Justin Allen '11 -- As the Great Lakes Regional fast approaches, the Wabash Cross Country team is delighted to experience a present 10 weeks in the making: a taper. The full extent of this taper was felt yesterday as I only ran 4 miles. 4 MILES! Yes, to the non runner that may seem like a fairly long distance, and even to the high school runner, what I was just two short years ago, that is a commonly run distance (in my program anyway). Rejoicing over this 4 mile run, the Donnelly Loop as it’s called, really made me realize just how far I have come since my high school days of running. From the short town runs, probably at 8:30 pace (who wore a watch anyway?), to the track workouts, after which I would feel completely exhausted, I now revel in the possibility of a 35 mile week. Yes, I have indeed improved as a runner, become more dedicated to training, more adept at listening to my body, and believing in my training. Most importantly I think I have become tougher; running more mileage will do that of course, but that only goes so far. As it is always said, there is a mental aspect to running, to performing well in races. This mental aspect can make or break a runner; it can decide whether or not I reach my potential. For me, I am constantly refining my mental toughness, trying to see just how much harder I can push my body. Improvement will only come with hard mental and physical effort. Now that my season is over I get another chance to build on my fitness and further refine my mental running ability in indoor and outdoor track. Yet I feel a void is left in my season, a hole in the perfect sophomore cross country season. The hole is the question that I sometimes ask myself: what did this season accomplish? why did I run? Why do I run? I have definitely improved physically, as evidence by my times, but there must be something more. This something more must be the mental aspect. There is no other explanation I have for why I keep running, day in day out, other than to improve over last season’s mental self, last year’s mental self, yesterday’s mental self. There is a certain acute finality to running, such as after a race, but at the same time there are almost limitless possibilities to what one I achieve as a runner. Who knows what I can achieve years, months, or even weeks from now. At the end of the season all you can do is sit back, relax a moment and catch your breath, then lace up them sneak’s and hit the road for bigger, better, and faster times are to come.