back soon.

I first started using my legs at the age of five when I went out on the soccer field. I used those soccer legs until the summer going into freshman year. My whole family had always played soccer until my brother decided to try out for the cross country team his junior year. Every one of his races I attended the only thing I could think was “Who would want to put themselves through so much pain for that long of a time?”

But then came my freshman year.

This was the year I decided to try something new. This was the year I would finally find myself. And little did I know going into that first cross country practice, this was the year my whole life would change. I was forced by my father to run cross country because of my brother’s love it, and I decided to give it some effort since I started to lose my love for soccer. The summer practices went by, I developed new friendships, and I even found my potential for this sport. I was able to actually love a sport for the first time. I knew I had found my thing. My father was so lean on me doing soccer, but the moment I had asked him to quit soccer for running, I had his full support. He saw in my eyes that I had a true passion for it and he couldn’t bare to see me do anything besides running. The next day, I was telling my soccer coaches that this was the last day I will be playing soccer.

I found myself at my first race on September 1, thinking that I wasn’t going to be able to finish that race. Practices were unbearable, and I knew that a race was going to push me to my limits even more. By the end of the day, I was far more confident in myself from my second place finish. This lead me to become our varsity number one runner for my team just as a freshman.

Track came around in the spring and things came to a drastic change. I started developing knee problems. After having to take just a month off of running, I had seen my level of confidence drop. Seeing my friends running without me and knowing I was getting worse just made me cry nearly every night. Through the challenging workouts telling myself I hate running the previous cross country season, it hit me at the very moment that I actually couldn’t live without that pain. Running became a part of me, and I was letting a huge piece of me just disintegrate. It was almost like my whole life was falling apart all at once.

But here I am now, writing this story going into sophomore year cross country, still not able to run. That may not sound like a good thing, and it truly isn’t, but the good thing about this new year is that I have regained my confidence. I am able to look at myself and know that once I am healthy, I am going to be stronger than ever. I am thankful for all of the people supporting me through this tough journey.

Although running is a major challenge and has ruined me mentally at a time, I am still thankful that I get to say I am a runner, and that I will be back soon to take on the many hardships of running.

- Shay Pederson