Self-Conquest: A Cross-Country Running Journey

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“It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves” -Edmund Hilary. Or so my cross country shirt told me. For 6 years of running cross country this quote was meaningless to me. It wasn’t till my final year of cross country that I realized its meaning, through a self-conquering. For 6 years I was a subpar runner, in the first three years of high school, I was lucky to make JV. However, after my 6th year of cross country, in my junior year that all changed. Alex, a friend of mine who was a sophomore at the time, was in the midst of his personal project (a requirement of the International Baccalaureate program we are both part of). His personal project was to run a marathon, and he asked me to help him train for the marathon. I was happy …show more content…

However, that was not the end of my day. After collecting my award for getting second in my age group, I then drove 30 minutes and competed in multiple events at the Science Olympiad State Competition. After I got home, more than 12 hours after I left that morning, I had run 26.2 miles, and competed in one of the premier scientific competitions in the state. It was at that moment I realized just how much I could do. To run a marathon is an extraordinary feat on its own, and to compete in the State Science Olympiad Competition is an honor, to do both in the same day is a first. It was a great moment of realization for me, seeing that when I put my mind to something, I could do something that no one thought I (or anyone) could do. This self-conquering became apparent in my 7th cross country season. I had overcome the mental barriers, and I set goals and because of my motivation, I was able to shave more than 2 minutes off my 5k personal best (a hefty feat) and join the varsity team in winning Regionals and competing in the Colorado State Cross Country Championship, something that would’ve been almost unbelievable to me freshman year. But more important than my improvement in running because of my self-conquering, was my realization of the importance of others

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