Zack Beavin just finished up his high school career at St. Xavier High School where he was a member of the Class AAA record breaking 3200m Relay State Championship team. He is now in his first year running at Belmont University in Nashville. He wrote a blog for KYtrackXC.com about his transition to college.
Personal Bests
3200 Meter Run9:13.15
5000 Meter Run15:17.83
One Mile Run4:19.07
College.
It’s such a loaded word with so many implications: Living on my own, feeding myself, meeting new people, and, worst of all, (I shudder just writing it) doing my own laundry. As I write this, I can’t help but notice that my laundry hamper is already filled to a concerning level after such a short time. It’s an ugly reminder that the “laundry fairy” (a.k.a. my wonderful mom) who has graced me with weekly visits my entire life is not going to show up this time. A small part of me will indeed die when I finally make the dreaded trip to the laundry room. But that’s for another day- I still have one or two clean-ish shirts left.
All summer, though, it never really sank in that in a few short weeks, I would be hundreds of miles away from everything I had known my entire life. Just like any of the last 4 years, I ran with my Saint X teammates this summer. It almost felt like just another year: building up miles and gearing up for cross country. But in the back of my mind, I knew my path was diverging from my Saint X brothers, whether I liked it or not. Whether it was the fact my training schedule didn’t match their schedule any more, or whether it was watching rather than running the summer time trials, there was always some reminder or another that I was leaving the past four years of my life soon.
But still, I don’t think the fact that I am in Nashville really and truly sank in until I was asked, in all seriousness, if I wanted to go country line dancing. Yes, apparently that’s a thing down here. I said no- to preserve my pseudo-northern dignity (which, incidentally, was soon shattered as a person from Chicago remarked, “Oh, so you’re from the south!” upon learning I was from Louisville. I just can’t win- To the northerners, I have a southern accent, and to the southerners, I have northern accent. I’ve been toying with the idea of adopting the British accent of a couple of my teammates to make it even more interesting…).
But the transition to college, though far from over, has been made significantly easier by running. Simply having a team to be with and practice to keep me busy has helped the transition to my new life here at Belmont University. It may sound corny, but running has been my rock of sanity and confidence as everything else in my life has drastically changed. I may be at a different school, in a different state, hundreds of miles from home, but running is a constant. Though I’m not leading runs or setting the pace like I might have last year, I still do all the same kind of things. The volume has increased, but the process is the same.
In a way, it’s kind of nice being low man on the totem pole again. The potential of what I can do over the next four years, both team wise and individually has me very excited and has consumed my thinking as of late. So though it still breaks my heart I will not be able to be with my Saint X brothers for what will be a truly spectacular and unforgettable year, I have made peace with it. I wish them the best of luck and I’ll be following them closely; but I have dragons of my own to slay.
