Running For My Life
Although it can be painful and miserable at times, running helps me clear my mind, focus my life, and connect with friends on days when my life feels out of control. During my college running career, I have practiced in different places around MBU’s main campus and made more memories than can be written.
The Missouri Baptist University women’s cross country team poses for a photo after a successful meet in Iowa, where they won the Mount Mercy Seminole Valley Stampede. They are, left to right: (front row) Mia Reed, Mattie Noyes, Adrienne Rockette and Nani Brewington; (middle row) Mikayla Ware, Maddie Sargent, Lillian Harris and Isabel Rinkenberger; (back row) Gracie Kopala, Vanessa Waidmann and Brooke Heberer. Photo by Mattie Noyes
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For every run in freezing rain, there’s a run in perfect 60-degree weather. For every miserable hill workout, there’s a day of 400 repeats when I feel like I’m flying. And for all the soreness and blisters and heavy breathing, there’s a time when running feels like second nature, and I feel like I can run forever. For me, the good outweighs the bad. Whenever I take a break, I feel out of focus, like a critical part of my day is missing. I love talking with my teammates during practice and finding that person who runs the same pace and talks Nintendo Switch games and superhero movies. I love feeling the wind in my hair during fast workouts and hearing the steady breathing earned from the repetition of the same workout too many times to count. I hate the sweat that forms when it’s 90 degrees in October, and we’re still running a threshold run at 3:30 in the afternoon. I hate the cold that seeps through shoes and socks and the minimum-three layers of shirt, shirt, sweatshirt we wear when the temperature’s in the single digits. But running brings so much good into my life, has brought so much good, that I can tolerate the bad days. I’ve met some of my best friends through the sport, and I’ve felt like the fastest person alive. So, even when college is over, when my priorities shift from homework to actual work, I’ll keep running and remember this time in college when I got to run with some of my best friends.
I have run over 1,500 miles this year alone with my teammates on the MBU women’s cross country and track team. The photo gallery below showcases some of my favorite places to run in Missouri with the girls who have become like family. All photos by Isabel Rinkenberger
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- Conway Park is less than five minutes from MBU’s main campus by car and less than 15 minutes by running. With a sloping downhill entrance into a soft hill loop around a small, often goose-populated lake, my teammates and I sometimes run through this park for a change of pace during our easy runs. The paths are wide enough for three runners going one way and a dog walker heading in the opposite direction.
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- River’s Edge Park belongs in a Hallmark movie. The oranges and reds of the leaves on the trees contrast the blue lake and sky in the fall, and the grays and blues of the icy lake create a mirror of cloudy skies and barren brown trees. However, this beauty is difficult to appreciate at 6 a.m., which is when I would often grace the packed dirt paths in the early months of cross country season.
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- Queeny Park has more hills than it knows what to do with. Although it contains some paved paths, the park definitely appeals to trail runners, offering bumpy and hilly terrain for experienced runners and leisurely walkers alike. My coach liked to subject us to hill workouts at Queeny, devising a 1-mile loop over multiple hills and what felt like the longest incline on Earth.
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- Creve Coeur Lake is surrounded by a winding paved trail, providing a perfect path for a standard 45-minute run during the week. It is especially nice in the summer and fall as the temperature is cooler near the lake and the scenery is breathtaking enough to forget a different kind of breathtaking found in running. My teammates and I have also run around the lake in the winter, and we had to incorporate ice skating into our run to carefully glide across the ice patches on the trails in order to avoid slipping or rolling an ankle.
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- The Katy Trail spans the state of Missouri as the longest recreational rail trail at 237.7 miles long. The Katy is the best route for long runs because I can run straight for miles without making a loop or getting lost. My longest run on this trail – as well as my longest run ever – is 11 miles. Before I started running in college, the farthest I had run was maybe – maybe – 6 miles.
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- There is a trail behind the Premium Outlets in Chesterfield that feeds into the Katy Trail. To get from the shops to the Katy, however, you have to run along a sidewalk on the edge of a bridge. With a tall, black metal fence on one side and a concrete barrier on the other, this 0.5-mile stretch can be very loud as the vehicles zooming past on your side create wind and whining tires and honking horns. When the sun is shining through the metal bars of the fence, it casts hundreds of lines of shadows, which make it feel like you are constantly blinking.
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- My teammates and I only recently found Longview Farm Park because our coach moved our runs from 45 minutes to 55 minutes one day. Because of the extra time, we were forced to find a new route. The trail running through this park weaves through trees and around a lake, showcasing beautiful colors in the fall. The lake in the center sits in a valley with the trail entrances dipping down and then rising up, giving us a little hill workout within our run.
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- Most of our practices as the cross country and track team will start at the track but require us to run through the campus to reach longer running routes. Sometimes, the campus will be completely silent, our footsteps echoing in the darkness during 6 a.m. runs. During 3:30 p.m. practices, however, the roads running through campus are busy as cars pull out of parking lots and students walk down sidewalks, often forcing us to weave or stop multiple times.
The 2021 MBU women’s cross country team poses for a team photo after a race in Iowa. They are, left to right: (front row) Elizabeth Rogers, Nani Brewington, Vanessa Waidmann, Mikayla Ware and Ali Perry; (back row) Isabel Rinkenberger, Aly Jakcsy, Emily Bayer, Mia Reed, Alyssa McCormack, Lily Nix and Brooke Heberer. Photo courtesy of Isabel Rinkenberger
Tags: Adrienne Rockette, Ali Perry, Aly Jakcsy, Alyssa McCormack, Brooke Heberer, Conway Park, Creve Coeur Lake Memorial Park, Edgar M. Queeny Park, Elizabeth Rogers, Emily bayer, Gracie Kopala, Isabel Rinkenberger, Katy Trail, Lillian Harris, Lily Nix, Longview Farm Park, Maddie Sargent, Mattie Noyes, MBU Cross Country, MBU Timeline, MBU track, Mia Reed, Mikayla Ware, Missouri Baptist University, Nani Brewington, opinion, Premium Outlets, River's Edge Park, Running, Spartan Field, Vanessa Waidmann
