6:01; 6:07; 6:04; 6:15; 6:02; 6:12; 6:10; 6:03: I was progressing and I was getting faster. I spent my junior year dipping into the low 6’s with a dream of breaking 6 at some point during my track season. Finally, by the team I had reached the finale of my season, I had a breakthrough race and broke 6 minutes running a 5:59. This was the start of truly learning how to race and how to listen to my body.
When I began my running journey, I just wanted to do something outside with my mom during a time when the world was upside down. My mom and I would go out and just chat and enjoy being in nature with one another. I began to fall in love with the way I felt after coming in from a run. The time I spent running became one of my favorite parts of each day. I started to run a little more as the months went by through the Covid Pandemic. 2 miles turned into 3 into 4. The running became easier, and was a way for me to reconnect with myself. My 9:30 pace slowly became 9 minutes, then 8:30. I was now running 4 miles at around an 8:30 pace 10 months after I had begun running.
During my freshman year I would count down the minutes until I would get to tie up my running shoes and go out for a run. I truly began to fall in love with running at the end of my freshman year. I decided that to cross train for field hockey I would join the track team my sophomore year. I began track season my sophomore year running a 6:30 mile. Which for me felt amazing. It was the first time where I was learning how to train to run faster. Learning how to train helped my speed development and I began to pick up speed during my races. I ended the season in the mid 6’s feeling great.
As junior year season approached I felt great. I was running fast and couldn’t wait to get my spikes on and start racing. After 2 weeks into training I knew that this season was going to be a lot faster than my last. I felt stronger and ready to race. My goal this season was to break 6 minutes in the mile and by the end of the season, in one of my final races I did it. I ran a 5:59 1600. This was the first time where I started to learn that our bodies are capable of so much more than our minds think they are. I learned to start scraping the depths of all of the energy that I had to give in a race. I have learned that I only tap into this “gear” when I am racing. And learning this gear has changed my life.
As I started winter running before my final track season, and I started doing consistent long runs at a solid 7:45-7:50 pace I knew that I was not only faster but I had gotten stronger. I hadn’t raced in a year, so I really wasn’t sure where I was going to be when it came to my mile time.
My first race of the season was an indoor meet and we had only been practicing for a week. I had no idea where I was going to be. I really had no goal in mind other than to go under 6, which is where I ended at the end of last season. When I got up to the start line the butterflies flew in like they usually had before each and every race. The gun went off and I was off. As I entered my fourth lap, one of my teammates’ mom yelled that if you keep running this pace, you will run 5:40. Adrenaline rushed through my body as I came around the turn to enter my last lap. I came over the line and felt so strong. The only thing I could focus on was how strong I felt. I had no idea how I had run until my coach came over and told me that I had run 5:41. My mouth almost hit the floor. I had shaved off 18 seconds of my previous mile time.
Track has taught me that even when things feel hard, we have to feel the hard and do it anyway.
