Cross-Country Senior Recap

It has been one hell of a ride these past four years. Even I found it hard to believe that the slowest rookie of the freshman team would be one of the top three on the senior team (that being said, the standards were much higher my freshman year (We had two sub-16 runners at the time) ). I still vividly remember my first ever race at Waltham High School. Despite going at a jogging pace, it was still one of the most exhausting days of my life (it was over 80 degrees F), running 1.8 miles in 12:18. And I remember my first ever 5k on our home course where I finished in 21:06 and ended up with a 19:46 by the end of the 2012 season. I ended up no doing indoor track that year and going right to outdoor in early 2013, with the mile as my main event. I started with a 5:47 and finished the season with a 5:33, making a promise that I would break 5-minutes by my senior year. That summer I decided to go all out, regardless of how hot and humid or dark and stormy each day would be, I ran and ran and ran until my legs and chest went numb. And it paid off midway through the 2013 cross-country season, running a new record of 19:13 on my home course. Four days later at the annual Bob McIntyre Twilight Invitational I got my time down to 17:48, breaking 19 and 18 minutes for the first time on the same day, I ended up pushing to #2 on my team that year. After an unsuccessful indoor season, I found myself running low 5s in every mile race; that was, until the 2014 DCL Championships. That day, I went out so hard, and pushed myself so far; I thought I would just make it, but during my kick I saw the left side of the clock still had a 4 on it. I kicked so hard and broke through the finish line in 4:51, which still remains my current record. Then my junior xc season I ended up as the top runner on my team after our previous top guy sadly came down with anemia (I know it was not a fair comparison). The majority of the season was even until I ran a 17:27 at Wrentham Fairgrounds for the last race of the season, but not before injuring my pelvic bone that forced me out of running for over a month. After a rocky start to the indoor season due to my hip, I eventually healed and got my indoor mile down to 5:01. I thought if i could get an indoor mile down that far, outdoor would be a piece of cake; it wasn't. This is where my plateau came into place. I thought after a season with a 5:03 record and being beaten by other top milers from my school, that I had peaked and my running career was over. I felt terrible everyday during that summer and for the first half of my senior cross country season. Not until the 2nd half proved otherwise. It has been a remarkable journey from rookie to runner-up (pun intended). And now with indoor going on, and my younger brother joining me for this season, I hope there will be more to come.