But I also see the same phenomenon in women and girls off the track.
When I notice someone trying to be someone they’re not, often to impress others, it usually ends up coming off as a fail. If they’re trying to act tougher, or flirtier, or smarter, or happier than they really are, it shows. If they’re trying to be Beyoncé or Miley or Tyra, they’re not being who they were made to be.
But when I encounter a woman or girl being who she really is, she radiates something that is genuine and real.
Though I don’t think I could pull off blue hair, I’ve seen women who rock blue hair like they were born with it! I’ve seen girls and women wearing brightly colored wraps who are, under that flourish of color, clearly being who they were made to be.
That’s been true for me on the track, and it’s also been true for me off the track. Whether I’m in my pajamas at home with my family or glitzed up for the red carpet, I have the most confidence when I’m being Sanya. Trying to be like someone else is never a win.
I see it in fashion, but I also see it in passion.
If your sister was passionate about skating, you might have tried to glide right behind her in lessons or practices or competitions. It could be that you’re also a gifted skater, but it’s also possible you’ll end up finding the most satisfaction by pursuing something different.
We can all be tempted to try and be someone we’re not, especially when we spend a lot of time on social media. Whether it’s what Kylie is wearing, or Jennifer is singing, or Staci is performing, or Tamika is driving, we’re tempted to be what we’re not by imitating what we think is working for others.
In every area of life—faith, fashion, passions, pursuits, beauty, and later your career—we can be tempted to imitate someone else, instead of focusing on running the unique race that only we can run.
I encourage you to ask God how you’re being invited to run your race. And I’ve found the best way to do that is double-pronged, and may seem counterintuitive!
First, you have to get quiet. We live in a noisy world, and God invites us to pop out the earbuds, turn down the volume on our distractions, and be still with him. Spend some quiet time alone with God and have a conversation about the ways you’re uniquely made. Grab your Bible, pull out a journal, and listen for God’s still, small voice. Begin to notice the ways God has created you to thrive, and ask God what makes you uniquely you.
In addition to being still, I also encourage you to get busy! Continue to step out and try new things. Find out which ones energize you and which ones drain you. Which ones make you happy and which ones exhaust you. Join a friend one week at her piano lesson, her soccer practice, or her church’s youth group! Record what you notice in your journal, and continue to ask God for guidance.
Because no two people on the planet are identical, you are like no other.
Run the race that only you can run.
RIGHT ON TRACK CHALLENGE
Do you have a sense of what it looks like to run the race that only you can run, to be the person that only you can be?
•What values are most important to you?
•What are some goals that you’ve set for yourself?
•What are the dreams you hold in your heart?
•What kind of activities make you feel alive and give you joy?
Though you might be tempted to follow in the footsteps of others, you were made to live a life that’s unique to you! What will you do today to stay in your lane?
CHAPTER 8
EYES ON THE FINISH LINE
In 2006, which had been the best year of my career to date, my dad was pushing me to chase the American record for the women’s 400-meter run. That record was 48.83 seconds. It had been set by Valerie Brisco-Hooks in Los Angeles in 1984, and I was itching to break it. My dad was eager for me to do so too.
Up until that race, my own lifetime best race had been 48.92. I’d run it in August of 2005 at the Weltklasse in Zurich. As the 2006 season was underway, I was running so well during most of my races that I peeked over at the clock before crossing the finish line.
And that was exactly what my dad wanted to discuss the day before the World Cup in Athens, Greece two months later.
Though I often had a huge cheering section of family and friends at stadiums around the globe, only my mom had traveled with me to Athens. The night before the finals, when I was Skyping with my dad, he brought up what was—by the clock—the best race I’d ever won.
But as he and I had watched it together back at home a few months earlier, he’d noticed something.
Reviweing the Race
We’d been sitting together on the couch.
“See!” he pointed. “Right there!”
He was showing me the slightest movement of my eyes as I glanced up at the clock during my race. I don’t mean that I turned my head to look at a runner beside me or behind me. I don’t mean that I raised my arms to wave at anyone in the stands or stumbled into someone else’s lane. I mean that my eyes moved. There might have been the slightest shift of my head as my eyes drifted over to look at the clock.
The way I saw it, I’d been running so well, beating everyone else on the track, that the clock became my competition. Why not peek for that extra inspiration to give it everything I had?
But in that slight movement of my eyes, my dad noticed that my body would stiffen. My shoulders tensed up after I looked at the clock.
Ironically, in that moment, I wanted to roll my eyes. But my dad’s pretty sharp. And I knew he was probably right.
Race Eve
We’d scheduled a Skype call the evening before my finals in Athens. It was one o’clock in the afternoon in Florida, and eight o’clock in the evening in Greece. Though I’d run my prelims without any trouble, my body was still adjusting to the time zone. And I wanted to be well rested for the next day.
We were chatting about the day and the food and what was happening with Shari, when my dad returned to that eye-gaze business.
“Darling,” my dad begged me, “please. Do it for me. I promise you, you won’t be sorry.”
“Dad,” I retorted, “my mechanics are fine. My form is fine. It’s just not that big of a deal.”
I heard his sigh around the globe.
“San,” he reasoned with me, “if you just keep your eyes forward, I promise you’ll gain speed. It’s slowing you down.”
They were the words I’d been hearing him say all season long.
“You have nothing to lose. Just try it my way. Promise me you won’t look at the clock, and you’ll be happy.”
Race Day
The night before each race, I fall asleep without setting an alarm. I always want to give my body as much rest as possible by allowing it to wake when it wants to. My eyes closed for the night around ten and I didn’t wake up until eight in the morning!
Because I wasn’t scheduled to race until seven that night, my mom and I had a pretty chill day together. We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast, read for a while, and watched a race on television before I took a bath and got dressed to head to the stadium.
On one hand, I wasn’t particularly nervous for the race, since I’d been undefeated that season. I was ranked number one in the world. I expected to wrap up a really good season with a win in Athens.
On the other hand, I was going to be running in lane 7. In the 400, it’s usually better to be in lane 4 or 5 to keep the competition in view. In lane 7, I knew I’d be running blind, hoping not to give too much too soon. I’d never been in lane 7 before in a major meet.
What I thought might be a deficit—not being able to see how my performance compared to that of other runners—turned out to be a benefit! I’d learned to run my own race and now I was being given a chance to put my learning into practice!
Coming off the final turn, I couldn’t place the other runners with my peripheral vision. Though I couldn’t see them, I never turned my head to look. What my mom saw from the stands was that, as I came out of the turn, the closest runne
r was about ten meters behind me. I focused on my fourth “P,” staying poised, and continued to run strong for the last one hundred meters. And though I wouldn’t see it until I watched the race later on film, I was even adding to the distance between me and the other runners in the final forty meters.
For four hundred meters, I refused to look at the clock.
I did it for my daddy.
In the last twenty meters, whatever the stadium’s announcer was saying in Greek didn’t even matter to me. I felt great and was clearly poised for the win. Feeling my strength beneath me, powering forward but with enough gas in the tank for a strong finish, I won!
A Greek runner who’d come in second congratulated me. She actually grabbed my face, and as we both reached for a quick hug, we almost kissed on the mouth! Although it was awkward, it felt like one of the most authentic congratulations I’ve ever received from a competitor. Normally competitors aren’t happy when you beat them, but she was a hurdler, and had been a last-minute substitution in the 400, so she was less invested than everyone else.
After her hug, I was handed a beautiful bouquet of flowers by a girl dressed in traditional Greek garb.
As I continued to steady my breath, I glanced up at the clock. By then, I wasn’t interested in the win; I was interested in the time!
When the times were shown, I realized that the U.S. Women’s record of 48.83, that had stood for twenty-two years, had been broken.
I’d run the race in 48.7 seconds.
Keeping my eyes off the clock, and on the race, had shaved a third of a second off my own personal best, and thirteen one-hundredths off the U.S. women’s record.
I know that thirteen one-hundredths of a second sounds pretty small. But for me, it was huge. It was a big deal to the sport too. The American records have been set by some of the best athletes in human history . . . and I’d smashed the record! That year I would be named World Athlete of the Year and American Athlete of the Year.
I was ecstatic!
But in the moment, I didn’t know if 48.7 would mean much to anyone besides me. There was no reason that the European crowd would have been familiar with the American record.
But my mom knew what 48.7 meant.
I searched the stadium, desperate to make eye contact with her. I finally found her waving her arms in celebration.
As soon as we got back to the hotel, we called my dad.
“Dad, I did it! I did it! I broke the record. Forty-eight point seven seconds! It felt awesome!”
“Did you look at the clock?” he queried playfully.
“No,” I admitted. “I didn’t.”
He’d been right.
Eyes on the Prize
Before September 16, 2006, I had run countless thousands, even millions, of steps. I’d put in the miles and the crunches and the lifting and the strategizing to become a champion. But what finally got me across the finish line in lightning speed was taking my eyes off my competition—whether it was Tonique Williams or a huge glowing digital clock—and keeping my eyes and heart and mind on the goal.
In my case, it wasn’t the literal “prize” I was eyeing. I had other gold medals. It was staying focused on the race I was running. It was the finish line.
When we set goals for ourselves, it’s easy to get distracted from what we’ve set our minds to do.
Maybe you’re eyeballing the musician who’s nipping at your heels to win first chair in the orchestra. Maybe you’re looking down at the numbers on a scale. Maybe you’re doing excellent work at your part-time job, but you sneak off to count your tips. Or maybe you’ve set an academic goal for yourself, and halfway through the semester you simply get tired.
I get that. I really do.
You might even lose focus, like I did when I looked at the clock, with good reasons in mind. But just like my race in Athens, you’ll achieve the most success when you’re not distracted and keep your mind focused on the goals you’ve set for yourself.
I’ve known girls who’ve gotten distracted by guys. I don’t mean there’s anything wrong with dating someone. I mean that they’ve settled for someone who’s not the caliber of person they should be dating. Or they’ve decided to date someone who doesn’t respect the goals and values and priorities that they’ve chosen for themselves. I’ve known girls who’ve dated guys who demanded so much of their time and attention that they weren’t able to develop into the women they’d been designed to be.
I’ve also known girls who’ve gotten distracted by focusing on their appearance. You know I’m a girlie girl, and I love stylish hair, unique nails, and fashion, so I don’t mean that there’s anything wrong with putting effort into your appearance. But when girls become consumed by what they look like, they forget their higher calling and more important goals! Those goals might not be on the track. They could be goals for education, for travel, for career, or for family. But when a disproportionate amount of time and energy and money are poured into their appearance, it’s easy to lose sight of what’s most important.
I’ve also known girls who’ve gotten distracted when something gets too difficult. Maybe a girl started the volleyball or basketball or soccer season strong, but when training gets tough, she wants to quit.
If you start something, finish it. And finish strong! When you stick it out, when you push beyond adversity, you discover something in yourself that you didn’t know you had. Until you give something 100 percent—whether it’s guitar or tennis or Habitat for Humanity or surfing—you don’t know what you’re capable of achieving.
The year I broke the U.S. women’s 400 record, I’d run fourteen other races. If I’d decided to take it easy after the fifth race, or tenth race, or twelfth, and just coasted through the rest of the season, I never would have achieved my dream. It wasn’t until the fifteenth race that I broke the record!
Continue to believe in yourself no matter what distractions or obstacles you face.
Break It Down
To achieve your big goals, you need to avoid distraction by keeping your eyes on the finish line. That’s the important lesson my father taught me.
But I also want you to know that the other secret to achieving your big goal is by making and achieving smaller goals. That’s going to look different for every person, depending on what your goals are.
If you’ve set your mind on earning a full-ride scholarship to college, you might challenge yourself, one semester at a time, to get an A in every one of your classes. Perhaps you’ll set your goal at 96 percent, or you might have your hands full aiming for 90 percent.
If you want to be the forward who makes 1,000 points during your high school basketball career, you might set a goal of making 24 points per game. And then put in the hours at the gym, at the park, and in your driveway practicing your shot!
If you want to raise enough money to fund a family-style orphan home in Haiti, you might decide to organize a fundraiser that will earn your first $5,000.
Breaking your big goal down into smaller goals can keep you motivated to reach the finish line and accomplish all you were made for.
And with every step, keep your eyes on the prize.
RIGHT ON TRACK CHALLENGE
It’s easy to get distracted from the goals that are most important to you. You can stay focused by keeping your eyes focused on the finish line.
•What’s one goal you’re holding in your heart right now?
•What factors in your life have the most potential to distract you?
•What smaller goals do you need to set to reach your big one?
•What practical steps will keep you on track?
It’s not unusual to get distracted during the race you’re running. What is one thing you can do today to stay focused on achieving your dream?
CHAPTER 9
THE NUMBER ONE FAN OF MY NUMBER ONE FAN
Just give me a few weeks. She’ll be my girl.”
Those were the words my future groom spoke to his mother as he pointed toward me from the Unive
rsity of Texas bleachers. They were watching the Texas Relays, a meet hosted by the University of Texas, and I was doing a warm-up lap. I was sporting our signature burnt orange-and-white uniform and my usual confident smile.
It took him more than a few weeks.
In fact, a year later, I was the one to make the first move!
I was having lunch with my sister in a campus cafeteria when I spotted him. His name was Aaron Ross, but all his friends called him Ross. Feeling confident, I waved him over and we started talking. That week, he invited me to dinner on Saturday night and to church on Sunday morning.
That was my kind of date!
If he was trying to win my heart, he couldn’t have been any more strategic. He was exactly the kind of guy I was looking for: close with his mother, a gentleman on a Saturday night date, and a committed Christian. His values matched mine.
The priorities that knit our hearts together were faith, family, and fitness.
Faith, Family, and Fitness
The fitness value is pretty obvious. When we met, I was running for the Longhorns and Ross was a defensive back on their football team. If you’ve ever heard of Friday Night Lights, I don’t need to tell you that football is a pretty big deal in Texas. The town portrayed in the TV show is fictional, but Texas football madness is not.
Ross grew up in Tyler, Texas, where he played football two years for John Tyler High School. He didn’t start playing football until his sophomore year! He also played basketball and was a sprinter. He was recruited by the University of Texas Longhorns, where he won a National Championship and was also awarded the Jim Thorpe Award for being the nation’s top collegiate defensive back.
When we met in 2003, my eyes were fixed on competing in the Olympics and Ross’s gaze was set on the NFL. While it meant we both had full schedules, it was sort of a match made in heaven. I didn’t have to worry about Ross tempting me with French fries. And when I hit the floor to do my 1,000 sit-ups each night, Ross wasn’t out drinking with the guys or sitting on the couch watching Netflix. He was at my side, joining in on the sit-ups and helping me count. It was like a nerdy athlete date. I felt so blessed that Ross understood the discipline needed to be the best.
Right on Track Page 7
