Running Through Change

After receiving our third place trophy, our varsity girls team celebrates from the stands as the boys go up to receive their championship trophy.

It felt like there was an elephant sitting on top of my chest.

It was Labor Day Weekend of 2014 at 5,371 feet above sea level in Lyons, Colorado. There I was, running up the side of a mountain in my first cross country race at altitude.

I had quite literally arrived in the state of Colorado the prior Sunday, ran five excruciating practices and was now competing in a 5k race up a mountain. 

“This must be what hell feels like” I muttered to myself as I made yet another loop. 

“We are so proud of you, Samantha! Keep going” yelled the Wexparents as I winced while trekking past them.

Just a month earlier, we had returned home to the Chicago suburbs from a cruise of the Danube River in Europe. My grandma came to watch us as my parents went to Colorado for a ‘business meeting’ that, in reality, was a final interview. 

I was training for my sophomore cross country season at Naperville Central High School and was finally at the top of the JV roster. I had a leadership position on the yearbook and a great class schedule. Things were good.

“Well, kids, Dad got a new job in Boulder, CO, and we are going to look at houses in two weeks and will be moving in a month or so,” my mom said in her steadiest mom voice. 

“Can we bring Max?” my younger sister immediately shouted out, concerned that we would just abandon our dog as if he somehow couldn’t cross state lines. 

So there I was, running up the side of the mountain almost exactly a month later, with an avalanche of literal pain and intense emotions sitting heavily on me. 

I was running for a team that I met six days ago. A coach I barely knew was telling me to run faster. He seemed nice enough though, as he let me come to a practice when we came to buy our house.

At that moment, I didn’t know if cross country was for me in the state of Colorado. In Illinois, we ran on golf courses or through fields, not up mountains. While my team in Illinois was decent, my new team was coming off of three consecutive state championships. I was intimidated, to say the least.

My assistant coach and physics teacher, Coach Lowe, would run with me at practices if I was dropped from the group I wanted to be in. “Stick with it and you will acclimate to the altitude and succeed soon” was what he told me at least daily. 

Stick with it I did. By senior year, I was leading the team as a captain and was a mainstay on our varsity team. I was an alternate for the state meet my junior year, but senior year I was finally in the big show. I was sitting at solidly sixth or seventh for the team, not normally a top-five scorer but running solid. 

State came and things got weird. Our second runner had some sort of collapse mid-race and finished way back in the pack. My sister, who was a freshman that year, and I ended up both being in the top five and scoring for our team. 

“Shit” was my initial thought when I saw Audrey running in a while after me instead of in the top 10. If I was one of the scorers, we must have not done well at all.

“In third place, with a score of 153 points, the Monarch Coyotes,” came through the loudspeakers a 30 long minutes later.

I almost couldn’t believe it. With my sister in 46th and me in 63rd out of over 150 runners, we had just finished third in the state of Colorado. Our boys team finished first and we finished third, one of the few programs in the whole state to have both teams in the top three. 

Tears swelled in my eyes, realizing this was the last cross country race I would run and realizing just how far I had come.

As I hugged my coach, I thought about my random email I sent him three years prior telling him that I would potentially be attending his school.

I felt grateful for the coaching staff who welcomed and supported me. 

I felt pride that three years of hard work and acclimating to altitude paid off in a big way. 

Most importantly, I felt joy that I was able to cap off my running career at the top of the state, with my freshman sister right by my side, making all the hard work worth it.

It felt like there was an elephant on my chest yet again. 

This time though, it was an overwhelming amount of emotion, pride and joy as things came full circle.