Why I Hated When I Started Loving Running.
I’ve been running for about 7 years now, and to be honest, the first 6 weren’t as fun as I wanted them to be. Throughout high school I thought it wasn’t “cool” to run cross country or track. I hated waking up in the morning to run, hated waking up on Saturday mornings for meets, and hated being known as the “cross country runner” of my school. I thought about quitting, but my competitive nature dint let me stop. I told myself if I made it to state I would quit. Well I trained harder than ever to reach that goal. With help from my coach I made it to Round rock and placed a sorry 40th place. As I thought about my career, I decided to go for a better time, not for my love of the sport, for more medals, but for my selfish goal to beat myself. I came back next year and placed 24th and lost to people I have lost to my whole life.
That’s when I decided to take my running career to the collegiate level. I wasn’t good enough to get a scholarship unless I went to a junior college, but I insisted on going to a D2 school in canyon Texas called West Texas a&M. The Home of the buffaloes is a place where I saw a good program that I could walk onto. I told myself it was going to be a lot of work and that I probably wouldn’t like to run in college. I gave myself the option to quit after 1 semester, but I wanted to see what it was like. Well, sometimes I wish I never started at all. I ran 4 times the amount of mileage I did in high school. I was getting beat by everyone else on the team minus a few other walk-ons. I was nothing here. The reason I wish I never started running here in the first place is that despite all of the effort I put in I was never going to be the best on the team, and I liked it. Weird huh? For the first time in my life I am getting my ass beat every day and that’s when I start loving the sport. It’s crazy how things happen.
This gained love for the sport was a bitter/sweet thing for me at the time. I started to get bills from my university. I come from a family that supports me and provides for me, but we aren’t very well off. Living and going to school on campus is very pricey. I learned really quickly that not having a job was going to be a problem for me. I can’t work many hours while running, so I have to make a decision. Do I go into debt for hopes of being in the top 5 for nationals next year, or do I give up collegiate running and go back home and start working and focus on finances and studying?
That’s when I decided to take my running career to the collegiate level. I wasn’t good enough to get a scholarship unless I went to a junior college, but I insisted on going to a D2 school in canyon Texas called West Texas a&M. The Home of the buffaloes is a place where I saw a good program that I could walk onto. I told myself it was going to be a lot of work and that I probably wouldn’t like to run in college. I gave myself the option to quit after 1 semester, but I wanted to see what it was like. Well, sometimes I wish I never started at all. I ran 4 times the amount of mileage I did in high school. I was getting beat by everyone else on the team minus a few other walk-ons. I was nothing here. The reason I wish I never started running here in the first place is that despite all of the effort I put in I was never going to be the best on the team, and I liked it. Weird huh? For the first time in my life I am getting my ass beat every day and that’s when I start loving the sport. It’s crazy how things happen.
This gained love for the sport was a bitter/sweet thing for me at the time. I started to get bills from my university. I come from a family that supports me and provides for me, but we aren’t very well off. Living and going to school on campus is very pricey. I learned really quickly that not having a job was going to be a problem for me. I can’t work many hours while running, so I have to make a decision. Do I go into debt for hopes of being in the top 5 for nationals next year, or do I give up collegiate running and go back home and start working and focus on finances and studying?
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