Senior Mag 2023: The Three Run-Sketeers: Cross country friends maintain 4-year running ‘cult’

Photo by Carolyn Wang

Left to right: Seniors Jenny Chan, Nithya Krishna and Carolyn Wang sit on the bleachers at theTrack and Field home meet on April 18.

“Three, two, one — go.”

Through torrential rain, fierce wind, raging heat and on certain occasions, ill-timed hail, you may have seen three figures zooming around the city of Saratoga in sleek running clothes and broad smiles.

Just kidding — scratch the last part. There’s nothing remotely smiley about painfully jogging up Canyon View or Norton (two running routes infamous for their steep hills) at a snail’s pace. But for Jenny Chan, Nithya Krishna and me, it’s become a lifestyle.

Since getting introduced to the tens of running routes around Saratoga by former cross country coach Danny Moon in our freshman year, we’ve spent hours running, re-running and molding the team routes into our own assortment of off-season after-school runs.

Our running ritual usually begins with the congregation of our mini self-proclaimed “cult” at the willow tree next to the school library after school, where we’d occasionally discuss the merits of the most visible comic book — “Hark! A Vagrant” by Kate Beaton — in an effort to procrastinate our inevitable, self-inflicted suffering.

After time well spent (or wasted, depending on your stance), we’d trudge into the girls’ locker room, situate ourselves and occasionally attempt to stuff Jenny into a locker — just to see if it’s possible. (In case anyone’s wondering, we succeeded this year.)

As for our actual running excursions, Mondays and Fridays are usually designated long runs (5-7 miles), Tuesday and Thursdays are moderate workouts (3-4 miles) and Wednesdays are short runs (2 miles). 

Occasionally, we’d force ourselves to do track workouts or infamous Oregon Drills: repeated circular-shaped runs on the field characterized by segments of different running efforts (rest, easy, build and race pace). 

Nothing too fun or interesting usually came out of the latter workouts, but the most satisfying part about them, in my humble opinion, has been aggravating Jenny and Nithya every time I move the segment markers (usually our backpacks or water bottles) farther and farther apart to increase the distance of the race and build parts.

However, the undeniably best part of our 4-year running plans hasn’t been the actual workouts themselves, but our post-workout rituals — some of which we’ve kept over the years, and others of which have succumbed to the test of time.

One tradition that has pretty much fallen into oblivion, but still gets revived occasionally, is our daily dosage of extra “miles.” No — we refused to actually run extra miles post-workout, but with our odd tastes and preferences as freshmen, we found ourselves immensely satisfied running up and down the small steep hill next to the track shed.

To boost our egos, we’d classify each extra trip up or down as a “mile,” and count in every language we could fathom: Cantonese, English, Hindi, Latin, Mandarin, Spanish, Tamil — you name it. On a good day we’d get to 20 “miles,” and proclaim that we’d run a marathon (including the 6 miles from our actual workout).

It’s no wonder that tradition has slowly declined — it’s difficult keeping up with freshman energy. But the language flexing has prevailed in our next tradition: core.

Post-run core workouts have always been part of our unbreakable ritual: In-and-Outs, Bicycles, Leg Ups, Scissors (aptly pronounced “ski-sors”), Dead Fish, Russian Twists and Planks. There’s been times when we’ve tried to create themes for our core workouts as well, like Skittle-sors, Swedish Fish and Russian Twizzlers, but traditional names have most often been the norm. 

Core workouts that required counting would inevitably be counted in every language we could think of, including a distinct “water bottle” language that consisted of tapping Jenny’s or my water bottle to the turf.

Throughout the years, we’ve stuck pretty consistently with the same corner of the lower field to do post-run workouts; our surrounding companions, on the other hand, have changed quite drastically.

Anyhow, it’s been a long ride since we started our first get together during the 2019 cross country off-season. And there’s been other unforgettable additions along the way: occasional visits from our fourth running buddy Miranda Yee, a food nickname phase (Melon-wanda, Carrot-lyn, etc.) and an irreconcilable situation with a dented Hydroflask named Denty who (yes, we call Denty a living and breathing “who”) always manages to knock everything down. 

As we head off to college, many of these traditions will be fondly ingrained in our memories and, very likely, carried with us for the rest of our lives as we continue running in college and beyond, whether it be in running clubs or on our own. 

After all, long-distance runners really are the best cult of masochists. We live for the shared suffering and unbreakable companionship.

Three Run-Sketeers, out.