Six Years, Three Coaches

Personally, cross country had brought me several different types of coaches. Middle school brought me the coach who did't say much during practice but would be smiling away at the finish line waiting patiently to emphatically tell me "nice job!". High school brought me the jolly, rotund coach who was encouraging and supportive of all. He would laugh with us and empathize with us, but most importantly he would be joyful with us. College has brought me the most interesting coach of them all. He is utmost dedicated to the team. Whenever we need something, whether it be advice or material needs, he is there. He is my current coach, the man who tells me what work outs to do, how many miles to run, when to be at practice, and so on and so forth. He is the guy who pulls me over at a meet to give me advice, then five minutes later has me laughing and sharing a peppermint patty with him. It's been six year with three different coaches but only one has ever taken the time to sit down and split a peppermint patty with me.

One Mile & I'm Done

I was spending Saturday night with my closest friends who, surprise, are my college teammates. While we were together a girl came up to us and started talking about random stuff. In the middle of her chatter she looks at us and says "how much do you guys run?” This question is routine to us by now so we just laughed and sarcastically replied "not enough". Her eyes got wide and she began to say "is it because you guys can't get enough of it? Because I run one mile and I'm like WOAH. I. AM. DONE." My teammates and I just smiled. Why we run will always be a mystery to non-runners and a treasured secret to all runners.

Insanity

Running -it makes me happy and crazy at the same time but I love it. One of the things that I love most about it is how close it can bring me to other people, especially my family. When you run, at least when I run, I lose my filter. I say strange things. I sweat all over. I laugh. I gasp for breath. Pretty much the only thing that stays the same is the motion of running. My sister knows this for sure. There may be a six year age difference between us but she is one of my best friends. She will gladly go for a run with me and watch me, her sister, slowly become insane during our run then somehow gain sanity by the time we arrive back home. On the surface we're just a pair of running sisters. But in reality we're having our own unique version of sisterly bonding. On our most recent run together she said "my face is frozen into a smile". I think that describes us. We love our time spent together and don't mind being a little crazy once and a while, especially on a run.