Choosing Your Teammates
John Brown University women’s cross country— my team and family. Yes, “fearless” was our race motto in 2014 and yes we sang Taylor Swift all the time.
I played team sports from when I could participate in tee ball through college. The main ones I stuck with through junior high and high school were volleyball, softball, and track and field. My senior year of high school, I decided to run with the cross country kids. That choice set the rest of my life up for a long love affair with running. I walked on to my collegiate cross country team at John Brown University in Arkansas and loved every minute of every mile I shared with my teammates. Sharing suffering is something that quickly bonds people really deeply (that’s how my husband, Mark and I knew we were meant for each other three months into dating, but that’s another story and another blog post!).
Cross country kids are very coordinated.
My teammates in college were my family. We looked out for each other. We had little rituals and silly inside jokes. We were always laughing and up to something, like seeing who could fold a tortilla and take bites out of it to make the best “tortilla snowflake” in the cafeteria while the rest of our classmates looked at us in confusion. If you’ve ever been on or around a cross country team, you know how weird they are. In a good way, you know? We were all good kids and high achieving students, running anywhere from 50-80 miles a week, double workouts, extracurricular activities, and studying demanding subjects like biology, chemistry, business, teaching, and engineering. We had the highest cumulative GPA of all the sports teams while dedicating our Saturday’s to meets and long runs. I was proud of my teammates and knew their character was some of the best. I struggled my way through Chemistry I and II with the help of my much smarter and talented engineering, biochem, and pre-med teammates. I remember sitting in our XC room (we didn’t have a locker room, showers, or anything because if you’re a runner you know— there’s not much money or funding in this sport compared to the more popular basketball, soccer, and volleyball haha…), surrounded by my teammates tutoring me in chemistry. We’re all in our post-run clothes, sweaty, tired, and hungry, crunching numbers on a calculator and comparing textbooks. They selflessly gave me their time and brains to help me pass. Then, they’d go to the lab for hours to finish their assignments before we would all meet up again at 5:30am at the track for another tortuous workout. One minute we were cheering each other on during a run, the next we were cheering each other on as we passed an impossible exam.
Being on a team is one of the coolest opportunities any young adult can experience. I’m so grateful for my experiences and friendships. I still think of certain workouts where we would all suffer lap after lap while our coach called out our splits. My fastest teammates would finish the workout and continue to stand and cheer and sometimes even run another lap with slower teammates. At the time, I was one of those last runners. I remember crying and feeling unworthy of someone putting themselves in further discomfort to encourage me. As I’ve matured and have a lot more time between college Abigail and current Abigail, I now view that act of kindness and integrity with gratitude. I miss those times and opportunities for others to show love in that way and for me to show my love for my teammates. It wasn’t till many years later, now that I’m seriously pursuing running again, that I see the gift it was to be on a team (sorry, Coach Schochler! I’ve never had that fast of a 5k but I guess I just needed to bump up to the 50k this whole time haha…)
I miss being on a team and working towards a common goal. It wasn’t until recently that I realized I am on a new team in my adult life, and it’s not what I expected. My husband— my biggest champion besides my mom— is my favorite teammate. We both love running and we get to share endless miles together (he keeps track, I think we’ve broken 3,000 miles?). We nerd out about running, gear, and the running community. We have great friends who are amazing athletes and serve as teammates, too. We’ve gotten to train, adventure, race, and recover with these friends, as well as celebrate life’s milestones such as birthdays, anniversaries, and victories. These are the kind of friends you go dine at Olive Garden with; eating endless breadsticks, laughing at running memes, and drinking cheap wine. All to carb load for your next long run.
Find your people/team. Mine are the kind that wake up at 3am to run around a volcano for 13 hours and then drink beer and eat French fries together.
My biggest team, as of today, though, is one I never expected. It was created by a fellow artist, runner, and champion of our Bend community. Megan Myers is a well-known name in Central Oregon and the PNW, and I’m so grateful to call her my friend. She started a running club in 2021 called The Creativity Shakeout, and it’s blossomed into something bigger than any of us expected. It was established to have a space for people to network, talk over ideas, and encourage one another’s creative pursuits all while sharing miles. The enthusiasm, kindness, and good-natured fun of each person that attends has created an extremely welcoming culture. It’s an open invite to anyone who wants to run or walk every Tuesday morning— rain, snow, ice, or shine!— at the same place, same time. Mark and I have become very good friends with many of the creative athletes who attend. We all share 4-8 miles together each week and often plan other events, runs, and gatherings together outside of the run club. We’ve trained for a marathon, race together, and adventure around Three Sisters Wilderness and beyond. We show up for one another’s creative pursuits, from art shows to painting nights, and connect each other to the right businesses to help make our creative dreams come true. We celebrate each other’s accomplishments and wins and check in during injuries and heartbreaks. And, maybe the best of all, we bake treats for those early Tuesday mornings and get to pet each other's dogs.
All of these things look and feel a lot like my teams from high school and college. To have something so precious and positive in my life again after I thought that era was over is an unexpected gift! I can share my highs and lows of being a small business owner, artist, and athlete with others who have so much in common with me. I’m constantly overwhelmed and surprised when these “teammates” show up for me by supporting my art business and asking for my race results time and time again. The Creativity Shakeout is a team of like-minded individuals working towards the same goal: community, creativity, and running. Sounds a lot like a team, right?
Creativity Shakeout always gets you grinning.
A hardy team of runners who don’t know how to say “no” to the weather.
If you’re interested in joining us each week, we meet at Pioneer Park in Bend at 7am every Tuesday morning. Follow @creativityshakeout on instagram and you’ll get to meet and experience all these people I’ve described. And, you’ll instantly become a member of this team. Maybe that’s how teammates work in adulthood— you get to walk on anytime.
See you on the trails! And stay wild,
Abi
