Follow Greely senior Matt Woolverton this fall as he talks about his struggles with injuries, and his battle to overcome them for one healthy season
I ran the worst time I’ve even run.
Last friday at St. Joes was not my race. I probably came back too soon but there was no chance I wasn’t going to race it being my last eligible race every as a Ranger. I was surprised by my race and the day as a whole.
I still went off on my own as usual for my comeback races during the warm-up. I usually run on my own during the warm-ups to try and rein in all my energy. I often get overly excited on my comeback races.
My solo warm-ups are my attempt to think about what I want. Some races I go in wanted to beat a certain amount of people, other races it’s a PR, friday I wanted finish uninjured.
I may have hurt myself. During the race I was noticing that all of the downhills were the most painful for me. The one part of the race I’m able to fly though It hurts the most to do. Funny how things work out like that.
Anyway I finished the race and could barely walk, I was out of it actually. Some of the other Rangers were passing by me patting me on the back and all that and I could barely manage a smile. I spent the first half of the girls JV race icing my hamstring and quad. It was beyond frustrating.
After fifteen minutes give or take I decided to man up and enjoy my final moments as a member or the GXC team.
I don’t know how I feel about no longer being an active member of this team. I never know what to do with myself the week or two I take off after season's end. I look forward to starting sprinting again in a week or two.
Sprinting was always my favorite. In my opinion to be a consistently good at sprinting it takes so much talent to be precise coming out of the blocks and giving every last bit of energy left in the tank.
The final sprint was always my favorite part of XC and it will always be my favorite aspect of track.
That being said I’m going to miss the team togetherness of cross country. I have to give credit to our captains for stepping up and making this team closer than any I think I’ve ever been on. I’m truly going to miss it.
My goal for indoor is to make the team as close if not closer as our cross country team. I’ve found that the closer teams are (that I’ve been on) the more success they have seen.
Cross country and track are individualistic sports but we are a team, the less people think they are on their own and the more we work together the better the team will be.
I don’t know what it is about running on my own that I love so much but I feel like I’m able to push myself so much more when it’s just me.
I first started running to get in shape. Before I ran I was highly out of shape and heavy. I wasn’t eating right and I struggled to stay at a healthy weight. When I run on my own that’s what I think about. I hate the thought of myself before I ran. I wasn’t healthy and I really didn’t care. Since then I’ve started doing all I can to eat right and workout to a higher level.
People are always shocked when I say that I actually like hard workouts and running as whole. I love beating myself. Whether it’s a PR, a further distance or just pushing beyond my limits. I always love running alone on a track so that I can be difficult on myself the entire time.
If I could have one thing this year it would be a healthy indoor season. That’s all I ask for. Last year I trained like two weeks in advance for indoor and I was doing fine until I sprained my hamstring for the first time in a practice. I never got past the relays to run what I wanted to. As always I came back late in the season and didn’t run the best I had hoped and trained for. I plan to train two weeks in advance again. I’ll probably train myself with longer distances then work myself back into two-hundred form.
I look forward to leading the sprinters this year. We have a lot of potential coming to our team and I hope I along with some other veterans we will be able to turn the potential into viable success by the time states comes along.
I always get to this point each year, I never know whether attempting to recruit runners would be a waste of my time or not. I’ve done it in the past for people who used to take the winter off and on occasion it has worked. However, I’ve often been left disappointed.
I’m counting down the days until I’m able to get back onto a track. Not only that but I look forward to seeing how the beginning of
our season will look. We are losing guys like Chris Byron and Troy Cochran, and no matter how hard I try I can’t seem to convince guys like Connor Rog and Chris Goding to leave their respective sports to come to indoor.
For the first time in nearly my entire time at Greely I think our sprinters may actually be stronger than the distance team. It’s rare for Greely but it may be true this year. We still don’t have anyone who can fill the shoes of Jacob Isaacson who left Greely in 2012 if I’m not mistaken but we have depth. Or at least I think we do.
If all goes according to plan the Rangers will be back on top of the track world soon enough and I’ll be enjoying my victory lap.
As always please feel free to reach out to me if you are
struggling with injuries. I’d love to help anyone in my position, I never had much support up to this point in my career and that can be the key to advancing to the next level.
If you’re still running enjoy the rest of your season, if not lets get excited for indoor.
No Regrets, -Matt Woolverton