And on the 8th day Coach said "Good Job"
Running never came easy to High School Freshman Matt Adams. If you had told me at the end of 8th grade that I would be a Cross Country runner in high school, I would have said that you were as much of a liar as I was large. It took an invitation from my buddy Tommy to get me out of the house, off of my Xbox and away from my Double-Stuft Oreos.
Tommy and I would walk to practice and he would help keep me accountable of how far I was running and how fast I was going. I remember talking with him and thinking that it would be impossible to run not only 1 mile under 7 minute pace, but 3 miles back to back without a substitution or a break. All the while he was super encouraging and would reason with me about how doable it is to break 7 minute pace, since that was the standard for incoming freshmen.
As racing season came around I was nervous as ever and really did not want to be the slowest kid on the team. After the first race my fears were made true when I ran a 23:50 for 3 miles. It was the fastest and the first time I had ever done a 3-mile race.
That feeling of euphoria and accomplishment at the end of the hardest physical event I had partaken in was something that became my “drug”. I just kept craving it and wanted to get faster and faster.
From then on, I did every mile that my coach said and I treated his word as Gospel. Even though I didn’t break 7 minute pace that year, I worked hard and by the end I was able to run in a pack with my friends.
I transferred high schools my sophomore year and found both a team and a coach that would mold me from a poor runner into a not-so-bad-almost-borderline-average runner. While at my prior high school I was more accustomed to a lower mileage-training plan, this new coach had a very high mileage plan. As a sophomore I was running over 40 miles a week and was mortified because that meant that I had to run about 7-8 miles a day on a 5 day training week.
I took the mileage and did my best, but felt that the effort I put in was in vain. I figured that I could never be a good distance runner since my friends were literally 3-4 minutes faster than I was in a 3-mile race. I had this feeling of chasing something that I could never obtain until I got a simple 2-word phrase from my coach, “Good Job”.
To be honest I can’t remember the exact moment that he said those words; I just remember the feeling of finally making my coach happy. I was so stoked about it, I actually told my friends and family about it. They all laughed but this was the first time in my career as a runner that I was congratulated for running well.
That simple phrase “Good Job” was enough to make me decide that I could become a good distance runner. It was that day that I said that I would be done with Fat Matt. Fat Matt is what I used to think of myself as; a little overweight and not motivated towards much of anything aside from my Oreos of course. The fire had been lit and the goal was now attainable since my coach believed in me.
The summer between sophomore and junior year was when I became Not-So-Fat-Matt. My coach had me doing the most mileage on the team even though I wasn’t anywhere near making it onto the Varsity team at the time. I did 55+ miles a week from July until the end of the season in November and set the school record for most miles run during a single cross country season at a little over 1400 miles.
Over these 1400 miles I went from a 19:30 PR in the 3 mile down to a 17:14 and became a Varsity captain. I also lost about 20 pounds and finally began to look like a cross-country runner. Fat Matt’s days were over and a New Matt Adams had emerged.
Since that season, I have never been the same. I thought that I had learned the meaning of hard work, until my coach gave me my most challenging training schedule to date, which built up to 6 back to back 75-mile weeks. That season I ended up getting injured right as racing season came around and ended up running a 16:59 3-mile while putting together a 1448.4 mile season.
Now I’m a sophomore in college and just walked on to my University’s D1 Track team for the decathlon. I guess I just cant resist a good challenge and the hard work.
If you draw anything from my story, please let it be that if you want it bad enough and give everything you got, you can do anything.
I am immeasurably grateful to those that helped me along the way and I am sorry if I phrased this as though I was the only one along this journey. Although a solid chunk of my miles were done alone, I was surrounded by 2 stellar teams and without their influence I wouldn’t be the man or the runner I am today.
- @MatatAdamz ( Matt Adams)
