Hi, I’m Santana and this past weekend I competed in the SEC indoor track and field championships in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Here’s how it went!
The Vanderbilt track and field team had officially taken over the Nashville International Airport. Well, not really…but we had practically invaded the airport Starbucks. We were on the way to SEC Indoor Championships and had all decided to fuel up with some Starbucks drinks. As I sat down in the gate with my teammates and sipped on my iced matcha latte with oat milk, I was bouncing with excitement (or maybe it was the caffeine???) for the four day competition trip.
Although the entire trip was an amazing experience and very fun, the first half of my days in Fayetteville were filled with nerves, drinking lots of water and electrolytes, and being disciplined about my meals, schoolwork, and focus. In the first two days of the trip I had to drink a ton of water to keep myself properly hydrated before my race. I was extra intentional about consuming healthy meals, even though the hotel cookie skillet with cinnamon ice cream (mouthwatering, right?) was incredibly tempting. When I wasn’t at the track preparing for my race, I was in the hotel room doing homework. Although I was tired of drinking water, intensely craving some dessert, and wanted to just sit down and scroll through tik tok, I knew my sacrifices would all be worth it. And they were. I ran a personal best and made major improvements in my race. I could finally order that hotel skillet cookie dessert, de-stress, and cheer on my teammates. Throughout the rest of the trip I was able to explore Arkansas with my teammates and even go to Lululemon! However, I still had to study and do homework, which was assisted by several delicious strawberry matcha lattes our hotel had in the lobby.
While being a student-athlete can be difficult, it’s times like these, where you spend time with your wonderful teammates, celebrate everyone’s accomplishments, and share some airport Starbucks, that makes everything so, so worth it.