Exclusive interview with Kailynne Akinson 

GD: What is your name, class, and sport?

KA:  My name is Kailynne Atkinson, part of the sophomore class of 2011, and my fall sport is Cross-Country.

GD: Who inspires you to run each day?

KA: Because I don’t have the time to sit down and watch marathons on TV each day, I don’t have any famous long-distance athletes that I look up to. However, people on the team motivate me and encourage me to get outside in whatever weather and try my best. Cross-country is a sport different from all the rest. This isn’t only because we run miles on end each day, but because everyone supports each other – even people from other schools and the people we are running against. Hearing a “good job!” from another person while running helps keep me motivated and concentrated on what I’m doing. Everyone works together to cross the finish line and making friends with people from other schools while running happens a lot at meets.

GD: What are your personal goals and team goals? 

KA: The goals that I have for myself are getting a time in the 20:00 zone, making 1st league team and making it to CIF by senior year. The fastest time I’ve gotten so far was around 22:00, so I still have to improve by two full minutes before getting 20:00. But last year I made 2nd league team, so I’m hoping to move up by a few places in order to make first. The team goals involve placing in top three for league, so that we can compete in more events after league finals! We also hope to get everyone to run in at least under 30 minutes and for Varsity girls to run at 23 minutes average (for 3 miles).

GD: Do you ever regret joining?

KA: Never! Running ten miles a day doesn’t sound very fun, and it’s probably not one of the things that I’d put on my “favorite things to do” list, but being part of XC (cross country) is an unforgettable experience. The team is great! We are all pretty close, and the girls at least are like a family. We suffer together, but also have great memories like the potlucks after school, dinners at Hometown Buffet, and LOTS of inside jokes.

GD: How much do you run each day?

KA: How much we run mostly depends on what day it is. For most of the weeks, Mondays is the longest run. JV runs from 5 – 8 miles and Varsity runs from 7 – 11. This sounds really hard, but actually running it isn’t bad. And afterwards you feel really refreshed. Tuesdays can be from 3 – 5 miles, but it’s usually around 4 or 5. Wednesdays we do intervals, which are probably the hardest runs – even harder than Mondays. Intervals consist of many, shorter runs. Mr. Chaldu will tell us to run three laps, and after we come back we will run it again, again, and again. And then we’ll run two laps or one lap until around 4:30. (This doesn’t sound hard, but TRUST ME IT IS!). Sometimes we do intervals on Thursday, but if we don’t then we run almost the same amount as Tuesday, from 3 – 5 miles. And Fridays we run from 2 – 4 because of the meets we have on Saturdays. The days before meets we don’t run as much. Sometimes we just play fun games like capture the flag or make long lines of girls and boys and job around campus.

GD: How much better is it to run at a home meet than an away meet?

KA: For me, running at home is much easier than running away. Because we spend much of our week running around campus and around the school in general, we know the area well and can tell how much further we have to run or how fast we should run in certain areas. The course is also slightly easier because of the flat terrain and the course we ran at home ended up involving a lot of sidewalks and path. On top of it all, friends from school and parents come to our home meets to cheer us on as we run. Running may not be fun all of the time, but hearing our friends cheer and the pressure they put on us while watching the meets inspires us all to run faster. 

GD: Any last words?

KA: Cross-Country is a great sport! Anyone who doesn’t know what sport to join should try this one. You don’t have to have any experience, and the team is lots of fun. Not to mention that running every day keeps you in good shape. Some people I know are too scared to join because of how much we run, but it actually isn’t bad at all once you give it a try. XC is lots of fun and is a great way to meet people at our school. It’s something I look forward to every year. :]