“If you live off a man's compliments, you'll die from his criticism.” ― Cornelius Lindsey
I ran cross country my freshman and sophomore year of high school. My two older sisters, Abby and Tarah, were very good cross country athletes. I however, neither had the passion for it, nor the talent.
I hated running in the NC summer heat and humidity. I hated how uncomfortable it felt to have my heart rate spike. Running was so boring and so unglamorous. It wasn’t like a sport where you make a big play and get crowd cheers and recognition. As the 4th child of six kids, it’s only natural to crave a little recognition.
My dad was an avid runner in his day and he wanted all of us kids to be great runners too. I don’t remember him forcing me to be on the team, it was just kind of expected. And because my two older sisters were so good (Abby got a college scholarship to run track and Tarah was always top 5), I felt the pressure to be just as good.
I wasn’t good. And embarrassingly I didn’t even have honorable team ethics. Because I didn’t feel like my efforts mattered to the team, (if you didn’t place top 5, you weren’t earning the team any points), I did everything possible to try to get out of meets. Once, I faked an ankle injury mid race one rainy day so I didn’t have to keep running in the muck. I really hated not being good at something and when I wasn’t, I made excuses. This was true, too, for the 5 other sports I dabbled in through middle school and high school). I even feigned asthma to try to get out of being on the team but my dad just sent me to a physician to get an inhaler. I didn’t have asthma but I got an inhaler anyway. My race pace didn’t improve.
WHS Cross Country Team 1999-2000
One cross country practice as we were performing some core exercises, our Coach pointed me out to the rest of the team as an example of how to properly do the core exercises we were doing. I glowed from that recognition and as crazy as it may seem, it was in that moment that I recognized being strong as an accomplishment. I may not have been a good runner, but I was strong and had great form and that was pretty cool. Coach’s comment was a definitive compliment. Strong became something I wanted to explore more of and in my senior year of high school decided to enroll in a weight lifting class that would introduce me to strength training.
I’ve struggled to love running my entire life and consider myself a seasonal runner- running only when the mood strikes or the weather is irresistible. I blame high school cross country for that. But, I’m grateful to have dabbled in the sport. It held that defining moment that led to my desire to build strength.
