11/14/2023
Hi everyone! Welcome back to my blog! I hope you are having a great fall – if you’re a senior, I know college application season is really ramping up and must be stressful. You’re doing great. In my blog today, I want to write about the marathon I ran last weekend, and the support I received on campus while training.
I am not a student-athlete. I’m not on a varsity or club team, and I don’t even really self-identity as an athlete. Despite this, I started running during my first year of college, and over the past few months, trained myself for a marathon. I did have to sacrifice a lot in order to train; I would go to bed early so I could get up and fit an eight-mile run in before a 9 AM class, and I would stay in Friday nights so I could run a long run on Saturdays, condemning myself for the rest of the Saturday to being sore and tired. The whole training block was a joy, though. I loved feeling like I was working toward a tangible goal, completely separate from my academic journey. Running grounds me, and it let me start my days on the right foot. And it was something I could be very proud of.
The marathon itself was wonderful. I really hurt for the last six miles, but there was a smile on my face the entire time. Finishing was very emotional – I think I sobbed for the last couple miles because I was feeling so many emotions: joy, pride, pain, relief. My professors were incredibly accommodating of my marathon weekend – I had a biochemistry exam a couple days after the marathon, and knowing that I would probably not feel good for a couple days after the marathon (and that I would essentially lose that entire weekend to my trip), I asked my professors for an extension. They said yes, and gave me an extra weekend to study. This is a theme in the professors at Amherst: I have never encountered a professor that is not accommodating or does not want to make your life a little easier so that you can succeed.
I want the big takeaway of this blog to be that you can chase athletic goals while in college, regardless of whether or not you are on a team. I am having a very busy semester: I am studying for the MCAT, writing a thesis, and applying to various fellowships and scholarships for after I graduate. And I was able to train for and run a marathon.
Thank you for reading! Please email me at sgoldsmith24@amherst.edu if you have any questions!