Preface
Hi faithful blog readers. Bare with me because this is gonna be a long one. I first had the idea to make a blog post about my time with the club last spring semester. I got lost in my last semester of college and soon enough graduated and had to spend my time applying to full-time jobs. I thought the time had passed to tell my story, but what is time anyway? It’s completely made up (@daylight savings when we all just collectively decide to change time?! What kind of sorcery). SO, now that I have ample free time at night since I no longer have homework/studying and am feeling nostalgic, I felt it was a good time to revisit my blog post idea.
The blog has become a place where we can form a sense of community, share our deepest (or most surface level) thoughts, analyze our races, or maybe just meme. I was, according to Katrina, a tau rho success story‒I started coming around semi-regularly spring of my freshman year but kept to myself a lot. No one expected me to stick around. In fact, I was almost given the “most likely to stick around even though we thought she wouldn’t” paper plate award sophomore year. No joke. I proved them wrong. And I hope that by sharing my journey I will help others to prove themselves wrong (coming back from injuries that you thought would be the end), to inspire them to do things they never thought they would or could do (run a 1500m pr more than four years later or do a half marathon practically at your old 5k pr pace), to defy other people’s expectations of themselves (an introvert running for social chair??), and to learn to be proud of themselves, even if it’s for small things. For anyone who may be reading this that is a prospective or a not yet fully committed club member, I would encourage you to stick around too and I promise it will be worth it. Part of me also wants to write this for myself and for my own enjoyment. I hope you enjoy it too. Maybe one day I will read this to my kids when they ask about what I did in college. Until then, buckle up and prepare for a bumpy ride…
It should be noted that as I write this that I am not finished with all parts yet. I’m not even halfway done. I’m not sure how long it will take me to finish, but I’m excited to share so I decided I will post them in separate installments.
Freshman Year
Fall 2015
I entered college feeling certain about very few things. Actually, I probably entered college feeling certain about nothing-except that I wanted to keep running on a team. I was very much a timid freshman. The track and cross country teams were the main sources of my friends and social life in general in high school, and I knew that joining club running was probably one of my best shots at making friends in college. I have vague memories of showing up to my first club running practice in the back of Cole Field House (RIP) in early September and handing a waiver to someone I can only guess was Dylan Hernandez. Abby Cahalan, then treasurer and always a social butterfly, came right up and introduced herself to me as I stood by myself waiting for practice to begin. After listening to Dylan quip that “It’s a great day for running, just like it always is,” I awkwardly shuffled to the group of unfamiliar girls deciding where to run that day. In a shock to no one, the girls came to a consensus to run lake that day, as Caity Adams (only TRUE terp runners will remember her) groaned that she was already tired of running lake after just transferring to UMD that semester. I can’t say I remember much else about that run other than falling behind and turning around early. I returned to my dorm proud of myself for attending my first club practice in college but discouraged that I was already struggling to stay with the group on an easy run.
Fun and random fact, the first friend I made in college was none other than Luanne Zimmermann’s roommate. She also ran in high school and expressed interest in doing club running, so we decided to go to practice together. That would make it easier, we thought, having another new person to stick with in a group full of strangers. She was in freshmen connection and could only make practice on Fridays, so the second day of practice I attended was a Friday afternoon slightly later in September. Little did we know, Fridays were workout days and there was a GOOD one (by good I mean horrible) on the workout plan for that day: 2 mile repeats on cherry unchill! It is pretty important to note, my friends, that I had barely run during that rollercoaster of a summer 2015 so I was very out of shape to say the least. I stuck with a group of new people who also had no idea what they were in for and got lost on the warmup before finding our way to the mile markers on cherry hill where everyone else was preparing to start the workout. I was able to complete one “rep” before deciding to turn around and go back because at that point, I’m pretty sure I had hit my mileage limit for the day. I ditched my friend who was attempting a second rep and went back to stately Anne Arundel Hall, again shaking my head that I couldn’t make it through another practice.
I’m not sure exactly when, but at one of the few practices I attended I met and briefly spoke to THE Katrina Hrabinski. We were talking about what our favorite events were in high school, and when I said I liked the 800, she told me I looked like an 800 runner. She was wearing a New Balance Nationals backpack. I quivered in my Asics.
I believe I went to one or two more practices that fall, again falling behind the group and running by myself. I thought, What’s the point of coming to run with a group if I just end up by myself a mile in? I might as well just run on my own at my own pace at a time that’s convenient for me so I don’t have to feel self conscious about being “slow.” It’s not worth it. I wasn’t prepared for this. A bout of what can only be described as a precursor to the great club running plague of 2018 caused me to fall ill right after Halloween that year and pretty much halted all of my exercising for the remainder of the semester. Season 1/8 was done before it even started.
