High school track athletes and coaches discuss building team culture while chasing fast times. Fatima Cortes qualified for state in the 1600m and 800m, and Audrey Suarez won the 1600m with a strong kick. The team shifted from obsessing over times to running for love of the sport, with coaches emphasizing that strong women are fast women.
When you ran a 4:45, did you think you were fast?
I didn't feel like I was fast enough.
We've got a new leader, Fatima Cortes, the senior out of Great Oak. Can she hold off Suarez?
In my head, to be the best, I had to be running the best times. It didn't matter how it compared to anyone else on my team. It had to be like either the best of all time or I wasn't good at all.
And it's Audrey Suarez winning the girls 1600 meters with the Strong kick at the end to overtake Fatima Cortes out of Great Oak.
But I want to make sure they're running because they love the sport, not because it'll make or break their life if they don't hit a time. Like, that's not what we're training them for. We're training them for the love of running and just to find something they enjoy and be a part of it.
Acceleration! Acceleration!
So I sent out a message saying everybody pay attention to the rain. Rain doesn't mean practice is automatically canceled. You have to pay attention to what your event coach says, but we will do the meet on Friday, rain or shine.
The ground was wet.
It was a rainy day and our track is pretty worn. So I slipped, I fell, and I sort of did a little bit of a split motion and I pulled my hamstring. I was really looking forward to the season and I think it started off really, really good. I actually had a very great time, I feel like, for a season opener. So yeah, we just got to work through this little hiccup and I think we'll be good.
Yeah!
What happened?
What happened, bro?
It's that NASCAR.
We have 300s today. We have 2x5x300s.
Try to maintain at the 1600A pace. Now you already know what your 1600 is from Saturday.
It should be—
Okay, except maybe Jacob. Okay, so you know, but you should be aiming at slightly faster than that.
In 2018, we had 4 girls on our team in the same race in the 1600. We ran 4:46, 4:47, 4:47, and 4:51, but none of us have the school record.
¡Muy bien! Did you enjoy running in high school?
Milesplit here with Fatima Cortes, senior from Great Oak. Today at Southern Section Masters, she qualified for state in both the 1600 and the 800.
While I was doing it, it felt like such a burden on my shoulders.
What's the goal at state in the 16?
I mean, I just want to try and place as high as I can. Ideally, it would be for the win. One of the things I remember being told was if you don't wake up every day and just immediately think about running, then you don't want it bad enough. Like, I was 15, 16 years old, and if I wasn't thinking about winning state every single morning that I woke up, then I just wasn't doing enough. I wasn't working hard enough. Like, every pound lost was 2 seconds off my mile time.
Is it near Torrey Pines? What? The race. Ready, and—
Hey!
Do that ladder! Do that ladder!
We did like a food tour of Idaho. We ate like every food in Idaho.
Yeah.
Oh, the potato sundae, that was lit. And Coach. Coach like— She loves to grub with us. They're just like mukbang like every trip. So I grew up with that mentality, you know, you diet before races, you restrict food, and going into high school, that's what I was doing because I thought that meant that I was going to get faster. And then when Dron came in, she just kind of like flipped that into a 180, and I began to understand that like food is now a way to fuel instead of a way to, you know, restrict and, you know, make yourself lighter because, you know, you think that's going to make you faster.
Strong women are fast women. And she's really like helped us get into weight room and get stronger because we know now, like even scientifically, that like the stronger we are, the faster we are, not the lighter we are, the faster we are.
I know what— I know you know what the Seventh Amendment is.
I think it might actually be like fair and impartial trial by jury.
Protects the right to a jury trial in federal civil cases where the value in dispute exceeds $20.
Okay, so it's a $20 one, the most forgotten one ever.
I think the biggest difference is they actually enjoy running as a sport. They enjoy watching their teammates' races and they enjoy hearing about the fastest times in the country.
Jakob won the world record. He did? Well, Yara did it, but then Jakob did it like 5 days later.
Nice.
Okay, that means we're in the 3K.
And Grant Fisher did 3K.
And he did!
I know, I know, 5K.
He has 5 world records right now, I think. Yeah, it's kind of crazy. That's like 3 short of me.
One mile.
They come to practice and they're happy to see each other.
We don't really care what grade level you are. I think we're just really connected across, just all across the board. So yeah, I would say definitely some of my closest friends are on the team. I would say actually most of my closest friends are on the team.
There are people that I always want to keep in contact with, you know, who always have a great relationship with, and you know, who I want to see success from just as much as they want to see success from me. It's a good old family, so yeah.
You know, throughout the school day, like, see each other, say what's up. It's important to have good team culture. Like, end of day, we all have like our own friends outside of the team, team and stuff, but you know, these are also some of my best friends.
I ran with Jack in middle school, and then he was like, "It was really fun doing it in middle school, just imagine how fun it would be in high school." From the moment on I joined, it was just amazing, because like I was welcomed right away to the program, and all the guys, all the upperclassmen were very like uplifting and all that, and if it wasn't for them, I definitely wouldn't be here right now.
Everybody else, you're not on yet. Okay, top varsity, ready, go!
As it being a season opener, you know, I'm excited for it. I'm so ready for this track season. I've been wanting it to start ever since Winter State.
So going into Redondo, I'm a little nervous considering I was really sick earlier this week. I had a 106 fever on Monday, but I think as long as I can get back, I really want to, you know, try to win both my races. I'm running the 32 and the 8, and I think placement-wise, I would really like to try to win both.
Time-wise, I think if I do some more 800 training, I get more confident with that type of speed, I think I'll be capable of PRing even after doing a 32. But either way, I'm not trying to focus on the 32. I'm not trying to stress myself out over the 32 because I really want to do good in the 8. So my plan for the 32 is just kind of sit back a little bit that first mile. I'm not going to try and like, you know, ego run it and be in first the entire time.
Although it's not the funnest event, it's for sure one of the events that can show you how strong you are as a runner. And that's why I kind of like it. Because it shows my limits, basically. So I'm going to go sub-9:20 on that, see where I'm at, and then hit the sub-9.
Okay, Carson, ready? On your mark, go!
Wearing the big G-O in front, definitely imitating for sure, especially the legacy that's been led, past coaches and past runners here. But I've always just thought as if I'm given the opportunity to run here, you know, like I get to wear that jersey and I get to show everybody who Grid Oak is and what they're capable of.
