University of Richmond Athletics
Taylor's Take: Our Season, My Story
08/26/2011 | Cross Country
Aug. 26, 2011
Editor's Note: Cross country freshman and Richmond native Taylor Clevinger will share her thoughts and experiences in an ongoing blog that offers readers an inside look into life as a Spider on the course, in the classroom and around the community.
I am a freshman on the Spider cross country team this year, and I didn't really know what to expect coming into the program. So far I have had a blast though!
We started off the season by traveling to Lexington, Va., for preseason camp. We stayed there for three days. The trip was a great way to meet the team and kick off the season. We had a chance to have fun together and at the same time also work hard and push each other during workouts.
On our hard workout day, Coach said that we would be running up a mountain for a four-mile run. At first, I was thinking, "Geez, I haven't had to do anything like this before." But once we started, everyone helped push each other to the top, and in the end we all made it!
It was a great feeling to stand at the top of the mountain and look down to see where you started and think about all that you had just accomplished. One of my teammates had a great quote that stuck with me on the way up the mountain when she said, "When we suffer, we get tougher!" That quote was a great way to sum up the workout.
After the workout we grabbed a quick lunch and hopped in the vans to Panther Falls, where we jumped off tall rocks into the water hole right below. It was such an awesome experience.
We had a lot of fun as a team on our preseason trip... from playing games like "psychiatrist" to get to know everyone to running tough workouts together. We had such a great time and trained hard!
This is the first week of classes, and for the other freshmen and I it is our first week of college. We're starting to get into a routine with practice schedules and classes, which is nice. We began practice early this morning, and the freshmen girls were all on time (even if we might have set multiple alarms). It was a great run to start the season as a Spider!
