Alexander 1

Running
Putting my running shoes on for the first time in four months I could feel the familiar
shape of the shoe which was still a little stiff from months in storage. A small rip had formed on
the outside of the shoes, but they would survive the run today. What I was worried about was
being able to finish the run. As the walk light flipped on, the whole group of runners started off
at a steady jog towards the center of UCF. Ram, one of my TAs in math, was running next to me
and explained that today was going to be a slow day in preparation for their race tomorrow. They
were going to run the course for their annual 5k Knight Run. Only two miles into the run I was
starting to remember why running used to be so much fun. Even as a little kid I enjoyed going
for runs with my friends.
As a sixth grader I never took running seriously; I was there to have fun with my friends.
Every cross country season I would quit gymnastics so that I could go on runs which would often
end up at Dairy Queen. Then running was less about competition and more about having a
snowball fight with my teammates Bruno and Andrew as we jogged through a foot of snow. I did
not run because I loved competing and racing. I just enjoyed messing around and the racing was
required by my coach. While running prodigies like my friend Matt were busy training to take
state titles, I was running half as hard as him at practice and had no plans to even make it to the
state meet.
Cross country in high school was much harder than middle school. I was expected to train
every day with Matt. Who, unlike me, ran because he enjoyed the competition. His training
pushed me to run distances I never thought possible. By the end of the year I would be lining up
right next to Matt at the start of varsity races and I would battle for places in front of the best
Seniors on the team. Running with Matt taught me to love competition and racing instead of

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enjoying the training. As the two top runners on the team the coaches expected us to take
practices seriously and lead by example. We still had snowball fights at times but were never
allowed to stop and get ice cream like we would in middle school.
I may not have enjoyed practice, but lining up for races next to Matt during my
Sophomore year was always exciting. At the beginning of the season it seemed like we would
alternate between beating each other in races. My recent explosion in speed was caused by my
training with Nate. Nate was an ultra marathon runner and sometimes raced over 100 miles.
While he focused almost entirely on distance running himself, Nate had been mentoring high
school runners for years and knew everything about both distance and speed training. As Nate
mentored me over the summer, he focused on correcting my running form to prepare me for
cross country. The workouts he made me do tired me out quickly by putting me on a special
treadmill that could go up to a 45 degree incline and could hit 20 miles an hour at the maximum
speed. By exhausting my body early into the workout Nate would find the spot where my form
would start to break down then hold me at that point until I was once again forcing myself to run
correctly. Because of my training with Nate, I was able to jump into the cross country season
ready to race and I quickly found out that I could race with Matt. By the end of the season I
could consistently beat him in races.
My training throughout high school had been hard and demanding, but many other parts
of my life could be improved for running. My junior year of cross country, I met Mr. Kinley.
Kinley was an old school runner who had kept running daily running logs for over ten years.
These logs included all the information about everything from the distance he ran, food he ate,
weather, and even a short journal entry of how he felt before, during, and after the run. Through

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years of looking at these logs and making small changes to his life, Mr. Kinley was able to
optimize himself to stay in running shape into what is now his late 50s. During many of my
conversations with him, Mr. Kinley would highlight the importance of nutrition. He believed that
paying attention to the foods I ate could have a big impact on my running. My near daily
consumption of pizza, ice cream, and Dr. Pepper was not a diet for success. Simply removing
just a few of my worst habits had a surprising impact on my training and racing. I would go into
most of my practices feeling good and I could recover from races much faster than before.
By my junior year all of these little tweaks to my running had added up to major
improvements. Lining up next to my former teammates Andrew Bates and Alex Bruno for the
Intercity 800 meter run, I felt that my junior year could not get any more exciting. We had run
together throughout middle school, knew each other from years of racing. All of us were seeded
to finish in the same half second gap. As the gun went off all three of us sprinted through the first
curve already forming a pack a few meters ahead of the other runners. Near the start of the
second curve Bryce, an alum who ran a sub 4 minute mile and was a mentor of sorts, screamed at
me to keep my pace through the first 300. I could hear Brunos breath as he stepped out of line
on the second straightaway to pass me with Andrews footsteps right behind him. Expecting a
break at this point, I made a sudden surge to keep the inside lane while we battled to take the
lead all the way to the start of the second lap. Coming through onto the final lap I increase the
speed once again trying to create some kind of gap between my former teammates and I. As the
last 300 meters came into view Bruno and I launched ourselves forward dropping Andrew well
behind us. Down the field, I could hear Bryce screaming at me to push harder as we left the last
turn and entered the final 100 meters of the race. Neck and neck, Bruno and I tried to squeeze

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every ounce of energy we had into our legs unable to create even an inch of separation from each
other as we leaned across the finish line nearly falling over. On camera, I finished only 6
thousandths of a second ahead of Bruno which rounded to winning by a hundredth of a second
officially.
I left my junior year energized and once again excited about running; however, my senior
year was going to be quite different from any previous season. Over the summer I trained harder
than ever before, pushing my body in hopes of finally winning cross countrys Intercity title. By
the beginning of the season, I was in great shape but my body was already exhausted and near
the point of injury. Just days before Intercity my coaches noticed my knee was swollen
significantly and forced me to go to a doctor. At the office they drained all fluid from my knee
and ordered an MRI. The official recommendation was for me to avoid running at all costs but
seeing how this would be my last Intercity race I had already decided to run. With all fluid now
drained and a brace on my knee I took my ibuprofen and began to warm up until just minutes
before the start of the race my doctor called. He claimed that somehow, over the course of the
season I had sprained my ACL and that running the race would be a very bad idea. I explained
that I was already warmed up and on the line. At this point, I was going to run the race no matter
what. Unsurprisingly I did not run very well and ended with a time of 17:51 after falling behind
the main pack a mile and a half into the race. With my season now over the doctors had more
time to look at my knee and figure out that it was not, in fact, a sprained ACL but a form of
arthritis caused by a combination of Lyme disease and stress on my body.
Adjusting to life with Lyme disease was surprisingly not difficult. It turns out that all
doctors can do is prescribe antibiotics hoping for the disease to disappear. For my knee, I was

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told that strengthening my whole body could prevent injuries in the future. Luckily, after a short
break, I was able to run again. All through winter and into the track season I would workout with
a physical therapist twice a week as I slowly grew bored of competitive running. For my final
season of track I was much less motivated than the previous ones. More often than not my meets
would revolve around running relays that were not taken as seriously as individual races. There
were still good races, where I would catch a person in the last 100 meters of a race after being
handed the baton 40 meters back. But my interest in running had faded. At meets my team would
play ultimate frisbee in between races and we would never warm up or stretch. During Intercity
my senior year I tried high jump for the first time. Surprisingly, I wasnt terrible at high jump
and tied my team's best jumper at 5 foot 6 inches. Unfortunately, my coach didnt care about
high jump and still forced me to compete in as many races as possible even running on the
varsity 4 by 200 when needed. By the end of my senior year running was the last thing I wanted
to do and I was ready to take a long break.
After a four month break from running, I was once again joining a running group. While I
dont plan on training every day or racing regularly anymore, it is nice to go back to being with
friends and having fun on my runs. Maybe in the future I will race competitively again but for
now it is nice to be able to relax.