Rangers Lead the Way

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

 

So I didn’t run.


I’m not even sure I really want to speak on it much. For some reason last

saturday at Manchester was just not my day. My hamstring felt tight my legs were weak and all in all I called it after the warm-up.

I had the privilege of watching the Greely boys and girls race to a first place finish on the girls side and a fourth place finish on the boys. It was a great day to be a Ranger.

Now is the point in my season where I’m in the middle of a fork in the road, I’m either able to take it easy and run a couple races with little strengthening coasting to indoor. Or I could do just the opposite. Train hard, stretch hard, prepare to my fullest ability and see if I can’t set a PR before my career is all said and done, I don’t see it out of reach to be honest. My races in years past aren’t really setting the bar too high, I’m feeling like I want to take another shot at it. I’m just not sure how it will go though.

Today I was helping Coach Dowling set up the days workout checkpoint flags, I was feeling tight so he and I both agreed going through A loop was not going to be a smart decision. As we ran talking about the potential for a great indoor season with the hope of recruiting hopeful states runners (Katherine I’m talking to you), Coach said probably the best thing I have ever heard regarding the sport of Track and Field/Cross Country. The two of us saw a pack of freshman running at a particularly slow pace and he looked at me and said “If you want it, this is the one sport where you can really get it. Nordic, Swimming, Triathlons, Track/XC the only sports where if you really want it, if you really want it. You can get it.”

Anyone who’s actually reading this is most likely a runner and knows he is spot on. I wanted to talk about it because hearing someone actually say it made all the pieces almost fit together for me.

I pride myself on having a Kobe Bryant level work ethic and I struggle with people who have talent but don’t work for it. I expect that I do more behind the scenes work than most so when I hear about how a varsity cross-country runner crushed an entire pizza the night before then ran a five minute mile it tends to get on my nerves.

Wanting to get better is the first step for any great athlete. I remember when I first started to get serious about wanting to become fast. It was my sophomore year after a particularly bad indoor meet for me. I came out of the blocks too slow, either I was seeded poorly or something because every other runner in my heat demolished me. I finished probably five to ten meters behind the second slowest runner.

I was embarrassed to say the least. While all this was happening to me my friends were starting to become leading scorers for the GIT unit. Ben Ray dominating in Pole Vault, Troy Cochran making great leaps on the boys distance team. I wanted to have a bigger part of the team yet I didn’t have the attitude to do anything about it. Prior to that I should say.

From there on I starting working out more, I’d do the workout with the team and then bike. Probably two or three times a week I would get into the weight room before practice. I even changed my diet entirely, overall I tried to do anything I could to get fast.

My speed never really increased but my pain tolerance and know-how of the sport increased drastically.

Being honest I’m happy where I am now. Though I don’t expect to be winning much of anything any time soon I think I’ve had more improvement in the past four years than anyone on my team. I’m looking forward to being the only male in the Greely Class of 2015 to have completed twelve full seasons of running, I am very surprised I’ve made it this far. To look back now and remember how I hated cross country and running as a whole it’s shocking to believe I am in the position I am in now.

I dont think I ever would’ve ran for fun back in my freshman year, nowadays its all I want to be able to do.

This sport is not for everybody, I’ll be the first to admit that. It’s a sport with little publicity and more work to get to the top than anyone outside the sport would ever expect. This isn’t soccer, we can’t just do some strides and be fully conditioned for races. It takes hard work and dedication to get anywhere and for some that’s asking too much.

I love this sport, it takes a lot of guts to continue day after day with running. I love being ridiculous after a tough workout, (I swear I have the Bolt’s celebration down). I love the feeling you get after finishing that final mile repeat. Blasting oldies on the bus home and playing Mafia until we tire ourselves out.

I’m counting down the days until I will no longer have these things however, I’m appreciating all the time I have left.

To all of you seniors out there let’s make this season one worth remembering.

As always thank you all for the support. I love hearing from you and getting to know everyone who contacts me. I try to keep up to date on my social media sites so if any of you want someone to talk to about injuries feel free to track me down (pun intended).

No Regrets, -Matt Woolverton