Lessons
from
Running
by Erica Barrett
I
used to hate running. I started running as a high school freshman because I wanted to get in shape for soccer and because
my older brother had been a good runner, so I thought I might be,
too. Last fall, I led my cross country team to a San Diego Section
championship title, and in the spring, I won the San Diego Section
3200-meter race in track.
How did I go from someone who hated running to an accomplished runner? Let’s just say I learned a lot—about running and
myself—in the process.
A Team Sport
Track may be an individual sport, but cross country is definitely a
team sport, albeit one with a strong individual component. A meet is
scored by adding up the places of each team’s top five finishers, with
the team with the lowest score winning. In cross country, unlike in
most other sports, the boys, girls, varsity, and JV teams work closely
together: We all train under the same head coach, do the same workouts, and cheer each other on during races.
Training to be a distance runner involves, well, a lot of running,
and when you run hundreds of miles with your teammates, you
become close. I particularly enjoy long runs, which are slower and
allow us to talk, laugh, and tell stories as we run. Of course, runners
are still extremely competitive, but I’ve learned that you can be competitive and still be friends.
The Making of a Distance Runner
Consistent, daily training is the most important factor in improving one’s performance as a runner, but making the jump from
a good runner to a great one involves more than just running.
Everything matters, including getting enough sleep, eating
healthy carbs and proteins, and doing strength training. Core
work—crunches, planks, and push-ups—is especially vital, since
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strong abs help runners maintain upright posture, especially late
in a race.
One of the most important things a runner can do is keep a log.
Every day, I log my miles, resting pulse, hours of sleep, and how I felt
physically and mentally during my workout. If I race well, I can see
what I did during the week leading up to the race so I can repeat it,
hopefully with similar results. And if I race badly, I can also see what I
did. My log includes checkboxes for core work and strength training,
which helps me hold myself accountable. Although I don’t particularly enjoy doing planks, I’d rather do them than go to bed with those
boxes unchecked!
Focus on the Finish Line
There’s more to preparing for a race than physical training. In fact, I
can’t overstate the importance of being mentally prepared, and a big
part of that involves setting goals. At the beginning of each season,
I set individual and team goals. Last season, I set “18:30 5K” as an
individual goal and “San Diego Section Champions” as a team goal. I
wrote my goals on a piece of paper and taped it to my school binder, so
I would see it every day. By the end of the season, I had accomplished
both goals. Seeing my goals daily keeps me focused on why I run.
Having a race plan is also critical. In my early races, I would
show up, run when the gun went off, stop at the finish line, and
see how I did. I never had a concrete plan for how to race well. But
freshman year, right before the race that determines which teams
qualify for the state meet, the three fastest girls on my team got
sick. Even if my team didn’t qualify, I wanted to be sure to qualify
individually, which meant finishing in the top 15. I devised a plan
that involved determining where I needed to be at the one- and twomile mark in order to be among the top 15 finishers. It wasn’t an
elaborate plan. I didn’t calculate every step or turn of the course, but
just setting up some checkpoints for myself along the way helped
Nov/Dec 2016
me to a 10th-place finish and my best race of the season—enough
to help my team get the last qualifying spot for the state meet. Since
then, I’ve gone into all my races with some kind of strategy, whether
it’s setting checkpoints or picking a specific competitor to focus on
while racing.
Freshman year was also when I had my first experience with failure. I was running the 1600 meter, my favorite event and one I
had yet to lose. Going into the final 100 meters, I was shoulder to
shoulder with a girl from our rival school. She finished in 5:16.56; I
finished in 5:16.61. I’d set a new personal best, but that didn’t matter to me. The other girl hadn’t outrun me; she had out-leaned me,
getting her torso across the line before I did. Now every time I make
that final turn into the home stretch, I remember that race and sprint
harder, because I refuse to be out-leaned again.
T
oday I can’t imagine life without running. It’s a tough sport, but
training and competing have provided me with valuable lessons
in strategy, perseverance, and focus.
But for me, that’s only part of the appeal of running. It’s also about
being a member of the running community. There’s something about
everyone running the same course and feeling the same pain that
fosters mutual respect and understanding. At the finish line, everyone
is hugging and shaking hands, celebrating great races and consoling
one another after bad ones. It’s more than just good sportsmanship;
we’re genuinely thankful for the other runners, who encourage each
of us to be our best. n
VISUAL PHOTOGRAPHY
The Value of Perseverance
My favorite running story has to be the eight-lap, 3200-meter race
at San Diego Section finals junior year. The top three runners would
qualify for the state track meet. Of course I hoped to win, but I at least
wanted to qualify for state— unlike the previous year, when I missed
it by two seconds. Initially I stuck with the leaders, but on the fifth lap
I began to fall back. The top three were getting farther away, and all I
could think was that I was going to place fourth and miss state again.
So with one lap to go, I changed my thinking.
I told myself that that lap could be my last of the season, so I’d
better make it a good one. I ran it in 68 seconds, faster than I had
ever closed any workout in practice! In those 68 seconds, I made up
a 45-meter deficit and moved up three places to win and qualify for
state. I had beaten my previous personal best by 19 seconds, and it
really drove home the fact that a race isn’t lost or won until it’s over.
Erica Barrett is a senior at Westview High School in
San Diego, CA, where she is captain of the girls’ cross
country and distance track teams. In her free time,
she enjoys playing basketball and cribbage, playing
the piano, and rereading Harry Potter books.
Erica, wearing
bib number 6227,
in the zone
www.cty.jhu.edu/imagine
imagine
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