A Timeless Endeavor

In any endurance sport, time is a crucial element. Performance and training is extremely dependent on time and is the main evaluation of this. Any endurance athlete is aware of time and makes it one of the main focuses of training or performance.

For the training aspect of the sport, almost every runner wears a watch. Whether it's for finding how long a run is distance-wise or time-wise, a watch becomes just as valuable to a runner as the shoes on their feet. Without a watch, many runners are just lost when it comes to training and how much/well they are doing.

For myself, I was always like this. To be honest, it was probably one of the worst parts about running for me. I was always fixated on how long my runs were and how fast I was going. I would go for a run and find myself checking my watch every two minutes just to see where I was and how I was doing.

To say this is healthy would be ridiculous. At the least, it made the activity feel way longer and just way too monotonous. It came to a point where running by myself was something I dreaded and never wanted to do. In my opinion, this is a terrible mindset and something that I felt ashamed of when running.

With all this talk about time there's is no need to ask how fast I went out at this race...

Around this time last year, I decided to ditch the watch. Looking back, this may have been one of the most simple but probably the best decisions I have ever made.

I would be lying if I said that this decision just came into my head and I decided to do it. For the most part, it came from a new teammate at the time Nick D'Allessandro.

As I recall, the situation went on sorta like this:

Simone: Yo D'ally, what time are we at.

D'ally: I don't know man, I don't wear a watch

Simone: Why don't you wear one, I always do but I forgot mine today

D'ally: I don't need it, seems somewhat useless to me

Simone: What do you mean, don't you need to know how long and far you are on your runs

D'ally: No. It's all on feel anyways. There's no need to get caught up in that type of stuff too much

A simple conversation like this was so easy but made a world of difference. I made me realize an important aspect of the sport that I now know. This aspect is the point at where runners find the motivation to do what they do and continue their endeavor's in the sport.

When running with a group of lets say 12 runners, isn't it excessive to have 9 of them with watches? Is it needed to have nine different accounts on how fast/long/far the run was? I get that some people love to know this and thrive off of collecting all of their runs and the statistics associated with it. Applications and sites like Strava are a main focal point of this and have millions of people uploading and showing off their runs.

I completely understand where people are coming from with this, but is it actually needed? At the end of the day all that matters is the race and what goes on there in that moment. Especially in cross-country, time is completely irrelevant on the day. Having the biggest (insert eggplant emoji, XD) on Strava means absolutely nothing and should not be used as motivation to continue to train. If you're using Strava as a source of motivation to strive for success and do well, you are probably in the wrong sport and should re-evaluate your priorities.

Only here so it'll make Zilles happy =D

Another point to come from this is that it made me realize that the numbers associated with training for running are all relative and simply put, made up.

It's not like a person's legs have a clock in them recording how long and far they go. It's not like all of a sudden a person can hit a certain mileage count and will get significantly better. That's just not how our body works. In the end, sections of time and distance are all just made up by other humans and have nothing to do with our body's composition.

Now of course, these tools are a great baseline to look and see how much training is being done. I obviously use this, as just about every runner does, but a feeling approach in my view is much more valuable and useful. Workouts are supposed to be hard and easy days are supposed to be easy, plain and simple. Whatever hard is and whatever easy is may vary significantly day to day and looking at the numbers can be significantly harmful. Straying away from this concept of easy/hard days messes a whole training scheme and most likely will not result in success.

All this being said, the only thing I can say for certain is this past year without a watch has made running a much better experience. Doing all my runs off of feel and comfort level has definitely been great and made me realize so many important aspects of the sport. Obviously it takes getting used to and requires either some great friends with watches or a bookmark of MapMyRun's Mapping Editor on Chrome. Nevertheless, I found it well worth the effort.

If you are a slave to the watch, I recommend at least trying a run without a watch. It’s not for everyone, but neither is running.

-Simone

Readin' Thro' the Nish

There is somewhat of a hole in the running book genre. Although there is a plethora of running books on the market that are available for people to read, there are few books that explore the collegiate side of running. Most books based on running deal with other topics to do with the sport. Most of the main protagonists and characters in these books do not live the varsity athlete life and don't experience the sport in the same way. Other than books like Running with the Buffaloes or What Made Maddy Run, every other running book misses the mark on this front.

Furthermore, all the books that cover the topic of collegiate running follow the American view and scene. There are basically zero books that completely follow the Canadian varsity running scene and relate specifically to CIAU, CIS or U Sports.

However recently, a book that now covers this niche within a niche within a niche has been covered. My good friend and fellow writer Alex Cyr has released a book named Runners of the Nish: A Season in the Sun, Rain, Hail and Hell. This is the story about the 2016 Varsity Cross-Country Season for the St. Francis Xavier team. I received this book in the mail and read it over the past week. Afterwards, I thought it would be a good idea to write a post about how I feel about the book. Therefore, this will be some sort of a review for the book and I will be sharing my thoughts of it.

Just before I get started, I would just like to mention that although I would like to be fair and as objective as I can, I will most likely still have a bias. Cyr is a teammate and a friend of mine and makes it hard for me to ignore this. I will try to stay as honest as possible when writing this but I would be lying if I did not say that I had a bias towards the author.

Another note, I am no way experienced with review writing. Although I do read and write plenty, I am no expert and this review should not be seen that way. I am just a casual, Canadian varsity athlete that will give his thoughts on this book. So even if this deters you from picking up or getting this book, don't worry about what I say. Everyone's opinion is different.

With all that said, here is my review:

In Runners of the Nish, Alex Cyr chronicles and tells the story of his final cross-country season at St. Francis Xavier University. The book begins just about all the way at the beginning, starting on August 31st 2016 and goes until the November 12th, 2016, the day of the U Sports Cross Country Championships.

Along the way, Cyr tells the story of the team and just about everything that goes on through this time period. The book covers events such as workouts, social gatherings, casual runs and races leading up to that faithful mid-November morning. Settings around the St. FX campus are featured including the Oland Centre, 18 Greening Drive, and Morrison Hall. Also, the story is taken on the road where the team competed in multiple meets during the season.

Cyr writes the stories and events that go on as they take place. The stories and situations that are told through Cyr’s writing come from his point of view and are under his interpretation. Everything is described shortly after it happens and this provides a good amount of depth and detail. With this, Cyr does not have to rely on foggy memories to tell his story and piece together a full picture of detailed events. This is one of the strong suits in this book and makes everything that is told much easier and better to understand.

One aspect that Runners of the Nish portrayed excellently was its ability to give an insight into the life a varsity cross-country athlete. Although many people may know what it is like to run and compete in races, there are few that know the struggles that come with running varsity cross-country at the collegiate level.

Injury, academic commitments, distractions and even burnout are all themes and problems that athletes at the collegiate level face. In Runners of the Nish, all of this is seen and showcased to the reader as many members of the St. FX squad deal with these problems. Throughout the book, the reader gets to see how each member of the team handles these issues and whether it changes the season and the destiny of the team.

Because of the way the book was written, the reader gets an inside look on a varsity cross-country team from one of its very own. It’s not like this book was written by some outsider or observer, it was written by someone that personally went through it all. As a member of the team for four years, Cyr knows just about everything to do with the team and is able to tell the story with substantial depth and understanding. This is one thing that alone makes this book a must-read, as there are no other books available with this kind of in depth review.

One part of the book that was nailed and made it great was the way that Cyr described and made each character in the book standout. Each member and character that surrounded the story had unique characteristics and set themselves apart from each other. Every member of the team was different in how they viewed and approached things. This showed how much Cyr knew and understood his teammate’s some of whom he had known for multiple years.

With this great ability to describe and portray the image of each of these characters, it made the book much more interesting to read. I found myself rooting and hoping that certain people would find success and do well. I began to understand and get where each of the characters were coming from with their rationale and thinking. It gave true character to the book and made it hard to stop reading as I always wanted to know what happened next to the people in the story. By the end, I felt like I knew each main person and could relate to them all so well.

As someone that has already spent a year running for a university, I thoroughly enjoyed and found that I could relate to this story. Any runner at this level knows the struggle that is endured and seeing it play out in a novel is extremely interesting. Although I knew the final result of the season before I even opened the book, the stories and interesting path to its conclusion kept me glued to the pages.

For someone that has never understood and never lived the varsity athlete life in post-secondary school, this book does an amazing job at depicting it. This books gives an outlook on what it is truly like and how volatile and fragile it may be.

Although this is the case, this book also shows how truly special the experience is. Being a part of a team like this is an amazing experience and Cyr does a spectacular job at giving the reader an insight on it. As a tribute to former St. FX Head Coach Bernie Chrisholm, this book encapsulates what it is like to be a varsity cross-country athlete.

For any runner that is thinking about running varsity cross-country or has already done so, this book does an amazing job at telling the journey. I recommend this book basically to anyone who knows or wants to know how it feels to be a part of a team like this.

To conclude, I will include a quote from the Prologue. Cyr writes, "All I could promise was a genuine and real investigation of the ebbs, flows, highs and lows of a CIS cross-country campaign..."

Well after reading this book and experiencing the story, I can agree that Cyr does an excellent job at this and created a narrative that can be loved and appreciated by anyone who reads it.

-Simone

Here is a link to the books website, which contains information as well as a place to purchase the book

It's All Just an Elaborate Waiting Game

As my outdoor season has come to an end, I am writing this blog about halfway through my three week break from running. Although there are still meets going on now and in the near future, most people who have been racing since the beginning of the year as I have will finish track around this time and start getting ready for XC season.

This season has been one that has contained plenty of struggle and did not turn out to what I wanted and thought it would be. Although this is something that I am already used to dealing with, this season was unlike any other and really took a toll on me.

Just to start off, I would like to state that I would hate for this blog to turn into a place where I just go on and complain about how bad my season has been and how the next one will be better. There is no need for me to try and invoke readers to feel sympathetic for how things are going for me. Instead, I will kind of just go through and try to to explain my season, what I learned about myself and explain my current state of self.

One big struggle that I dealt with during the season was the fact that I had found out that I had low iron levels. Although my ferritin levels were not as bad as many other people that I know have had problems with it, it still impacted me significantly. Training started off rough but I progressed through it and was able to get the right work in eventually. But when it came to the races, there was seemingly nothing left in the tank. Not taking any time off did not help this and I did not let it get back to the level that would help me run the way I wanted to. This is something that I really want to focus on and correct during this downtime for the upcoming XC season.

Another problem that I really faced this season was really just a mental one to do with who I am and how I think about things.

I have always kind of viewed myself as a person who likes to think logically and analytically. I like to use deductive reasoning and find out what is the most logical step and decision to be made. This is something that I have always really done and will probably continue to do that for the rest of my life. In any type of sport, this is a mindset that is a definite hindrance and hard to have. Going into races, this realist attitude of mine is a hindrance if I am in a string of bad races. I will continue to lose and lower my confidence in myself day-by-day and this makes it harder to have a good performance. This for sure was the case during the season for me and took me a while to get out of this funk.

The way the season started for me was just abysmal. It was basically just bad race after bad race and I had no idea why that was the case (intentional rhyming there, =D). As I came to learn later, this was most likely due to my low iron but it still really affected my confidence whenever I was suiting up to race. It took all the way until the middle of June for me to actually have a good race and get a PB in the 1500m. It was a decent improvement by three seconds but was still nowhere close to where I wanted to be.

I finally wrapped up my season on Canada Day in Hamilton. I was feeling good going into this race and knew I was peaked to have a good race and end this horrid season with a bang. It was too bad that I ended up instead doing a head first slide into 2nd base, which in this case was half way through a 1500m. I guess that was just fitting of how a season like this would end, right?

In the end, it DOES actually matter. Now I am just stuck waiting. Waiting for something, anything.

It was really cool seeing other teammates do well. From Josh Martin running 3:58 at 1500m Night to Josh Zilles running 3:56 at the Canada Day meet in Hamilton alongside Nick D'Alessandro dropping his PB in the 800m from 1:55 to 1:52 low by the end of the season. Even Alex Cyr, a man who runs a severely less active blog, running a 3:47 1500m at the last meet of the year before setting off back to the island. I think just about all of my teammates and training partners who competed this season are happy with their improvements and successes. This is something that I love to see, but I would be lying if it didn't hurt me. It's hard to see peers doing the same thing that you're doing day in and day out and them receiving the success they deserve while I see none of that.

I have just as much chance to do well in running as anyone of these guys. I want to do just as well as anyone else and want/need to find out how I can achieve this. As of right now, there is really no magic solution that I can think of and I think the only solution is just to keep on slaving away.

One separate point that I would like to make is that this season, more than others, I decided to focus less on track and think about other things. Ever since I got involved in running, it has always been the aspect in my life that I have focused on the most. Because of this, I ignored many other aspects that are equally and even more important. This season, I still put the work in and stayed disciplined to the sport but I also set my focuses on other aspects as well. This is a much healthier approach in life and just improves how I am living my life at the moment.

One of these aspects was my writing, something that I started only about eight months ago. Writing has really turned into a new passion in my life and something that I want to definitely continue to explore in the foreseeable future.

During the season, I decided to enter the field of journalism and have started writing for a website, DBLTAP.com. The site is mainly based on video games and ESports, something that I have been interested and enjoyed for a very long time. I am really enjoying this and love the fact that I can get to to write about something for 15 hours a week that I really enjoy. Although I do not get paid for the work I do now,  this opportunity is one that may start something up in the future for a career in something that I really like.

As for now, the off season has fully taken affect and I am enjoying the current time off that I have now. XC season has always been my favourite of the two seasons and I'm already itching to get back at it. I cannot wait to show myself how much I have really improved over the past year and have a second year that I will be proud of.

The Windsor Lancers are set to prove that we are still one of the best teams in the nation, and I am so excited to be a part of it.

-Simone

Why Would Anyone Want to Run?

“Why do you run, it's so hard!” I think all long/mid distance runners have heard this question at least once whenever they mention to someone that they run. Xc and track, in the eyes of the general public, are sports that are unbearable and difficult to do well in. People have the image of utter pain, difficulty and physical exhaustion when thinking about either sport. But as a distance runner myself, that is not how I view the sport and instead see it as something much more pleasing and less ‘“hard” as it may seem. So why exactly do people view either sport in this way? This is the question that I will try to answer in this post and explore why people would even want to run in the first place.

Going into the basics of either sport is a good starting point of trying to find out why the perspective of each sport is the way it is. To the causal person, distance running would be explained as just running long distances in a race against other people. The entire concept of the sport is to out-endure the other competitors at a speed required to win the race. Physical exhaustion is not something that the normal person enjoys and would like to seek out on a daily basis. This exhaustion is often the bane of many other sports and provides much of the pain that comes along with them. So why would a person who enjoys more popular, skill based sports want to remove most of the skills required and just focus on the part that is usually the most tiring? Exhausting yourself and pushing your body to the limit is really something that the regular person would not enjoy and is why they wonder why people run.

One of the main aspects that I also think would create an opinion like this would be from previous experiences with xc or track. At least at my grade school, both of the sports were the most popular of any of the sports that were offered. Anyone could join and do either xc or track once old enough and were easily the two biggest teams at the school. Along with this, at such a young age kids do not really grasp the idea of pacing while running and often will feel the pain and anguish of going out too fast. This will immediately put bad experiences into many children's minds and without any other followed up experiences with running, it will dictate their perspective of the sport for the rest of their life. This is very well seen and supports the reason why people would not want to start up running or become a runner.

Now when starting a new activity, there are always hurdles to overcome and learning the aspects of the activity may be hard. This is the case for all activities and starting to run and becoming a runner is no exception to this situation. Once again, pacing is still hard to manage and it is a big step for people entering into the sport to grasp all the concepts that come with it. People seem to think that every time you go for a run, you should be trying to push your body to the absolute limits and trying to beat what you have previously attained. This makes the activity look really hard and daunting to the observer and unbearable. This is often the case in many other sports but running is an exception where the human body really can’t handle that on a day to day basis. On hard workout days, pushing your body is definitely the case but isn’t possible everyday and this is a barrier for people trying to pursue the sport. Many people can not overcome this barrier and gain the perspective that is commonly seen.

But once overcoming the barriers that are put upon entering the sport and truly understanding it, it can be something that is truly rewarding and remarkable at that. It's a sport that you have to put massive amounts of time into but once that is done with adequate commitment, the improvements will show. Improvements in your time in a certain distance or event are rewarding to any distance runner and just reflect the effort that you have put in. It’s a sport where you can’t get lucky and achieve something by chance but instead you earn what you get and the improvements you see are a testament to your commitment. This is something that is unique to endurance-based sports and really can’t be found in the more popular, mainstream sports that most people experience.

Another aspect that I think makes it more desirable and a sport that people are attracted to is the limits that it may bring you to. Some people love to stay in their comfort zone and not push themselves out of what is comfortable and others would rather do the opposite. Distance running puts you way out of your comfort zone and makes you vulnerable to how much you can push yourself against the limits that are set upon yourself. I and many others find this as incredibly rewarding and is one of the reasons why people come back to distance running time and time again.

It would be a shame to omit the community side of the sport in this post. Many people may just enjoy the social aspects of running with a group or attending races with masses of people. This is a caveat to being a distance runner and helps motivate people to join or keep people around and in the sport for the long haul. It is always enlightening to feel that you are apart of something that is bigger than yourself. This community does that for many runners and provides a base that brings people back to the sport, time and time again.

These three previous points overcome the common perspective of distance running for some people and get people into the sport while being consumed by it. In the end, if it was not hard, would there really be any reason to do it in the first place? As humans, I feel that we should do things to challenge yourself and grow ourselves as individuals in our lives. In a strange way, the common perspective that distance running is hard actually drives people to do it as they want to overcome it and show themselves that they can accomplish something. The perspective from outside of the running community grows the running community itself and actually should be something embraced and cherished.

At the end of the day, some people will never really understand why distance running is actually popular for people to do. But that is fine, there will never be an activity that suits everyone. I will never understand why people enjoy doing advanced calculus or why people love to watch or partake in other niche sports that I am not interested in. Our likes and dislikes are determined by a variety of factors (genetics, past experiences, etc…) and is something that makes us differentiate from each other. It is what shapes who we are, what we stand for and what we do on a daily basis.

But to finally answer the question on why we run: We don’t run just because we’re good (whatever you define as good) at it. We don’t run because we find it easy. We run because it is something we enjoy, what it brings to us and what it gives back to us on the day to day basis.

-Simone

Running Fast vs Racing Fast

Well, the indoor season has come and gone. My first university track season was one full of awesome experiences and one which I really enjoyed. However, I always like to take away some negative parts of every season in hopes of correcting them in future seasons. This season had one big drawback that I would like to talk about.

This last indoor season, I feel that I was easily in the best shape that I had ever been in. My body was really able to adjust well to the marginal mileage increase and no injuries were in sight. The base that I had accumulated from the previous cross country season really helped me spring forward into track. Additionally, I began to hit up the weight room twice a week consistently which made me feel much stronger and capable of running fast.

For all of this, I was rewarded and was able to get a PB in all of the events that I had raced in. I opened up the season by going sub 9 in the 3k by a big margin achieving an 8 second improvement on my previous best. I then decided to turn my training towards the 1000m as it is early on in my university career and I want to work on my speed as much as I can now. This showed to be successful as I ran sub 2 in the 800m for the first time and a decent 1000m time on a flat 200m track. In my final race, I was able to narrowly dip under my former 1500m best and improved it by about .75 of a second. Obviously, I should be happy and gracious of these improvements on my personal bests, especially since it was only indoors and all my previous personal bests were outdoors. However, there is still way more I desired to achieve.

According to my own beliefs and how I felt, I was in way better shape than the times that I ran this indoor season. I know it is hard to judge how fit someone is based on workouts, but I am about 99.999999999 % sure I was in better shape. Other than the opening 3k of the season (and maybe my 800m PB), I felt like I did not run the times that I desired and set out to run each race. After each and every race, I was disappointed and always left the track wanting more out of myself. With racing 5 weekends in a row, this started to really get on my nerves and every time I toed the line I felt as if I had even more pressure to perform. Thus, I was psyching myself out before the gun even went off and putting myself at a less likely chance to have a great race. This was by far the most frustrating part of the season.

Within each and every race, I also feel that I really lacked the confidence that I needed to succeed and do well. I would get in situations where I would be hesitant and not willing to get onto the pace that I needed to get the fast time I was going for. Even when I would get out fast enough, once the pace died down mid way or towards the end of the race, I would make tactical errors like not passing people I should have to keep the pace where I wanted it to be. I know this is all within the process of learning how to race correctly and I am still new to my university career but I am still disappointed from all of these mistakes. Previously, I never really had consistent problems with racing on the the track and the tactics that come along with it. I remember back in grade 9 when I first began to run track on the competitive level, I would just go out and not worry about any pressure I put on myself and would just run as fast as I could. That's where I want to get back to.

Ran a 4:22 this day, there were no more smiles after that :(

After taking a break from the hard stress that racing puts on our bodies, I am really excited to get back to racing and chasing the goals that I want to hit. I don't want to think about any specific times that I would love to run in this upcoming outdoor season. I think that personally, focusing on times is really a big detriment for my performances and how I compete in the race setting. I want to feel confident before and during every race that I run. Afterwards, I want to be able to assure myself that I went as hard as I could and left nothing else to be desired out on the track. I think that these are some valuable goals that if I can achieve them and focus on them, the times will come. All I need is one breakout race and I feel that the snowball effect will occur and an avalanche of PB's that reflect my fitness will come my way.

As of now, I have been running consistent mileage the last four weeks and have done a couple weeks of tempos to prep before getting back on the track. I am racing a local 5k, The Spring Thaw, on Sunday, April 8th and I hope to run a time that I am happy with and also get the look of the back of the leaders heads cemented in my memory forever (Thanks Cyr, Falky and Mantis :p). Should be fun to run a nice and not so meaningful race with some teammates.

I really wish that I could have written more posts on this blog during the season but with school and training, its hard. Even as I write this post right now in the Leddy Library, I really should be studying for my upcoming finals that are a stone's throw away. After finals finish, I hope to post at least once a month on this blog about how running is going and general thoughts that I have. I really enjoy writing a lot and feel that with the more experience that I get, the better I become at the craft itself.

For now, the track is about to double in size and get a bunch more windier. We'll see where it takes all of us in the upcoming months

-Simone

Motivation: Where I find it

Motivation is the thing that drives us to the actions we commit. Its the reason why we do things and in the manner that we do them. This includes the sports that we partake in and are an important reason why certain people play certain sports. On occasion, I like to think about what motivates me to to run and why I have continued to run at a serious level since the beginning of grade 9. Thinking about this lets me evaluate the reason why I participate in the sport and if my motivation is coming from good or bad sources. Listed below are former and current motivations and the reasons why I have stuck with running for as long as I have:

Talent/Success

I was always pretty good at XC and track in elementary school but was never something spectacular and never really won any races. My first year of high school came and I had a pretty successful year by finishing 2nd in my regional race and placing 32nd at OFSAA XC for Midget Boys. Now, I would like to be able to say for certain that even if I was not as talented as I am now I would still be just as motivated to run. However, that is just about impossible to find out. I feel like starting a sport in high school with this relative amount of success obviously motivated me to continue it and experience this success again. But after competing in this sport for 4+ years and having continued to stay motivated after many unsuccessful moments, I really do not think my talent/success is a viable source for my motivation anymore.

Expectations

Now when people expect something of you, I feel it leads to motivation to fulfill these expectations people have placed upon you. After receiving some success in my first year of high school running, I began to feel some of these expectations from others and myself. I had always heard these stories of these high school runners who performed really well early on and had tons of promise but faded out and never really could fulfill the expectations placed upon them. In my early running years, I feared  this the most as an athlete and the last thing I wanted to do was end my running career in regret knowing that I did not do my best to fulfill my expectations. Now this obviously is not a good motivation but it is one that I'm sad to admit was one of the main reasons why I continued running in my first year of high school. Now if this had stayed as a big motivation for me, I don't think that I would have continued running very long and would have probably given up a long time ago. I'm happy to say that nowadays this motivation has completely faded and I don't worry about the expectations of myself or others to continue my running career.

Goals

It is probably safe to say that most of the kids that grow up playing sports have the goal of either competing in the Olympics and/or playing professionally. I too shared this goal for the longest time and after receiving some success in running, this became a super long term goal for me. I know I should (insert Justin Bieber movie title) and continue to believe this dream but I think its pretty safe to say that this is probably nothing short of a pipe dream. However, I feel that I still can find motivation from setting more attainable and shorter term goals. This season, my main goal is to hit Junior Nationals standard in the 1500m (3:57.00) and although it won't be easy, I think it is very possible with the fitness I am currently in. This just motivates me even more as I have set a goal I think I can attain and know my season is a success if I can do it. Having a goal to focus on is good because I feel it gives me a purpose to what I am doing and motivates me to focus on what is needed to achieve it.

Interest

After running competitively for numerous years, I have grown to really enjoy the sport and have a strong interest into almost all aspects of it. Whether it's going for long runs or competing on the track, I really enjoy what I am doing and this is a massive motivation for myself. If you enjoy doing something, you get motivated to do it again just to feel that sense of enjoyment and running is something that I get a ton of enjoyment from. Even attending meets or watching meets online gives me motivation to compete well and achieve my goals and dreams to be become as good as an athlete I can be. I can't imagine anything that can be more motivating than watching Cole Hannam drop a dirty 1:54 800m PB in January and just motivates me to do the same. I would have to say that this section is the one that I receive the strongest motivation and really drives me to achieve the success that I want in this sport.

What/Where it Brings me

As mentioned earlier, every young persons dream when competing in a sport is to hopefully one day be able to make money and have a career in the sport. Although this was a big motivation that could fall under this category, the bigger motivation for me in this category is the experiences that are along the way. I feel like being a student-athlete/competitive athlete is a great opportunity and chance to experience so many unique things. Being able to travel to meets in places that you would never otherwise go. Meeting people and making friends with people that are working towards the same goal as you with similar interests and mindsets. Living a healthy and active lifestyle, giving you a higher quality of life. Without running, I would have none of these things and feel that I would be living a life that is not as good as the one I'm living now.

It's Maltese hunting szn

Its kinda crazy to think that all of these things, either consciously or unconsciously, motivate or used to motivate me and many others to do the things that we do. Some of these are positive and some are negative but in the end, I feel like the positives out weigh the negatives. Running is the type of sport that I feel requires plenty of motivation just because of the nature of the sport and the strenuous training. To really take the sport seriously and enjoy it, you really need high motivation and a love for the sport.

I'm proud to say that this is the case for me.

-Simone