Pre-Nationals

As of Saturday, the early season is officially over and championship season is upon us.  With Wisco on Friday and pre-nats on Saturday, this was a huge weekend for all of cross country, and an opportunity for teams to prove themselves.  Utah State went to pre-nats rather than Wisconsin so that everyone on the team would be somewhat familiar with the course before nationals, and we would have a chance to compete against a large group of nationally ranked teams.
This time around, our first travel day was much less hectic.  We actually got our rental cars in a reasonable time frame, nobody got left anywhere, and we got our run in before dark, although I'm entirely convinced that the place we did our post-plane shakeout was 100% haunted.  It was called Big Bone Lick Park, and everything about the situation was reminiscent of a horror film.  It all got started when our vans got split up and we couldn't find half of our group, then when we tried to call them, we found that there was no cell service in the park.  Fortunately, there were a very limited number of places to turn off, so we quickly found them less than half a mile away.  Just so you can all appreciate how clearly haunted this area was, I'll describe it to you in unnecessary amounts of detail.  The place we parked was a "picnic area" which consisted of a swing set, some slides, a run down picnic bench under a tree, and a covered picnic area with bathrooms attached.  The ground was marshy, probably with several dead bodies just below the surface, and to the left, there was a meadow with what looked like a run-down set of wooden bleachers and a rusted out fence that were once part of a baseball field.  I was absolutely certain that the tap water in the bathroom was pumped out of the marshes around us, and that I probably got some angry spirits on my skin when I washed my hands.  The entire area was overcast, which could've just been a weather thing, but more likely was a large group of souls trapped eternally in that area thing.  Coach had planned out a loop for us to run, and with about two miles to go, we found ourselves on the far side of a lake, with me believing that the vans were at least fifteen miles away and that we were going to get crazy murdered by the locals.  Seriously, it's the eve of Friday the 13th, it's overcast, we're running down back roads on the shore of a lake, and there are tiny lake houses and random campers on either side of the road.  Try and tell me that doesn't sound like a setup for a horror film.  Also, earlier in the week I talked to Sonia about the fact that every time I eat peanut butter, I get wildly nauseated and feel like I'm dying, so she suggested that I maybe not eat peanut butter so much anymore, so naturally I had a peanut butter sandwich and multiple peanut butter bars on the plane and spent the entire run convinced that I was going to die.  So things were going great.
The morning of the course preview, after having flung all of my possessions across the hotel room after promising myself that I would stay neat and contained on this trip, I realized that I somehow lost one of my racing socks.  I definitely had other socks that I could have raced in, but I am very particular about what goes on my feet when I'm racing, and without my ultra-lite no-show tabbed Feetures, there was no way that I would be lining up to race the next day.  I probably would've just flown back to Utah that night.  Okay, maybe not.  But I wouldn't have been happy.  Fortunately, I have the greatest coaches on earth, so after the course preview-which was absolutely fantastic, the amount of love this team has for each other and enthusiasm we have to race and race well for each other is like nothing I have ever experienced with any other team-Sarah drove me to a local running store where I got the very last pair of size medium ultra-lite no-show Feetures that they had, which were an extremely aggressive neon orange.

Photos courtesy of Michael Scott

The race itself was different from the first three I ran this year, for obvious reasons.  This race had a significantly stronger field, so it got out hard from the gun and never really offered an opportunity to settle in.  Going into this race, the plan was to go out close to the top ten, cover any gaps that opened up, and move up the last 2k.  Because of the sheer size of the race, this wasn't quite as easy as I anticipated it being, simply because so many girls surged for the front from the beginning.  Mentally, it was a bit challenging to have to work around other runners to be close to the front and run in the middle of a large pack rather than frontrunning easy.  I'm definitely grateful that we had the chance to race here before nationals and I could get some experience running a race that size, because there are some factors here and there that I need to improve on when running with such a large, talented group, and now I know what to change and have time to change it.  I ended up finishing ninth, and I feel extremely conflicted about it.  Last year, my goal was to crack the top thirty in this race, and I fell far short of it, so this year was a huge improvement, but I still feel that I didn't race as well as I could've, with the heat and the race size influencing my performance more than I would've liked, so right now I think I'm happy with the race, but not satisfied.  There is still over a month until nationals, though, so I think that's a good place to be going into the sharpening phase for championship season.

On that pain train for the team

The team finish was the real highlight of that day.  Our women worked together and showed up to prove that we deserve to be nationally ranked.  We placed fourth, beating the #4 ranked team in the nation to do so and only placing behind #1, 2, and 9 ranked teams.  A text post can't really convey how exciting that is.  FOURTH PLACE AT PRE-NATIONALS.  BEHIND ONLY TOP-10 RANKED TEAMS.  IN FRONT OF #4.  It's a pretty dang big deal.  We established pretty clearly that we are certainly the best women's team in Utah, and that there are few teams in the region or nation that we can't at least hold our own against.  Guys, I'm pumped.  My heart is racing a little just typing this up because we still have a month before the regional meet and we aren't going to back off.  We are ready to be the first USU team to go to nationals, and we are going to show up to regionals even more fit and sharp than we are now.    Both the men and the women have been making sacrifices and doing more for this team than we ever have before.  We are willing to do whatever it takes.  Seriously, whatever it takes-we've got the EPO in the fridge in our training room ready to inject right before regionals.  Just kidding, I promise we aren't doping, we just have some kick-ass coaches and a love for each other that drives us to train and race for something bigger than ourselves.

  

On the Rise

I am so hyped I don't even know where to begin.  As I mentioned in my previous post, the team competed in the Paul Short Invite in Pennsylvania this last weekend, and boy did we show up on race day.  The entirety of the weekend was an adventure, so I won't skip straight to the running stuff and leave you wondering just how long we waited for our rental cars or how many times we listened to Welcome to New York by T-Swift on the way to the city.
Leading up to race day, we had a few hiccups.  I hyperventilated my way through the flight and only teared up once or twice, so we were off to a great start.  Then, upon arriving in Pennsylvania, we learned that two of the drivers we had planned on were not, in fact, old enough for the rental agencies to trust them with their vehicles.  We were at the airport for about an hour and a half while that got sorted out, and ended up finagling our way into the cars anyway.  By the time we reached our hotel, it was dark and we had yet to run.  Since coach was a little wary of letting loose twenty-two wide-eyed country kids from Utah to run through the streets of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, we rolled out to the course for a little late night course previewing.  If you've never run alone through Pennsylvania cornfields in the dark, let me just tell you right now, you aren't missing out.  If there was a Yelp page for it, I would rate it zero stars.  In the daylight hours, I am a semi-rational and somewhat reasonable young lady.  After the sun goes down, it's a completely different story.  I kept seeing shapes in the cornfields, and at one point I actually thought to myself, "Oh no, it's the fabled Pennsylvania werewolves.  My life is about to end."  It wasn't even a full moon.  A few rabbits darted out over the course, and I sincerely believed they were serial killers rustling around in the corn waiting for unsuspecting runners to prey upon.  I think it's possible that I watch too many true crime shows.  Probably the greatest tragedy of the day came about later that night, though, when Presli and I ordered peanut butter chocolate silk pie and they had the audacity to bring us regular chocolate silk pie.  The nerve of some people.

The following day we had the course preview and the difference between the course at night and the course during the day was startling.  Suddenly it no longer felt like the world was closing in every time we ran through the corn, and there wasn't a sense of impending doom.  (Well, not as much of a sense of impending doom-it was a pre-race run, after all).  Probably the most important takeaway from the course preview was Jos telling us that her mom could run 1200 meters when we hit the three mile mark, so we definitely could as well.  A little bit of magic occurred out on the course that transformed my legs from feeling like those bags of frosting you use to decorate cakes to feeling like legs that belonged to a real human person again.

The race itself was a happening good time.  Before the women lined up, two of our male counterparts won their respective races, and it was looking like the men's team would take the title for their race, so Utah State was getting some side glances from the crowd.  Getting out in a field of 400+ ladies wasn't as terrifying and PTSD-inducing as I anticipated it being.  Probably the biggest issue I faced during the race was that I forgot to make note of the distances during the course preview and I somehow didn't notice the signs off to the side that clearly stated how far you have gone every 1k and mile so we got to the three mile and I was still laboring under the delusion that we had not yet hit two miles.  Boy did I feel silly.  With 1200 meters to go, I reminded myself that a) my teammates were out there grinding as well, and we all needed each other to be successful and b) Josie's mom can ran 1200 meters, so you'd best believe I could put in just a little bit more effort.  We ended up coming away with three individual wins, and a sweep of the team titles on the men's and women's side.  I don't think I have ever seen such a group of rowdy individuals as my teammates when we got the news that we had beat number 15-ranked Villanova by over 40 points.

Also, because I mentioned in my previous post that we would be going to a Broadway show in New York, I feel obligated to tell you all about that experience.  Believe it or not, New York is vastly different from Logan, Utah.  There are a few more people, and they are not quite as happy to see you.  Times Square and Broadway were amazing (Phantom on Broadway was probably the coolest thing I have ever seen), and I would definitely like to marry into money so I can go back and watch Broadway musicals casually on the weekends, but New York is not a place that I would ever want to stay for extended periods of time.  On the way back, we learned that the train back from the city is equipped with doors that close automatically, whether everyone who wants to get off is off or not when we managed to lose two of our teammates and our trainer.  They did eventually make their way back to the hotel, though, despite my sincere concern that they would disappear into the train tunnels and become mole people, never to be seen by us again.

In other news, since starting this post, the national coaches' poll has come out, as have the various national rankings from different running-central websites.  The coaches' poll has the women ranked 19th, and the men coming in at 27th.  This is the first time in the history of the school that both the men's and women's teams have been ranked at the same time, and I really can't express what an exciting time it is to be at USU.  We are all still very motivated to keep moving up, and are not willing to let ourselves be complacent or settle in at all, but we're also extremely happy to have reached the point that we have.  Our next competition will be next Saturday in Louisville at pre-nats, and we're definitely ready to move up a few more places in the rankings.  (No I'm not bitter that Villanova and BYU are still ranked ahead of us.  Okay, yeah, I'm totally bitter.  Sorry about it.)    

Got some prom photos done while I had my corn bouquet, courtesy of my teammates

Feelin' 22

Last weekend was a pretty big step for the team.  We faced off against BYU for the first time in the season, and going in we had very high expectations for ourselves.  The BYU women were ranked top 10 in the nation going into the season, so beating them would be a great way to prove that we were well on our way to being the first cross team from USU to qualify for nationals.  Coach gave us a fairly straightforward race plan, and we executed it exactly as he hoped we would.  Our women ended up winning the meet and beating BYU by nine points.  The ladies all worked together and encouraged each other throughout the race, and the strength of our team really showed.  There are still quite a few naysayers-apparently a little girl told one of my teammates that we had simply gotten lucky and that BYU would rub our noses in it next time we faced off (Fortunately I wasn't around for this because it would have reflected very badly on USU for me to be throwing hands at a sassy ten-year-old)-but that's just motivation for us to keep working and not take this small victory as a reason to slack off.

Whole lotta Aggies all in a bunch, just how we like it

As excited as we all were that day, it didn't quite compare to the hype in our group chat a few days later when regional rankings and the results of the coaches poll came out.  We are currently ranking third in the mountain region behind only Colorado and New Mexico, and we jumped eight spots in the national poll to reach the highest ranking of any USU team at twenty-second.  When I opened the link to the results of the coaches' poll for this week, I threw up just a little bit.  But you best believe we're just getting started.  Next week, if you happen to be in the Bethlehem, PA area, feel free to swing by the Paul Short invite and check out your favorite Aggies at work.  (Also, please pray for my soul and my travel companions because based on the amount of traveling we will be doing to reach Pennsylvania, the odds of me not being an ill-tempered gnome with swollen ankles do not look great).  Side note, Coach actually has enough faith in our abilities to clean up well post-race that he's arranged for us to go to Phantom of the Opera on Broadway Friday night, and if you don't think I've already planned one full outfit and multiple backups because this is the fanciest thing that's ever happened to me, you're as wrong as I'm going to be road-ugly.

Plz take a moment to note how cute our mascot is #ILYBlue

The final thing that came out of this weekend, though not a huge moment in the long run, was a big moment for me.  If you have happened to follow my running career through college (bless your souls), you'll know that it has been dynamic to say the least, and not exactly in a good way up until the last few months.  My first two collegiate cross seasons were heavily marked by injury, self-doubt, crippling anxiety and a case of the depressies that hopped on board uninvited every time I had a bad race or got injured like that casual acquaintance that always seems to know when you're having a party where food will be provided and just mysteriously turns up.  Coming into this season, I had a lot of concerns that the nasty cycle of self-doubt and defeat would start up again, and I would have to rely on my backup plan in case running didn't work out.  (Go trolling through yacht clubs during the California meets and pick up a rich husband).  Also, I was straight up panicked that my season would blow up in my face, then all of the internet trolls and h8rs would come crawling out of the woodwork to say how they were right and it was silly of me to transfer because, you know, nothing is really more important than the opinions of a faceless weirdo on the internet who has nothing better to do with their time than dissect the decisions of others.  Anyhow, with those concerns in mind, I started seeing our sports psychologist, and I tell ya what, she's a stunner.  I have told my exotic lover countless times that I would leave him for her in a heartbeat, and he's totally cool with it because that's how great she is.  I meet with her once a week, and we go over the wildly ridiculous worries I have that are holding me back, what triggers my cycles of negativity, and how I can ground myself and get re-focused when thoughts about things that are out of my control come up.  I have weekly homework assignments to make sure I'm actually reflecting on the things I need to, and the sessions are actually enjoyable and not at all like talking to a therapist who is trying to dig their little claws into the source of all your issues.  The week of the BYU meet, my assignment was to identify any thoughts about things that were out of my control and re-center myself every time they came up starting the day before the meet.  Anytime thoughts like "How many miles did she run this summer?" or "What if they're more fit that our team is right now?" or "What if this season blows up for me again?" came up, I had to consider whether they would be helpful in the middle of the race.  If they wouldn't be, I was supposed to consciously shift my thoughts to something else.  As someone who gets straight-up squirrely worrying over all of the possibilities before a race, this was incredibly helpful.  So, the biggest thing I gained from this last weekend was a true enjoyment of cross country and a confidence I haven't experienced since senior year of high school.  I had this "epiphany" during track, but I still had a bit of a mental block for cross, largely because this is the season that has historically held the most issues for me on the college scene.  The difference it has made to be running anxiety-free and actually trying to work through my problems instead of denying their existence has been monumental.  There are still days that hitting my double or running another hill rep sounds incredibly unappetizing, but that's pretty standard across distance running.  Being at USU has helped me to re-discover a joy for cross and to lose the sickening feeling of dread and anticipation that used to come with the beginning of the season.  We are chasing big goals in a supportive and healthy way, and it's incredible to be a part of.

Aggies All the Way #BeTheFirst

     

Clean Start

Anyone who has ever run a race knows the importance of a clean start. You don't want to get out too fast and risk going anaerobic too quickly, or get out too slow and create a gap with the leaders that you will have to fight hard to make up. You also don't want to get tripped up and start the race scraped up and mentally shaken. Of course, you won't always get the clean start you were hoping for, but there will always be a new day and a new race where you can get it right.
Thus far, Utah State has been my new day and my opportunity to get it right. From the first week at camp, I fell in love with my teammates, the program, the town, and the amazing support system we have. I am completely taken aback by the love and support we receive from our coaches. They make it abundantly clear that they care about us as people, and they look out for our best interests while still guiding us to become the best athletes we can be. My teammates are a crew of fantastic nutcases. As is typical for distance runners, there is a wide assortment of personalities, but the common theme that connects us all is the dream that makes us all crazy and that we sacrifice for daily to pursue. The training room staff goes above and beyond  (Ily for real, Sonia). They have already put up with so much of my nonsense (sry I ran 20 miles on Sunday) and have been way more patient than I deserve. The team sports psychologist is absolutely phenomenal, and is already helping me to work through some of my mental blocks and cycles of negativity tied to performance. The running here is amazing. If you're willing to run a mile or two out of town, there is a network of single track trails up through the mountains. The only downside is that some of my teammates have informed me that rattlesnakes like to hang out on the trails sometimes, but the only snakes I've seen out there were the young men who nearly decimated me on their bikes yesterday so I'm a little skeptical about the existence of these rattlesnakes. ALSO our resources are insane. Presli transferred here this season from a Big Sky school as well, and we are both absolutely giddy about the size of the gear packs, the fueling station, the training room, etc.

This season, the goal of the team is to become the first USU cross team to ever qualify for nationals, and boy howdy if any team is going to be the first this one looks as good as any. These ladies work crazy hard, not just at running but at the last little details that separate good from great, and we are all bought into the program entirely. This last Saturday, we had our first meet at home. It was fairly small and relaxed, but it was a solid way to get back into cross and gauge our fitness. We all ran together through 3k then let loose for the final 2k, and I'll tell you what, seeing a pack of teammates that size still together almost two miles in was pretty sweet. We have our next meet in Provo on the 16th, and I'm over the top excited to see how we look with all or most of the girls racing. Honestly, I'm just incredibly happy to be here. I have been asked a lot of questions about why I would transfer after my successful final season at MSU and at times throughout the outdoor season I questioned whether or not I should leave myself, but when it comes down to it, the fact of the matter is I am happy and supported here, which is not something I could always say in Bozeman. I am grateful for the time I had there, but I am even more grateful for the new beginning I was given by Coach Gulden and USU.

Road-Ugliness and Prevention Methods

I am not a person who travels remotely well, and as a student-athlete who has to travel 3+ hours up to seven or eight times in a season, this is fairly unfortunate.  I am road ugly (a term a friend once coined that describes the ability to make two hours in the car look like ten).  This was not always the case.  Once upon a time, I was simply a mildly creased young lady after a long drive in the car or a day at the airport.  Then I went to school in Montana where in order to get anywhere, the minimum drive is three hours and the only airports in the state only fly to a select few other airports so to fly to meets even as near as California required one to wake up at 3 a.m. and spend up to twelve hours on flights and layovers in connecting airports.  After one particularly turbulent flight (most flights into Montana are turbulent as the planes you most typically fly in on are prop planes meant for under fifty passengers that resemble the creations of the Wright brothers) when I woke up in the middle of a drop and was immediately convinced that the plane was going down and I was about to meet Jesus, something snapped.  It was like I was a gremlin and someone had given me a corn dog at 12:01 a.m.  I morphed from the simply unpleasant traveler I was before into a goblin with aching joints, swollen legs, and a tendency to tear up irrationally after more than five hours in a car.  Seriously, I once started crying on a bus because we drove past a gas station and I really had to pee.  There was a bathroom on that bus literally ten feet away from me.  Once on the trip to Texas for regionals, I only remembered to pack one of my compression calf sleeves.  We had a ten hour travel day with a layover in Denver, and by the time we reached our hotel, the leg that I chose to sacrifice to a sleeveless travel day had swelled comically to 25% larger than the other.  As a result of this recently discovered road-ugliness, I have come up with a long list of remedies that, when combined, manage to make the changes in personality and appearance slightly less aggressive and alarming. 

First of all, if you’re an anxious sweater like myself, you’re going to want makeup remover wipes and lots of them, and potentially some dry shampoo.  These will help transform you from a greasy monster to just a monster.   Also, if you wear contacts, I would recommend wearing your glasses until you get to your final destination so you can take frequent naps and not worry about having your eyes feel like someone switched your contact solution for gorilla glue.

Another key for me is to plan out your outfit for travel and make it a little fancy.  Not over the top fancy because you also have to be comfortable and have some way to sneak all of your compression underneath it, but by consciously choosing to not just wear sweatpants and your favorite tie-dyed cat t-shirt, you get a little mental boost.  It’s also nice when you’re getting stares from strangers and you have to wonder if it’s because you look like a walking dumpster fire instead of knowing with absolute certainty that it’s because you look like a walking dumpster fire. 

Food is also v important.  For me, the biggest challenge is always making an effort to pack healthy snacks in addition to the ones that you know and love.  In high school, my friend Alli always used to tell me that no road trip is complete without meat sticks and sugary snacks, and I guess that mentality stuck.  It’s all fun and games until you’re six hours into a bus ride having eaten nothing but those delightful elf cookies that Keebler makes and chocolate milk that is thick with two c’s starting to get a sugar migraine and that gross sticky feeling that refuses to go away.  It’s safest to pack these snacks in advance rather than telling yourself that you’ll buy them on the road because when you’re staring down a bag of Hostess powdered donuts, it’s much harder to say no and go for the pretzels and hummus instead than it would be if you just packed the dang hummus in the first place.  But do be sure to pack trash food also.  My freshman year, when I was truly a road-ugly rookie, there was one memorable trip to California in which I got a slight head cold before we left.  It wasn’t enough to take me off the travel roster, but it was enough to leave me congested and irritable the whole weekend.  I distinctly remember one of my ears getting blocked off on the flight out, and not returning to normal for almost a week, despite many attempts to clear it by my teammates, who poured hydrogen peroxide into it every few minutes all day.  One of my teammates, knowing how cranky travel made me and having a full understanding of my love of treats had the foresight to pack a bag of candy just for me, and after every tantrum-free hour, she would give me a piece.  It was almost like she was classically conditioning me to be well-behaved and I loved it.

Stop by your local grocery store and pick up some Pedialyte as well.  I seriously get borderline religious about that stuff.  You really want to hammer hydration anyway, but the electrolytes it provides are kind of like a slap in the face for your kidneys to wake up and get to work.

Finally, compression is your best friend.  This is a basic that pretty much everyone preaches, but I can’t leave it out because without compression my entire body blows up like a balloon in a truly grotesque manner.  I would not be capable of functioning like a normal human being were it not for my calf sleeves and the Normatec.  My relationship with Normatec is incredibly unhealthy.  I am obsessed with it.  I think about it all the time, and I get upset when I don't get to see it every day.  I get jealous with other people get to spend time with it and I don't.  

So, as we welcome another cross country season, stay safe out there.  Don't make any accidental grabs for the hand of the person sitting next to you on the plane because you had a dream it was crashing or drop a breakfast burrito on your lap in the terminal (not that I've ever done either of those things).  Always make sure you pack both calf sleeves, and for the love of all things holy, never ever ever consume caffeine immediately before a flight.  Peace and god bless.    

Transfer How-To

Although I don't think athletes typically join a team with the intention of transferring, sometimes life comes at you fast and it's just something that has to happen.  It seems like all of the running websites out there have countless articles advising high school athletes on how to choose a school to attend, but there are very view to tell you about the transfer process.  Really, the only reason I decided to transfer was so I could get a first-hand account of how it works to post on this blog.  The lengths I go to for you guys.
The first and most obvious step is to really decide whether or not you want to transfer.  Once you talk to your coaches about it, you don't necessarily have to transfer, you can always just test the waters and decide if it's something you want to go through with or not, but it's best to at least be reasonably sure before talking to anyone because relations with team members and coaches definitely can get a little awkward once it comes out that you are looking at other schools, and if it's not something you actually want to do, there's not really any point to making things needlessly uncomfortable.
After you are sure you want to look into your options, you will need to get a release to contact from your coach and athletic program.  The NCAA has created a guide so you can look into the rules, regulations and other hoopla that come with transferring here, which I would definitely suggest you do before talking with a coach.  Most schools do not allow in-conference transfers, and there is a whole different set of rules for that kind of transfer.  Once you have your release to contact, you can have your coach send it to whatever schools you are interested in, or depending on how you are given your release, send it to them yourself.  For my transfer, my coach just sent me a blanket release addressed to any coach outside of the Big Sky and I was able to email it to any coach I wanted to.  In the case that your coach refuses to release you, your school is required to explain to you in writing how you can appeal for a release, and the appeal is presented to a group of people who are not involved with athletics to make the final decision.
Once you have a release, you are essentially right back where you were senior year.  You are allowed to email and call anyone that the release grants you permission to, and you receive five more official visits.  The biggest difference I found on these visits is that the second time around, you know which factors will actually matter the most to you, and you aren't as distracted by things like how big the football stadium is. For me, this time was all about how many frozen yogurt shops were either right on campus or within walking distance.
If you decide a different school is right for you, there are a few more steps to be taken.  Obviously, you'll need to apply for admissions and register for classes.  This step seems pretty clear, but I didn't remember to complete my registration for fall semester classes until about two weeks ago, so it's not obvious to everyone, I suppose.  You'll also sign a contract with your new school, although there is no official NLI the second time around.  Most of the final transfer process is given to you by your compliance director.  MSU had a very specific checklist that mine just printed off for me.  You'll need to have your records (both academic and medical) sent to your new school so your academic advisors and new athletic trainers can actually assist you properly, as well as check out with your previous training room staff so any injuries you sustained while at that school will actually be taken care of by that school.  Finally, you'll need to procure a second release from your coaches and athletic director, the one-time transfer exception release, which allows you to compete for your new school immediately, rather than sitting out a full year from competition. 
If you have no interest in transferring, sry.  Here's a little nugget of information so you learn something from this post anyway:  Cats' kidneys are so efficient that they can rehydrate by drinking saltwater.  #KnowledgeIsPower 

Be Above It

The theme of this post is something of a divergence from my usual posts about running, but it is a lesson that has been driven home to me by the experiences I have had and the people I have met as a result of running, so I figured it was at least a little relevant on this blog.
"People are going to hate you."  These words were some of the first I heard upon arriving back in Utah after my failed two-year experiment with Montana State, and they made an appearance a few short weeks later from an individual who began our short weekend trip as a stranger, and strangely one of the first lessons I learned just minutes after my finish at nationals.  Regardless of whether you are fast or slow, weak or strong, foolish or intellectual.  Whether they know every word of your story, or none of it at all.  People will hate you because of the things they've heard about you, true or not.  They will hate you for not fulfilling expectations they placed on you without your knowledge, or for pursuing the dreams that fill your waking hours with reckless abandon.  They will hate you for loving too much or not enough or for choosing the wrong person to care for.  They will hate you for your successes because they don't see the efforts that went into them, and they will hate you for your failures because they don't see the devastation that comes with them.
But...this is not on you.  The beautiful thing in all of this hate is that nothing dictates that you must shoulder the burden of accepting responsibility for it.  Of course, one should always strive to be able to recognize when they are in the wrong and make amends, but so long as you are living a life that you can be proud of, a good life, then let go of others' views on you.  Be unashamedly who you are.  Don't cower at the thought that your boldness might cause someone to dislike you.  Don't turn down a chance at happiness because it isn't down the path another might have chosen you.  After one of no doubt many outbursts from me via Snapchat about heaven only knows what, team drama or the patriarchy or someone's sassy attitude or what have you, my friend Aidan offered some simple advice:  Be above it.  You can choose to spend your life suffocating under the knowledge that people exist in this world who do not care for you, or you can try to realize that their opinions of you do not degrade the truth of what you are.