Why I Enjoy Running

Before I joined the school's XC team I thought running was one of the dumbest things ever. However one of my best friends from high school was talking about the XC team during lunch in our Freshman year. I got interested since all it was nothing but running and ended up signing up because I presumed it was easy. The next year, Sophomore year, I joined the XC and I was having trouble since I never ran and only joined to hang out with my friends. Unfortunately during in the middle of the season I was getting way too tired and when the doctors checked on me it turned out I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. My family suggested that I should stop running and quit the team but I refused and kept going since at that point the XC team was literally a family to me. When Junior year came the XC team completely changed since a majority of our varsity runners left the team leaving the boys with little to no varsity level runners. However I changed that by going from one of the slowest runners on the team to becoming the varsity boy's XC ace and winning both the MIP and MVP of the season. How that happened I'm still trying to figure out since all I did during the summer before season was work as a waiter at my job. As a result from my success in XC I was scouted by the Track team to run distance for them with my next-door neighbor being the distance coach. I took up that offer and managed to continue running with a few of my XC companions. I succeeded in Track PR'ing in every race and even managed to get into a small relationship with the fastest distance runner for the girls who ended up becoming our class salutatorian. Since then I took running seriously getting into road races, watching Track on TV, comparing my times to others and seeing how I can improve all while trying to manage my blood sugar. I was grateful for the 3 years I've been running and I couldn't have wanted it any other way.

- Jordan Santiago