cadet blogs

Spring Track

(Athletics, Class of 2013) Permanent link All Posts

This spring I’ve been running outdoor track and I love love LOVE it. Over the winter I didn’t play any sports, I just ran on my own. It was really nice because I could run alone or find a friend to run and talk with. To keep motivated, my Dad and I planned on running an 11.2 mile (18K) race on December 26th. Yup, the day after Christmas. He tried to wimp out on me that morning because it was raining, but I reminded him of all the dessert from the night before because, goshdarnit, I hadn’t run all those afternoon miles for nothing. Unfortunately, he beat me in that race, but we have a rematch scheduled for August.

In February, practice for spring track started and we’ve been going strong ever since. In high school I ran the mile, but this season I’ve been running the steeplechase for the most part. The steeplechase is 3K, a little under 2 miles, and you jump over hurdles, one of which has a pit of water on the other side. I’ve been told it was originally a race for horses, but I don’t know what genius decided to have humans run it. Being clumsy and uncoordinated, this race did not seem like an ideal fit for me at first (my family came to my first race and asked if I was going to wear a mask and snorkel), but a 1/c (senior) on the team helped me with hurdles and gave me a lot of encouragement. So far I’ve only fallen three times in races, but they were small stumbles, not full-blown face plants. Keep your fingers crossed for me this weekend at the NEWMAC championships, where I’m seated 8th. Impressive, right? Don’t ask me how many girls are running. Ok, fine, there are 10.

Being on the team has been a lot of fun. I’ve gotten to run with the girls from cross country again and met some new friends. All of the girls are incredibly hard-working and have such great attitudes; they always cheer me up if I’m having a rough day. We have a lot of fun, having sing-alongs as we warm down, getting weird looks from the guys team, and playing the one-word game while we’re holding planks and trying really hard not to laugh because it kills your abs. This Saturday is the last meet for most people, and I’m really going to miss track when it’s over. But there’s always cross country to look forward to in the fall!

More about Julie.

Posted by Leann Strickland at 2/14/2012 9:06 AM