Deciding to improve.

Everyone in their running career will "decide to improve" and become much faster. Whenever you make a goal, that is what you do; however, there is a large difference between deciding to improve and actually doing it. There is a large difference between deciding "I want to become faster" and truly deciding "I really want to become faster." Everyone dreams about being going to the Olympics, winning NXN, running on varsity, but only few will actually do so. The ones who do so are the ones who decide to become great. I have a personal story about goal making the process of truly committing to the great sport of running. As Carl Gustav Jung once said, "I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become."

I've been running since 7th grade and am now a sophomore in High School. My dad and brother both run and my dad is a coach for the High School cross country team. I may have felt forced into the sport but I wasn't. While I may not have enjoyed it really until the summer going into sophomore year, I am so happy to have it as a part of my life. Through 7th grade, I ran a lot and became decent but I was no super star. 8th grade and freshman year cross country, I suffered two stress fractures. Due to these injuries, I never was really able to commit to the sport, that didn't happen until summer going into sophomore year. Through the time up to the end of sophomore year, I ran and enjoyed it to a point, but it almost felt like a chore. I was very slow, with a 5:33 mile PR freshman year in track. Once summer came around, I was done with being slow and getting injured, it was a new start, I truly decided to improve.

I could not have been more excited to summer practice. I viewed it as a fresh start for my running and myself as a person. In order to avoid injury, I did reduced workouts and cut some runs shorter through the whole summer and partly into the cross country season. Did I enjoy this? Absolutely not. As much as I hated it because I felt weak, I knew I was doing well in order to stay consistent. After all, I decided to improve. Immediately in the summer, I moved up into about the second to third training group even though those were massive and made up most of the 45 person team. I still ran six days a week, every week since the beginning of summer. I ran 40 miles every week. Is that a lot? No, it may not be. Mileage doesn't always make you a good runner. I wish I could have done more as I loved running by this point, but I didn't because I decided to improve.

Summer kept on passing by and I loved every minute of it, running with my second family and spending the rest of the day with them. I did every workout, every long run each Saturday no matter how tired I felt but it's because I committed. I wanted to get better. There are three sophomores on the team who are all very close in time and run very fast times for sophomores (Usually around mid to low 17:00). I went into the season just wanting to letter (18:40s) and maybe make travel team (top 20ish runners who go to the Nike Cross National Regional meet). These goals were achieved. Since I stayed consistent and decided to improve, I worked hard towards my goal, and I achieved it. It felt amazing. Near the end of the best summer of my life, our team participated in a city 5k we do every year as a pre-season race. I ran 18:29. This is when I realized how much all the work paid off. This put me in position to run varsity at the pre-season meet in a couple of weeks (top 10 on the team run varsity). I could not have been more thrilled. Without the team, I never would have achieved this as they pushed me through every day, especially the triplets after this meet. I realized I could become one of them by the end of the season and that became my goal. I decided to imrpove so I did just so.

The rest of the season was amazing. Pre-season wasn't my best race at 18:37, and I had a few races in the 18:20s, but by then I had already gone 17:59 so I knew I could get better. I decided to get better, so I worked hard to do so. At a JV OCC meet, I wanted to win. Since I truly decided to do so and committed my mind to it, I did it. I ran a 17:43 and won the JV OCC meet. This made me feel much better about myself and it made me an official triplet or "quadruplet". From here on, we all worked together to drop some insane times, over a minute faster than my goal time going into the season. I secured my spot on travel team. Over the next few races, times just kept dropping, especially when the team worked together during races. We had all decided to improve, so we did so together. By the end of the season, I ran a 17:17 at NXR Midwest. It was the perfect race. A close teammate and I were working together and both chasing one who was just a bit ahead of us. We all decided to improve. This same year, our team finished second at the state meet. Since we decided to improve, we did just so.

Without the team, I don't know where I would be. They took me to where I am today and I hope I dragged some others along at other points. They truthfully saved my life during a dark time. I am so glad to have them in my life and experience the greatest sport known to man with them. Each one of us slowly committed, and those who truthfully decided to improve, did get faster.

I guess what I am trying to say is that if you want to be a good runner, you have to truly decide to do it. Anyone can say "I want to be fast" but only those who mean it will ever be fast. I learned this first hand. I want everyone to decide to be better, and really mean it. You have to make running a major part of your life, taking up your thoughts during free time. Running with the team is the highlight of my day and what I look forward to. Running saved my life. If I am going to do this, why not decide to improve at it? Of course it will hurt, that's the great thing about it. Once you can handle the pain, great things will come your way. Choose what you want to be, don't let injuries hold you back. Bike or swim everyday while you're hurt, do core, eat healthy and get sleep. All these things are what you need to do in order to decide to be fast. This team wants to achieve great things in the future, and we have decided to do so. Decide to improve.

- Brian Stroh (@strohbr)