As you might already know, I’m an avid runner. Running is ultimately therapy for me, and it’s what I look forward to everyday. But once you get caught up in all the training, racing, etc., you might forget why you are doing all of this in the first place. So it’s nice every once in a while to look back and see the progress you have made and how far you have come.

By now you might be thinking, “Alright Hannah, get to the point!”, so here it goes…

Growing up I Never EVER had ANY interest in ANY kind of sport. I always grew up playing the piano and singing and later learning how to play guitar. I FOR SURE thought I was going to be even more famous than Taylor Swift down the road. But as for most people, my interests and goals started to change. Once I reached middle school, my parents really saw potential in my musical skills, but I just didn’t want that for me anymore. So spring of sixth grade I decided to go out for my 1st sport ever. I decided to join the track team of 200+ kids, and I’m not gonna lie but I was very intimidated. I had no idea what I was doing, and the program was extremely unstructured. This whole experience was more just socializing and doing whatever events your friends were doing, so that’s what I did. I did 100m dash, pole-vault, and high-jump, quite the variety right? And let me tell you, my ability in these events were I’m sure a huge embarrassment to my parents.

Fast-forward to spring of eighth grade when I quit  track because I couldn’t even run an 800m straight. I hated it so much, and never wanted anything to do with it again. But a week or so later, my mom was signed up for a fun local 5k race and said I should do it with her. So I said yes and started running until that race which was 2 weeks away. On each run I started enjoying it more and more and I learned how to push myself  for the first time. Before no time, it was race day and I felt my first stomach butterflies, I was so nervous. And I’m not gonna lie, but my only goal was to beat my mom. This was my first 5k race and I finished with 27:34. And I LOVED it!. So all summer I started running more and more and had a goal of joining the high school cross country team my freshman year.

But before my freshman year started, there was the dreaded 4k time-trials. Of course I wanted to make varsity (top 7) but I had only been running 3.5 months by this time so it was a very high goal, also considering most of the varsity girls 5k times were 22 and under. The whistle blew and before I knew it, we were already crossing the finish line and I looked in front of me and I placed…7th! I was shocked! Throughout my whole freshman cross country season I went form being 7th on the team down to 2nd on the team and getting 3rd at the state meet. I was thrilled and that’s what all got me started. So over winter I started training more and my the time track season rolled around, I won the state 3000m in 10:09! I had improved so much! And as expected with anything, practice makes perfect so by my sophomore year of cross country I won state again and qualified for Nike Nationals which was a blast!!

Sadly though, my next accomplishments will have to be this coming junior track season since I started to not train very smart and got injured for both sophomore track season and junior cross country season. But what happened is soon to come in another post! But anyways, just looking back at your progress wether it be running, swimming, writing, grades, or whatever it may be, can be very motivating. To see how far you have come can really give you a lot of hope for the future! So don’t forget every now and then to look back at your accomplishments, it can do a person good! Tell me all your accomplishments down below!

(Sophomore State XC meet)