Athlete: Rylan Kaufman
School: Hendrickson High School
What was your most memorable race/moment?
My freshman year after our district cross country meet I came across the finish line having run my heart out after falling during the race and still PRing, I missed joining the varsity team to regionals by .03 seconds but my older brother who was a senior caught me right after I crossed the line and hugged me, told me he loved me and how proud he was of me this whole season.
Who would you consider your biggest competition over your four years?
I want to say myself and constantly getting better than I was the day before. I always tried to look at myself as my own competition but coming from a team with several state caliber runners they have been not only great competition and teammates but great coaches for me.
What was your greatest accomplishment?
On the track it would have to be qualifying in the 800m to regionals, I only ever qualified for postseason races in cross country as a team. Moving on as an individual made all the workouts I did on my own worth it and somewhat cemented the feeling that I am a good runner.
I wish I took it more seriously the years before, and appreciated running. Most of my senior year I wasn't sure if I would get the chance to run collegiality and almost felt okay with that but I just felt so happy running regardless of the outcome and knew I wanted to continue it
What were the most difficult obstacles you had to overcome?
I had several injuries during my career in high school but my most difficult athletic related obstacle to overcome would have to be accepting the fact that I would continue to be overlooked by my school coaches and teammates because of the caliber of runners around me and so I had to work on my own and motivate myself
What will you miss the most?
Being a senior, I enjoyed coaching up the younger JV runners and encouraging them. I'll also miss my fellow seniors on the team because all of us have run together since freshman year if not during middle school.
Running is a mental sport, do not put pressure on yourself and run because you want it. When it feels more like an obligation than enjoyment your heart won't be in it and your performance will suffer from it. Also for the runners that are overlooked, your self worth isn't tied solely to running. There is more to you than that.
What are your college plans?
I will continue running at Tarleton state university and major in Kinesiology to one day become a physical therapist
Who would you like to say 'thank you' to?
My teammates, my family, my coaches for being there at the 6 am workouts and supporting me and my ambitions even when I wasn't sure about them myself.
That again for my overlooked runners, do not stop working and do not be afraid to dream beyond what you think your capable of because I guarantee that you're better than you think and always have the ability to get better.
What was the funniest thing that happened during your running career?
With the bunch at Hendrickson every workout and meet is full of laughs, but the times I remember the most besides our raps on the bus were at meets we would all dive in to the lake by the course whenever there was one even though we were told not to after each and every time.
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