so much on my mind where I couldn’t focus much on my running. Throughout the years of running Cross Country and Track, I always had it to destress myself from other things in life, but when senior year came around, I started to feel that running enforced the stress I had. I began to think of running as something else I had to deal with and thought of it as a waste of time. I regret that I never spoke to people about it and just pretended everything was fine. That was a huge mistake because when people asked me if I am doing well, I always say that I am, but I become very moody and unmotivated when the day is nearly over.
In March of 2020, I was willing to run and do better in the spring season, but then the pandemic hit. When everything was on lockdown, I was very eager to hope that this would end within two weeks to continue our spring season. As weeks turned into months, I started to feel so much doubt that we may not have a season at all. When May came around, I knew we wouldn’t have a season and felt very discouraged. I had the mindset where everything I accomplished did not matter and wanted to quit running. There was so much uncertainty, which made it easy to feel unmotivated towards the future, but one thing that kept me going was both my high school and future college coach supporting me through this issue. During that time, they both encourage many of my teammates and me to run even if we don’t have a season in the spring. Their support helped me understand that even though we may or may not have a season, it doesn’t mean it will be like that forever. I was still willing to run in the fall and hoping to have a chance to compete.
When the summertime began, I was very encouraged to train well as I move forward to the fall season in Cross Country. Then, in mid-August, we heard that we’re not having a competing season for the fall. Which was upsetting but the truth, I wasn’t surprised. Of course, I would’ve liked to have a competing Cross Country season, especially for my first semester of college, but at the same time, there are many future opportunities to look forward to. After hearing this, instead of being upset about not having a season, I moved past that and used this time to train better so I can run faster once we have a chance to compete. One benefit was that we were able to be on campus and still had practiced during the semester.
Going through these experiences does show that not everything is going to be easy. This helps us know we are not always in control of what we do, and sometimes we have to deal with issues that cannot change. Currently, I am in my second semester in college, and as of right now, we have future opportunities to compete in the spring. I am looking forward to these opportunities, but I always will keep the idea of things changing in the back of my head because we never know what can happen next. Running will always be a significant factor in my life, and I will always think of running as a way to have fun and destress, either through competition or just running with my teammates at practice. I was also taught, especially being captain, that I’ve learned to become a leader and help people live healthy lives. I have an idea to be a personal trainer, a sports manager, or a running coach when I graduate college. That is the main reason I major in Sports management because I am interested in training people physically and mentally. Running has taught me to stay motivated in everything I do. It has made a significant impact on my life and taught me to live a healthy lifestyle.