I have a very crazy father who lives and breathes sport, and he projected his competitive nature onto both my sister and I growing up. Standing at the track for every single workout throughout my childhood years with a stopwatch in hand, is just one snippet of the dedicated measures he used to go to. I started off by doing all different types of sports from swimming to soccer, to netball to basketball and athletics. I enjoyed all of them very much, but it was clear that I had more of a talent for running and track than the other ones. In elementary school, the grade 6 teacher was a marathon runner and had a weekly running club, which I joined, and it soon emerged as the highlight of my week. It consisted of a weekly 5 kilometre run which I definitely treated as the olympic final and made it my mission to beat everyone, including the boys, in the process. After probably annoying all my friends and classmates in the process with my excessive competitiveness, my beloved year 6 teacher urged me to join an outside school running club. So, after school three times a week, my amazing grandfather would drive me to the track at his snail pace driving speed, with a bottle of gatorade in the back of the car, and I would spend a further few hours after school doing what I loved most. 

After a year, I changed to another club called Thames Valley Harriers and then finally moved to an elite track club for juniors called the Moving Ahead Athletics Academy, coached by Philip Kissi. Training with this club was very intense, competitive and difficult. I was running six times a week, often for hours after school in the miserable British weather in preparation to succeed at the national and international level. Throughout these years, I qualified to represent England for cross country at the junior level, was ranked number one in the mile in the UK for two years consecutively, and also won the bronze national medal for the 1500m. I am very grateful for this success growing up as it ultimately enabled me to get recruited to come to Rice, and gave me the opportunity to balance my pursuit for academic success alongside my athletics at the division one level. 

Running at Rice and being part of the women’s track and field and cross country teams has been a wonderfully different and fulfilling experience for many reasons. Firstly, my freshman year did not go to plan after I struggled with an autoimmune disease that affected my performance during training and competition to a large degree. After many tears, countless doctor appointments and heaps of patience I finally became healthy again in my sophomore and junior years and was able to travel and compete and do what I loved the most. One of my favorite parts was getting to travel to so many amazing places with my teammates across America such as Boston, Austin, California and North Carolina to name a few. Additionally, a definite highlight was being able to be a part of my team’s success when we won our Conference Championship title in 2023. 

I am now a senior and have three months left until graduation, and therefore three months left of running alongside my teammates at Rice. Throughout these years I have gained lifelong friends, an amazing coach who I love, and a ton of resilience that I will take on with me in my next chapter of life. It is clear that my relationship with running has definitely evolved and changed compared to when I was younger. Years ago it was definitely all about being the best and winning. Although that still remains the case to some extent now, running to me now means more about the power of teamwork and friendship, resilience and the act of never giving up. It has definitely made me the person that I am today. I will cherish my memories of running at Rice and my childhood athletic success forever and will definitely continue to run (but more for fun) after graduating. I have a pact with my crazy dad to run a marathon together at some point so I guess running is not over for me for a long time. And, maybe I will even project my own competitiveness onto my future sons and daughters and try to make them go to the olympics…