![]() ![]() What kept me coming back week after a week, however, was the people. I quickly was able to learn the routes and find fellow runners who had a similar pace as me. ![]() The Saturday runs were perfect for me as a returning runner. I returned to running with larger groups in 2014 after a friend convinced me to try out a Saturday SFR run at Green Lake. I gave up running in large group settings and pivoted to the occasional run on my own which gave me a similar endorphin rush but without a connection to any sort of community. I briefly attempted to run college track and field but eventually found through a bit of soul searching that it wasn’t what I was meant to do. I often finished dead last or had to take many walk breaks during the 3-mile runs.Over the years, I gradually became a decent distance runner as I learned to moderate my pace throughout long runs and use my ability to sprint strategically at the end of races. Halfway through that following summer, I decided to join my school’s cross country (XC) team in the fall. Unfortunately, as my luck would have it, track and field was a spring-only sport at my school and I needed to find a way to fill my time with other activities in-between then. I also enjoyed the thrill of nailing the perfect precision required to successfully bust out of starting blocks and sprint down the track field against competitors.Īfter that first season of track and field, I knew running was my sport. ![]() I found myself going from being left out of many conversations and chances to sit with folks at lunch to being invited to after-school activities and meetups. She was right! During my first spring in Orting, I joined my track and field team. During my first year in the town, my school guidance counselor recommended I join track and field to help me connect with people on a personal level. As one of the first bi-racial Black and white families to move to the town, it was initially a struggle for me to make friends as I was often the first Black person many of my classmates had met, and there were many cultural differences between my more urban upbringing and that of exurban kids in Orting. I initially turned to running as a coping mechanism when I moved with my family to Orting, Washington, for high school. My love for running grew later, during high school. Back in middle school, I vividly recall panting and dragging myself around the track during a Presidential Fitness Test. ![]()
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