Blog #7 – A letter to my Freshman self

By Brenna Cohoon

Dear Freshman Brenna,

Well, your freshman year is well underway, and by now it’s evident that you made the right choice by deciding to run in high school.  Sure, volleyball may be fun, but cross country is the team you’re meant to be a part of.

Throughout your four years in high school, you will form unique bonds with each of your coaches and teammates.  You will meet your best friends through running and find that the cross country team feels like one big family.

The amount of memories that you make with your teammates will be innumerable.  Take advantage of the moments you share with your friends, because things won’t be like this forever.  Your friends are going to graduate, you are eventually going to be in college, yourself, and you will never get to relive your high school years.  Cherish them.

Among the special memories you make will be plenty of moments from your cross country conference meets.

This year, you are going to race in the WSC Gold Championships at Katherine Legge Memorial Park.  Everyone says that it’s a tough course due to its rolling hills and classic creek, but don’t let any of that intimidate you.  Soon enough, you will find that KLM is one of your favorite courses, so enjoy every opportunity you have to race there.

In terms of the race itself, you just need to try taking some risks.  Work with your teammates so you can help contribute to that exciting DGS 1-7 finish.  You are going to surprise yourself and be so happy with the results of this meet!

Sophomore year’s conference meet is going to be a rather unforgettable experience.  You’re going to ride over to Willowbrook in a minibus where you start to question whether the meet will even happen.  After waiting for what seems like hours but was probably only 20 minutes, the coaches will decide to postpone the races to be run on Monday due to intense flooding and a distance runner’s worst enemy: lightning. 

That hectic, stormy morning will turn into a much-needed movie night with some of your teammates.  Let yourself relax for once; it’s not often that you get to spend time with your friends outside of practices and meets!

When Monday hits, you’ll get to race on a course that is still filled with puddles from the weekend’s floods.  Nevertheless, it’ll be a fun end to the regular season.

The conference meet of your junior year will be another surprising race for you.  All you have to do is trust yourself and challenge yourself.  You’ll also need to focus on smiling during this race - who knows, all of this positivity may result in a new personal best time!

More important than any of your own achievements, though, will be the amazing performances of the rest of your team.  History will be made your junior year as the Lady Mustangs win their 20th straight conference title.  That is something that you can’t do alone, but rather, is cultivated over many years of emphasizing a close-knit team dynamic.

Last but not least will be the WSC Gold Championships of your senior year.  I’m not going to lie. It is going to be hard to grasp the fact that this meet is just one of the many lasts in high school. 

You’re going to race one final time on your home course. You will use this opportunity as a chance to make some improvements to your race plan before heading into the State Series.  The results will remind you of the other ways in which you want to improve before high school cross country is history to you.  With just a few races left in the season, you will feel more motivated and inspired than possibly ever before.

Please try to live in the moment throughout your high school running career and relish those memories you will make at each of your conference meets.  The exciting thing is that the State Series will allow you to create even more! 

Seriously, though, take things one day at a time, one stride at a time.  I’m sure there are many thrilling yet unknown things that lie beyond high school, but the time will come to enjoy those.  For now, keep on learning from the priceless experiences that running provides you and continue having fun with your teammates! 

Most importantly, don’t forget to take a deep breath and trust that these next four years are going to be the best four years of your life so far.

Love,

Senior Brenna

Photo: Catherine Cohoon (c) 2019