Taking the first steps
During the fall semester of my senior year of high school, I applied to Colorado Mountain College in Leadville in my Career Exploration class. My dad thought this college would meet my needs because it’s not too far from home, and the campus is small. Everything is within walking distance and the downtown area is less than mile away. Leadville is a historic mining town in Lake County, Colorado. My dad has run in the pack-burro race there every year since 1980. The town itself is at 10,158 feet above sea level. It is also within view of two of the tallest peaks in the state including Mount Elbert and Mount Massive. Later that fall, I signed a letter of intent to run cross-country and track for CMC.
In early December after I was accepted my dad and I toured CMC with my new coach Darren. It had snowed a little bit overnight, and there was still a mask guideline in effect from Covid. We first met with Darren at his classroom upstairs in the New Discovery building. He introduced me to the cross-country program with a Powerpoint presentation about what I could expect for the training schedule, and sponsorship, including clothing and footwear from a company called On.
Next he took us to see other buildings on campus. These included the Pinnacle Resource Center, Mountain View Residence Hall, Rattling Jack (the welding shop, The Climax Molybdenum Leadership Center, and Get Outdoors Leadville buildings. Additionally he took us to the Crown Point building which houses the maintenance department and Ski Area Operations program — I even got to climb inside one of the snowcats. The campus also includes an extensive trail system. Darren concluded the tour by taking us to lunch in the Coronado Cafe dining hall where I met some of the running team, including future teammates Ana Garcia and Abby Hagen, as well as runners Madisen Johnson and CJ Brenny who were in their last year. Overall, visiting the college was as exciting as going to the Apple Store, and I felt bummed when it was time to go home. We went running on the trails in Buena Vista on the way back.
I had taken four early college classes in high school through Pueblo Community College which were two semesters of Introduction to Engineering and Design, one semester of Philosophy, and one of Ethics. I got an A in each of those classes. In my spring semester of high school I also took an online class with CMC called Intro to PC Applications/Mac. At first, I thought that I was going to kill it in this class since it I thought it was all Apple. But, no. I later found out that the class was mostly on Windows programs, which I was not familiar with and struggled to understand. I also had difficulty understanding the Canvas program where the assignments were posted. So, I was getting a D in the class due to me not understanding the material or the assignments. We later sought help from a CMC counselor, who agreed to meet us at the CMC Salida Campus, which is in an old school building. When we got there, we went into a classroom on the 2nd floor to have a meeting with the professor over Zoom. Everything went well until I had to get up to go to the bathroom. As I left, I reached for the handle and somehow caught a splinter that went deep under my fingernail and even past the cuticle. I shrieked out loud but still went to where I needed. When I came back, I just kept making noises until the meeting was over.
It was snowing really hard and we had a long drive home. When we left, my dad called my mom and told her about this and he suggested that when we got home he could take a pair of tweezers and remove it the cowboy way. That was when my mom wanted a picture of my fingernail. I sent it to her and she even texted it to our doctor. After this, she told my dad to take me to the hospital in Salida. And so my dad drove there and then we waited to talk to the receptionist. Next, we were led to the emergency room for the doctor to remove the splinter. I laid down on the bed and was given a nerve block injection right into the upper part of my palm. My dad was expecting another ballistic reaction to happen. However, I remained silent the whole time. After that, the doctor was able to dig into my fingernail with tweezers and remove what turned out to be a pretty big chunk of wood. After this he put a bandage on my finger and then we were free to leave. I ended up dropping that PC/Mac class later in the spring.
During track season my senior year of high school, I met another future CMC teammate. His name is Nate Encinias. I was first introduced to Nate at a high school track meet after learning that he also signed a letter of intent to run for CMC. Nate went to Rocky Ford, and I went to Custer County. We actually had been running in meets together since middle school.
The week before high school graduation, I was awarded two art scholarships to help pay for college. My art creations were also chosen for an opening at the 3rd Street Gallery in Westcliffe where they were displayed through June.
I focused on my training program all summer long to get ready for college cross-country. This training program consisted of distance training, tempo running, speed work and strength workouts. I was really excited and a little nervous. Regardless, the time to go to college was fast approaching.
The Blur Goes to College is a free serialized book. Please subscribe to receive future chapters delivered by email. If you would like to support our writing, please upgrade to a paid subscription, or donations are gratefully accepted via Venmo @Hal-Walter (phone# 8756).
 |
|