Three years ago, as a freshman, I decided to join cross country. This decision has shaped my high school career through the friends I chose to the activities I participated in. Cross country is not an easy sport, though. It requires physical endurance, but more importantly, the mental strength to push past and overcome the obstacle of pain. By sticking with this sport, mental toughness has permeated who I am and helped me go beyond the standards and work my way through trivial challenges and huge endeavors alike. When I first began cross country, I was new to racing. Racing didn’t scare me because I didn’t know what it was like. What every new runner soon learns, however, is that raving is one of the hardest and most painful things someone could ever do. Afterwards, though, when one has raced their heart out and given it everything, they are filled with the most satisfying and successful feeling in the entire world. Nevertheless, it’s hard to get past the pain. Perhaps this is why so many people quit after one or two seasons. As a freshman running cross country, my times reflected my growing distaste and hardship when it came to racing because I couldn’t handle the pain. What I didn’t realize was that it’s supposed to hurt. Not only that, but I battled anemia at the time, which took away my energy. After regaining strength and getting motivated, I had a decent last race of the season and made it my goal to make varsity the following one. I didn’t understand the mental part yet.
…show more content…
I still wonder when I fully will understand the mental aspect of racing. I continued into track season, doing distance. It was then I realized that I could run fast. If I made a goal, I would eventually be able to achieve it and I could use it to push me to get faster. That season, I improved my mile time by 41 seconds and was so excited for the following cross country season. Unfortunately, I got injured and had trouble getting focused thereafter. Cross country and distance track are two very similar sports, but they have some major differences and I had yet to learn that. I didn’t do terribly that cross country season, but once again, I was trapped in the lie that, “I can’t do this,” mostly because I was focused on the pain in the moment. Like the previous year, I moved onto track and excelled a second time. The difference between that track season (sophomore year) versus the last one (junior year), was consistency. I improved by a lot sophomore year and got much better times but I lacked consistency. I was stuck in a cycle: race well, put too much pressure on myself, not do as well, feel really sad, and then back to square one… maybe. This went on into my junior year cross country season. The hardest part was seeing my friends race well and knowing I could do that too but not doing it. The mental part wasn’t there and the expectations I set for myself dragged me down. Finally after my junior year cross country season, I, along with some friends, trained with a club coach during preseason. His approach wasn’t old school and I had a lot of fun. Most importantly, I was mentally tougher afterwards. My track season was extremely consistent, and even though I only took ten seconds off my mile time, it was a huge
I still wonder when I fully will understand the mental aspect of racing. I continued into track season, doing distance. It was then I realized that I could run fast. If I made a goal, I would eventually be able to achieve it and I could use it to push me to get faster. That season, I improved my mile time by 41 seconds and was so excited for the following cross country season. Unfortunately, I got injured and had trouble getting focused thereafter. Cross country and distance track are two very similar sports, but they have some major differences and I had yet to learn that. I didn’t do terribly that cross country season, but once again, I was trapped in the lie that, “I can’t do this,” mostly because I was focused on the pain in the moment. Like the previous year, I moved onto track and excelled a second time. The difference between that track season (sophomore year) versus the last one (junior year), was consistency. I improved by a lot sophomore year and got much better times but I lacked consistency. I was stuck in a cycle: race well, put too much pressure on myself, not do as well, feel really sad, and then back to square one… maybe. This went on into my junior year cross country season. The hardest part was seeing my friends race well and knowing I could do that too but not doing it. The mental part wasn’t there and the expectations I set for myself dragged me down. Finally after my junior year cross country season, I, along with some friends, trained with a club coach during preseason. His approach wasn’t old school and I had a lot of fun. Most importantly, I was mentally tougher afterwards. My track season was extremely consistent, and even though I only took ten seconds off my mile time, it was a huge