directions_run Run • May 16, 2024, 5:10 a.m.

UTL Final Race. This might be a long one. I’m pretty happy with my race as I chipped away at my pr by a little bit, but I didn’t follow my game plan at all. I originally wanted to get out hard and hold on, and although I felt like I was hammering it, I wasn’t splitting anything crazy. This was honestly expected considering how on every “1600 race pace” rep, I’d go at like 4:59 pace. However, I think I had a good kick to end my high school career. Anyways, the best part of under the lights is and always has been watching other people. We did great across the board with a lot of guys managing substantial prs. Specifically, the freshmen did amazing and I’m really excited to see what the future holds for them. Moving on, I want to say a couple of things that I planned on saying during my speech, but was a little too choked up to actually do so. First, I want to say that having such a diverse team in terms of skill level is extremely valuable. It keeps everyone motivated to do their best regardless of ability level. I know I talked about it in my speech, but I was extremely demotivated at times during summer running this year. I’d often times be completely alone, and it really didn’t feel worth it. I didn’t put myself out there, and I didn’t feel like a full member of the team. And I hope nobody feels like how I did, but if you ever do, I hope you stick it out. Because eventually, the fitness will come and the benefits reaped will make the effort well worth it. Something I did to ease my negative thoughts was make a google doc which had my first ever time in an event, and then my pr side by side. That way, no matter how slow I was, I could feel satisfied knowing I was getting better. For reference, my first ever 800 was 2:51, my first 1600 was 6:45, and my first 3200 was 15:29 (all of these were from time trials during summer running 2022). Also, my profile picture was me in the middle of my first 3 mile ever, when I ran 21:38. My only big regret is not having joined earlier. I did track my sophomore year but only joined long distance last year. But in this short time frame, I’ve cultivated meaningful relationships that I hope to maintain for many years. It’s gonna be sad to leave this all behind, it feels like I joined yesterday. Okay I’m done yapping, good luck everyone during the remainder of track and xc, I’ll be stalking athletic.net to see how it goes. photo feat: me sophomore year during a 200 at JV conference