As a collegiate runner, I can be the first to tell you that the effort you put into your sport will strongly correlate with the times you will run. The more effort you put forth, the faster you will run. Now, as much as we would like this to be the case, unfortunately this does not take into account the entire picture. The effort we put into our sport is what we can control. It is what we as individuals can monitor and alter at our convenience. Frankly, though, this is not how life works. What about the variables in life that are out of our control that must be taken into consideration? With running, despite training as vigorously as you can, there may be factors out of your control that can derail your hard efforts.

This season for me has not gone the way I had anticipated when I sat down with my coach to write down my seasonal goals during our pre-season meetings. I’ll be the first to admit that. I had explicit goals of reaching our conference championships, placing relatively high at that meet, and striving to qualify for the national championships. With less than 2 weeks until conference I am on the outside looking in, battling with my teammates to secure a spot that I previously thought would be handed to me on a silver platter just 2 months ago. Now, that wasn’t me being arrogant or cocky, that was just me focusing on myself and my fitness levels at the time and failing to consider any outside variables that could infringe my ability to run.

This year’s annual flu has been brutally awful, drawing parallels with the peak of the Swine Flu epidemic in 2009. Unfortunately, it has ravished Emory’s campus, leaving many students bedridden for up to a week and causing many athletes on my team to miss extended periods of time to recover; myself being one of them.

Despite the copious amounts of time I’ve spent grinding on the track, this simple illness has wiped me of all my hard work. It’s taken away all that I’ve built up for and dreamt of this entire season. The cliche lesson you must be thinking I’m trying to convey with this article is that time is precious and you shouldn’t take any run or time running for granted. That’s not the case. Yes, it’s true, but to be candid that isn’t what I am trying to get at here.

The gut of the lesson I am spewing out to you is that regardless of all of the hard work and effort you may put into something, a bump in the road may appear that is out of your control. This bump can be referred to as adversity. It’s what defines an individual. And to be honest with you guys, it really sucks. However, when facing this bump in the road, you are given two choices. To accept adversity for what it’s worth and tackle it head on or to scurry away and let it defeat you.

In the end it’s your choice. But for me, I’m going to battle adversity head on and come back hungrier and ready for this outdoor track season.