Students at Menlo are taking on the challenge of running marathons or half-marathons, proving dedication and endurance at any age. During this school year, some of our peers have been training daily to prepare themselves for an extraordinary challenge. Their relentless commitment is inspiring others to pursue their own ambitious goals.
Everyone has their own reason to start running. Junior Claire Barnett started running because she had to stop participating in her competitive sport, diving, to pursue musical theatre. “I wanted to find a sport that I could do in my own time,” Barnett said. “I thought that running was great because it doesn’t require a team, only a bit of equipment is needed, and I could do it whenever I wanted.”
What started as a way to exercise turned into running a full marathon on Dec. 1 in Seattle.
Senior Sienna Swanson, who will be running a half-marathon in May, started running with her friends last year. “We kept going, and then my friend signed up for a half-marathon, so I started training with her,” Swanson said. “Then I thought, ‘I’m doing all the training, I might as well sign up for it too.’” One of the most important parts of racing long distances is the training that comes before it. Without ample training for a race, runners won’t have enough stamina or technique to get them through a course. “As time went on, I would build it up to bigger blocks of mileage,” Barnett said. “I would rest some days and then start again the next week.”
Unfortunately, injuries can cause major setbacks in training for a big race. Barnett suffered from shin splints, a common injury caused by prolonged running. “I actually missed my last week of training [before my first marathon], which was what was going to benefit me the most,” Barnett said. Barnett decided to take a few rest days instead of training more and risking a stress fracture, which is just as important as the training itself.
Along with training, mental preparation and motivation play a key role in achieving long distances. “Mentally, I have to be able to push myself to keep going,” Swanson said. “I could think, ‘No one would stop me if I just stopped running the race.’”
Barnett would run without listening to music so she could be alone with her thoughts during her course. “I learned to appreciate the act of running,” Barnett said. “Having friends and family that would just support me, it really pushed me to do something I would have never thought I’d be able to do.”
Swanson feels that running a race like a half-marathon is a great opportunity if you’re looking for something you’ve never done before. “I’m trying to take advantage of everything I can senior year,” Swanson said. “It is going to be a great thing to cross off my bucket list before college.”
Although Barnett ran the Seattle marathon alone, she met some people along the way who pushed her to keep going. “I met this man named Isaac, and we shared our stories during the run, then bonded over that,” Barnett said. “We encouraged each other to push on.”
For Barnett, the hardest part of the marathon was the final six miles out of the entire 26.2 miles. “For a large portion of it, I just got really exhausted because it was very sunny and there were many hills on the course,” she said.
If you’re thinking about running a big race, Swanson advises focusing on staying positive and motivated. Barnett agrees, also emphasizing the importance of fueling your body as you train. “If you’re doing high-impact workouts like running, and you’re not fueling your body enough, you will get injured,” she said. “It will be significantly harder to keep running.”
There are benefits to running that aren’t just physical, and it can encourage people to grow emotionally. “Committing to something for a long time, you can grow in ways that you never thought you would be able to,” Barnett said.
Nerves play a big part in running a long-distance race, so Barnett notes that it’s important to have a support system during the training and the race to encourage you. “When the crowd kicks in and you get that adrenaline, it’s like a drug,” Barnett said. “If nothing else, having support from people outside of yourself is just on another level. It’s amazing.”
