Cross Country

The Most Difficult Physical Feat I Accomplished:

            The journey began my freshman year of high school. I had tried out for the school volleyball team which had been my goal to make since I started playing volleyball in fourth grade. Unfortunately, I went to a very competitive high school, and I did not make the team. Although, I did have club volleyball that started in late November and went throughout the spring semester, I wanted to be a part of a team for my first semester for sure. In junior high, I had been playing a sport all of the time because I played volleyball which straight into basketball season which went straight into track season. Volleyball was out of the question, and basketball was not my favorite sport. After the cross country coach convinced me to run on his team, the most difficult physical journey, thus far, had begun.

            However, the thing was I was not expecting for this journey to be as grueling as it was. From my experience in junior high, I thought our runs would be a mile each day and that was it. I could not have been more wrong. Not only did we have extremely long runs, but they were at 5:45 in the morning. I eventually got to the point where I ran forty-five miles per week. The physical aspect of running on that much is what I expected to be the hardest part. However, running that much was more mental than anything. If I was hitting the pace that I had as my goal, then the physical feat of it had already been accomplished. However, maintaining that pace was all mental. Motivation and perseverance were the two key things to completing a run on the pace I was supposed to hit.

            Another hurdle that I had to jump during cross country and track season (aka all year) was maintaining my weight. I have always been tiny because I automatically burn everything I ate. So, running that much on top of such a high metabolism was not the best situation. I struggled to keep enough meat on my bones, yet I still fell way below the healthy weight range for my age and height, at the time. As a result, as I continued to run throughout high school I eventually learned how to run that much, eat healthy, and maintain a healthy weight. Altogether, running in high school was not only a physical feat, but also mental. It was something that taught me discipline which I then applied to the rest of my life.