On May 21, the distance runners of MVTF went to the track and gathered around our smartphones to watch streaming video of the NCAA Championships in Canton, New York, to see Monta Vista’s own Bridget Gottlieb earn NCAA National All-American status in the 10km race!
Bridget was the only freshman who was accepted to the 10000m race, and she toed the line along with two other Hopkins teammates. Bridget ran a smart, tactical race, hanging on the back of the large lead pack for the first part of the race where she was able to stay on the rail and run safely and efficiently. As the pack began to break up, Bridget worked with her teammates Frances Loeb and Sophia Meehan to move up. When the front pack had shrunk down to six contenders, Bridget was sitting comfortably in the lead group. Bridget’s slowest lap was her first lap (89.6 seconds) and her fastest lap was her last lap (81.8 seconds) — it’s hard to run a better race than that! Her 3200m splits were: 11:29, 11:38, 11:41, any one of which would have earned Bridget a medal in the El Camino League 3200m championships!
Bridget finished in sixth place, earning All-American status (the top eight finishers in the national outdoor track championships are All-Americans).
This accomplishment completes an impressive first year in college for Bridget:
- All-American 10000m (outdoor)
- All-American 5000m (indoor)
- Academic All-American (cross country; track has not yet been awarded)
- NCAA Cross Country team championship (fifth runner on varsity team)
Here is the write up on the first day of NCAAs on the Hopkins web site.
Congratulations, Bridget! We are so very, very proud of you.
SEPTEMBER 2013
I was watching an early season SCVAL varsity girls cross-country race at Crystal Springs, when the Mountain View coach eased up next to me.
Mt. View Coach: “So, what year is your new girl?”
Me (thinking he probably meant Kelly, a freshman, but he could mean Sunny, who was a senior running in her first year of cross after coming out for the track team): “Which girl are you asking about?”
Mt. View Coach: “Your girl up front with Melissa (Reed, a real stud and returning all-CCS athlete).”
Me: “Oh, that’s Bridget Gottlieb. She’s a senior.”
Mt. View Coach: “A senior? Is she a transfer student?”
Me, looking over at him: “No, she has been here for all four years.”
Mt. View Coach: (Looks at the course for a while, puzzled, can’t believe it, then…) “What the heck happened???”
Me: “She did the work.”
Many times, we are put into boxes based upon expectations of us–what we expect of ourselves, what others expect of us. It’s really easy to think that we are only as good at something as we are today:
- I’m a A/B/C student.
- I’m not that good at math.
- I won’t be fluent in Spanish.
- I’m not a great runner.
It’s easy to be put in a box and it’s easy to accept being there. Accepting the status quo is the path of least resistance.
But you don’t have to stay in that box.
One of the remarkable things about Bridget’s progress is that she was not one of those runners that started blowing people away her first day. Bridget is a talented athlete, yet her real gifts are mental and emotional. She has an mental and emotional capability to work hard, consistently and persistently, for a sustained period of time, towards an elusive and uncertain goal. Bridget has grit. (What is grit? Here is an introduction to grit.)
Check out Bridget’s results as a sophomore, junior and senior for MVXC:
Finish at De Anza League Championships
- 2011: 10th
- 2012: 12th
- 2013: 1st
Ranking in CCS
- 2011: Unranked
- 2012: Unranked
- 2013: 4th
Crystal Season Best Times
- 2011: 20:13
- 2012: 20:02
- 2013: 17:37
When she came back for her senior year of cross-country, Bridget was literally unrecognizable–the Mountain View coach had no idea this was the same girl that had run for Monta Vista the past three years! Bridget remade herself; she did not accept that 10th in league was good enough for her or what defined her ability.
What Bridget accomplished was not easy. There was no quick solution. She invested years of work into running; Bridget has run more miles than the number of days she has been alive. Bridget sought out help from Bree Lambert, her coaches, from her friends to run with–and she helped others along the way too. There were frustrating periods and joyous periods along the path. It took years to have what the Mountain View coach thought was an overnight success!
Ultimately, sustained effort resulted in great success for Bridget, both at Monta Vista and now in college.
Dedicated, persistent effort can make any of us unrecognizable. Think about your first year taking a foreign language, say Spanish. For most people, learning a new language is not easy. Now imagine that for four years, you invested one to two hours every day in dedicated Spanish practice. Now think about how much better your Spanish would be. Now, I can’t guarantee that we could drop you into Madrid and you would be able to pass for a Spaniard! But I can guarantee you would speak Spanish much better than you did four years ago! And I can guarantee that if you went back to your eighth grade Spanish teacher, he would be amazed–he would not recognize your Spanish ability.
And I think that if you imagine how good you would be at Spanish if you worked at Spanish for two hours per day for four years, you would agree that I’m probably right. You’d be a lot better at Spanish! How much better may be hard to say, but you would be much, much better!
Running is the same. I can’t guarantee that no matter how hard you work, that you will get to the Olympics, or achieve what Bridget achieved, or even if you would make the Monta Vista Varsity team. I can guarantee that you would amaze yourself, if you put in the sustained effort. You would amaze the people who know you now, when they see you run in a year or two or three. I can guarantee that if you choose this as a goal and you put yourself out there and seek out the human connections with your teammates, and run hundreds of miles with some great people, you’ll enjoy the journey and make friendships and memories that will last. And be a lot faster than you are today.
Be persistent. Be the best you can be. Don’t let people tell you what you can’t do. Stay away from the people who tell you what you can’t do and seek out the people who will help you be better than you are now, people that will help you be great. Don’t settle for what is easy, go for what is amazing. Believe, be gritty, work hard…and come back next XC season and the season after and see if the rest of MVXC will recognize you!
