Student-Athlete Insider: Jenny Grant

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Last week, we ran at the Lenior-Rhyne Cross Country Invitational. The course is one of my favorites because it's so flat and the grass is fast. We arrived the night before and went out to Carabba's for dinner. After dinner, we went back to the hotel and played a hilarious game of Truth-or-Dare. When we finally settled down for bed, it was nice to have some quiet time to just chat with my roommate. When I woke up the next morning, I felt terrible as I had a stuffy nose and a headache. I hoped it was just from sleeping in the cold room, but it didn't go away by race time. I was able to ignore it during the race, but just like in the last race, I developed a side stitch around mile two. I do not know why I have been having such problems with them lately, but this time I was able to breathe through it and keep going. I finished in 22:55 and I felt ok about my performance. It was faster than last week, but I know that I can be faster still. Overall both teams had a great day as the girls finished seventh and the boys finished fifth. I was really proud of my team and so was coach as we went to eat at Panera Bread after. (Love Panera!)

The week after LR though was pretty rough for me because my stuffy nose and headache were soon joined by throwing up and coughing. I had to miss a few practices or was held back to just jogging for 25 minutes. My total mileage for that week was only 18 miles, which is significantly less than what I usually run. Luckily though, I was sick toward the end of the block so I could use block break to rest up and didn't have to worry about missing too much class.

After each block, we get a four day break called block break. Since this is our first block break, we participated in one of Tusculum's traditions called Nettie Day. On this day, students perform community service throughout Greeneville. In past years, I helped paint at a retirement home and planted flowers at a cemetery. This year I worked on-campus and pulled up vinca that had overrun a garden bed. I had never heard of vinca before Nettie Day and I hope I never see it again after. Vinca is like a vine and this vinca's roots were firmly planted in the ground. It was really hard to pull it up and it seemed that every time I tried, I only ended up stripping off a handful of leaves. Once we figured out the best way to pull it up though, it was easier and the garden bed looked much nicer afterward. It was fun to work and talk with the students while making Tusculum look better, but I will never ever plant vinca in my flower beds.

Aside from Nettie Day, this block break has been pretty uneventful. I worked on my graduate school applications and writing up my research proposal for submission to a psychology conference. I attend the conference last year and helped present my professor's research, but this year I hope to present my own findings. I designed my own study on how athletes prepare for athletic competitions in relation to their level of sport commitment, how much they identified with being an athlete, level of anxiety before a competition, and the cohesiveness of their team. It was a lot of work to complete the whole project in just one block (18 days), but one of the great things about Tusculum is the support of the community. The coaches and athletes were great in arranging meetings with me so they could fill out my questionnaires. The results showed a lot of strong correlations and interesting findings, so I cannot wait to have the final write-up completed and hopefully present it!

We also raced during the block break at Carson-Newman. I enjoy running the CN Challenge because it's so close to Tusculum and the course is challenging. The boys had a great race with placing third as a team overall and two of our runners finishing in the top ten. The girls finished seventh overall and ran really well for such a tough course. I was still dealing with a lingering cough and wasn't feeling my best. Considering that I was sick and had not run a lot that week, I was content with my time of 24:42. It wasn't even close to my fastest time at CN, but it was the best I could do that day and all I can ask of myself is my best. One of the best moments for me was when I was running and I heard someone yell "Go Jenny! Go Tusculum!". When I looked over, I saw it was a runner from Lincoln Memorial who I had met at the SAC Leadership Conference and at the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee meeting last spring. I thought it was a great example of sportsmanship and someone being an example to his teammates, which was something we discussed a lot at the Leadership Conference. It was cool to see that the things we talked about were not forgotten and the race wasn't all about competing against each other.

This weekend we will be racing at the Warren Wilson Invitational in Asheville NC, and then next weekend we will travel to Charleston, SC for the Bulldog Invitational. We will stay the whole weekend in Charleston for some team bonding and fun, so I cannot wait! Go Pioneers!

- Jenny Grant, Tusculum cross country