Left: “On the bus rides back, [the Trap House Runners] are hanging out, sitting with each other, talking about our race, giving each other advice, talking about injuries you might have, soreness. It’s kind of like a family among the team. … Couple of guys on the team, this is their first year, so it was the older guys giving them advice; don’t go out too fast your first mile, or make sure you have small steps going up the hill, or how to navigate a course that’s really tough.”
“The Trap House Runners started like end of June, beginning of July. On one of the team runs, we took a selfie and kind of just rolled with it from there, started calling ourselves the Trap House Runners. We started hanging out, going to Applebee’s, going to movies and stuff. It really helped bring a lot of the guys together and helped get a couple freshmen interested in what we’re doing. The group is growing.”
“Last season, I really wanted to break 17 minutes [in the 5K], but I didn’t run at all in the summer because I kind of thought I would do it without any work. I was just being dumb. And that definitely did not happen. I was kind of mad about that, and then during my track season, I actually worked in the winter, so I finally had a really good track season. I learned from that dumb thing I did that one summer. So now this season, I’m coming back really strong. I ran a lot this summer.”
“In my freshman year, when I had a really bad race, and after I just came off of like four good races, I was really mad, and [my former coach] was like, ‘It’s just one bad race. You’ll do fine the next time.’ I ended up doing good the next race. [His words] helped a lot. … He didn’t say that much, but when he did say something, it was important.”
“What does it mean for you to be a Heritage Hawk?”
“It’s a lot. The kids that I saw were put on this huge pedestal when I was so young, and then I started training harder and could get closer and closer to their times, and I started beating them. I always wanted to do better than what I was—I was never satisfied. I still want to do better and get faster and do what I can.”
Check out Mike Sonnenberg’s (photographer) Pure Saginaw and Lost In Michigan Facebook pages. For more of Mike’s event photos, click here.
Hooray Run 