By Karen Garcia |
With a number eight national ranking, the men’s cross country is the highest ranked team at UP. The team looks to have a strong showing at the WCC Championships this weekend, which would land them another trip to the NCAA tournament. As the team nears the end of another strong season, a few of the runners shared their least favorite part of running and how they stay motivated.
What’s your least favorite part of running?
Sometimes on those long runs, there’s not much to do besides just look around—it gets a little boring sometimes, and it takes a toll on your body for sure. If you take care of yourself, though, it’s not bad at all.
What keeps you motivated when you feel like you’re hitting the wall?
It’s all just mental toughness. Your body can do a lot more than your mind believes you can, so I just remind myself that I’m not maxed out yet. It helps to remind myself that the hard work is benefitting my body.
Keegan Symmes (redshirt freshman)
What’s your least favorite part of running?
I don’t have a least favorite part of running. I love all of it, even the uncomfortable parts.
What keeps you motivated when you feel like you’re hitting the wall?
I really hate losing to people, so when people start passing me I start to feel really bad, and that’s very motivating to me. Seeing someone pass me gives me that extra burst to keep going and try even harder.
What’s your least favorite part of running?
Probably just the amount of stress involved with it, like the stress and anxiety before a race. But I can’t really say anything too bad about it—the good always outweighs the bad.
What keeps you motivated when you feel like you’re hitting the wall?
I try to remember not only my own success and look at the situation I’m in from a big picture perspective—I also have to look out for my team. The desire for all of us to do well together is the ambition that drives me.
Scott Fauble (redshirt senior)
What’s your least favorite part of running?
I don’t know if I could say that there’s one thing that I dislike more than anything else. There’s many parts of running that I enjoy very much, so there’s no one thing I can point to.
What keeps you motivated when you feel like you’re hitting the wall?
Those moments where it gets really hard is when I enjoy it the most. I sort of remind myself that that’s when it’s the most fun, when it hurts—that’s when you learn the most about yourself as an athlete.
What’s your least favorite part of running?
There’s no such thing for me. If you overcome the painful parts, it makes everything good. If you’re in good shape, it goes easy—it’s not like usual pain, it’s good pain.
What keeps you motivated when you feel like you’re hitting the wall?
I rarely hit a wall, actually. If I get tired I have to try to relax my mind and just finish—if you stress out too much, or try too hard, you cramp up and then you’re just not comfortable anymore. The most important thing is to run smart. If it’s hurting too bad, then that’s a problem since the preparation is vital to running. You have to train well to be ready, and then races are fun.
What’s your least favorite part of running?
If I had to pick a least favorite part of anything, it would be the core workouts we sometimes have to do after training. I don’t like that, I just like to run. I understand why some people wouldn’t get why I like running, to them it may be the most annoying and boring thing in the world—but it’s my passion.
What keeps you motivated when you feel like you’re hitting the wall?
The thing I love about running is that it’s my time to think about stuff. It gives me the chance and time to reflect about the things going on my life, whether it’s school or friends or something else. I’m grateful and happy to be able to run in the forest for a long time and do that, so I don’t really struggle with motivation.
