Distance Running In College

Of the more than twenty million Americans who are running today, most who start do so for the wrong reasons, with the wrong attitude, and tend to lose interest after a few weeks or months. Many quit. This is usually because they become concerned with superficial goals such as time and distance and never discover the more profound mental benefits that running offers. (Lilliefors 15)

“In running, it doesn’t matter whether you come in first, in the middle or last. You can say, ‘ I finished’ There is a lot of satisfaction in that” - Fred Lebow. I began cross country in eighth grade shortly after my brother joined the year before. He enjoyed it a lot, so I thought it would be fun. I’ve been on the team for two years. I would like to run for the rest of my life. Cross country changed my life positively forever. It taught me to push myself past what I thought was my limit. It revealed to me a great community of people and it taught me to leave my comfort zone.

In all my life, I’ve never had a commitment that required so much of me as track and field, both physically and mentally. Towards the end of my high school career, track and field for me meant having to push through a difficult physical condition known as tarsal coalition, a condition that causes inflammation in my feet. With help from my coaches, I had to learn to endure past physical limitation and strengthen my faith in my abilities. By doing so, I became more confident in myself and I was able to help lead other team members to do the same. Not only did track and field teach me to lead, but it also taught me how to be a part of a team. I learned the value of teamwork through building relay race teams. In all relay races, I was either the

To begin, I will give background information on my cross-country career. I consider my cross-county experience to be distinct and memorable for reasons unfamiliar to most seasoned runners. For most my life, I played the game of soccer; after high school, I couldn’t imagine letting go of the sport that I had come to love and therefore committed to continue my career through

After every race, you can vaguely expect what you will see up on the clock. I know, now, how much I put in, is only as much as I can expect to get out. Running has helped me form some ideas that are still fresh in my brain but will hopefully help me become a better version of myself. Just remember, someone may have a lifetime ahead of them, but they need to make the last bit just as good as the

For 2 years I was a member of the Central Toronto Athletic Club. CTAC is a competitive middle distance running club that trains its athletes to compete in track and field and cross country events. It is a year round athletic club that is a platform for talented people of almost all ages to train and to focus on their self-progress as an athlete. At CTAC I was encouraged to push myself to test the limits of my speed, endurance and strength and to discover what my body is truly capable of. Running was a very satisfying sport because my achievements were directly proportional to the amount of work that I put in. At CTAC, I learned discipline, dedication and perseverance. I had to balance my schoolwork with daily practices or workouts, I ran six

In sixth grade I quit the school band in the middle of my third year to join Running Club. The goal of Running Club was to run a 5k after weeks of practice and I accepted the challenge. Throughout the duration of training, I would find the long runs consistently demanding and a test to my motivation to persevere in the club. One of the coaches, Miss. Ames, was my teacher from the previous year and she ran with me during practice. She constantly encouraged me to push myself a little more every run and to keep practicing. I was frustrated with my performance, but Miss. Ames continued to encourage me. Nevertheless, preparing for that 5k was an eye-opening and an overall amazing experience.

Running a marathon at only 17 years old taught me that the strongest supplements a person needs are determination and motivation. The largest development of mindset and the confirmation of my future career came from when I chose to vicariously run 26.2 miles for the person who inspires me the most; my mother. When I was younger, my mother ran the Chicago Marathon twice. After her diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis in 2013, she still continued to attempt to run and walk despite her immense pain. She eventually was unable to run, until I worked with her to build strength for jogging. She then started walking and jogging as much as possible. Inspired by her, I decided to run the Towpath Full Marathon in October of 2015, after six months of training.

I was a late-comer to athletics. So when the distance coach recruited me in tenth grade, it was a pleasant surprise to be half decent. I was deemed the most improved cross country runner in the nation, dropping six minutes for a 4K, landing me in my first state race. I have since been a contributing part of my varsity team. I have been All-Conference and All-Section for the past three years. This past year, my cross country team won state and nationals. I, myself, was runner-up in the team division at nationals. In Track and Field, I also competed at state. Running has become a huge part of my life, teaching me many lessons, especially that there is always room for

This lesson took four years to learn. I first began to grasp the subject in my first year of cross country. I did not run before season. I did not do anything more than what was assigned in practice. I spent the season running JV. Junior year I ran fifty miles before season and attended a couple morning practices. I made the seventh runner by the end of the season. My senior year I hunkered down. I ran 200 miles before season by participating in a half-marathon, running every day by myself, and got a job at which I ran. In season I only missed one morning practice. By the end of the season I had ran over 450 miles, gone through two pairs of shoes, was the number four guy on the varsity team, and ran my best time ever, 18:06. This skill did not just in my athletic world. I put in over 100 hours of community service with the Ludington Jaycees. This helped me get jobs and connections through out the community. At school I went down the most advance math path the school could provide me. They now have to send me out to the local community college for

During the fall of senior year, I joined the cross country team to help prepare and condition me for the track season, in the spring. Skeptical at first, I knew that I didn't have any endurance since I only sprint over hurdles during the track season, but little did I know that the weeks were passing and the end of the cross country season arrived. Though I was one of the inexperienced long distance runners, I knew that I ran the fastest I could because when I crossed the finish line I had an overwhelming nauseous feeling. As someone who runs a short distance, I was proud of myself for making it to the end of the season without quitting, especially since cross country is running for a long distance, which other sports make their athletes do

Near the end of August, I tuned in to watch the last event of the Summer Olympics: the marathon. The mere strength and endurance required for this final event left me with nothing but respect and awe for the competing athletes. As a runner myself, I knew that distance running was not only a physical challenge, but a mental challenge as well. What were they thinking as they ran? What kept them from giving up and stopping? All of the runners certainly had the perseverance to be considered gritty as Angela Duckworth, author of Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, might point out, but the reason behind their persistence is something of a mystery. Or so it seems. While Duckworth proclaims that optimistic people tend to persevere more, she

One very important lesson I learned was that to be even the slightest bit successful at running, or at anything, one has to put in a tremendous amount of hard work

By the time I was twelve years old, I had navigated the country’s fourth largest airport by myself, traveled to a foreign country nearly 6000 miles away without any family or close friends, and climbed to the top of Mount Rushmore to stand on top of George Washington’s head. All of these challenges I accepted without even thinking twice. The one challenge I never did complete, however, was running one season of high school track.

Endurance running is a rewarding experience that puts to test an athlete’s courage, perseverance and determination. It is a marvelous wonder how the human body, with the proper conditioning and mental focus, could achieve such tasking running distance. Elite runners complete the marathon course in just over 2 hours, while the average runner completes it in about 4.5 hours. It’s difficult to comprehend how someone could run, consistently, for 4.5 hours.The actual marathon is simply a formality as the journey starts the day training begins. The outcome, the day of the marathon, is dependent on how successful the training program was executed. Long distance runners are the