The Monta Vista cross-country team had the honor of hosting Desiree Davila for 24 hours. Desiree is one of the USA’s leading marathoners after finishing 2nd in the 2011 Boston Marathon, the highest finish by an American women in 18 years and the third fastest time EVER by an American woman. Desiree runs for the Hanson-Brooks project team in Michigan.
Desiree got to meet the entire MVXC family! On Tuesday night, Desiree had dinner with some of the XC moms and coaches (hosted by Matangi Rajamani—thanks so much for the great food!), and was able to answer questions about running and what it feels like to run at an elite level. For some of the mothers who are a little stunned by the way their daughters have embraced distance running, Desiree gave a very articulate explanation of what she loves about distance running, and was very inspirational to all of us.
On Wednesday, Desiree talked to the team for quite a while about her experiences in running, from a youth running, through high school in San Diego, college at Arizona State and now at the Hanson-Brooks team training for the Olympic Trials. Desiree took a lot of time talking about how she felt that much of the Hanson team is made up of perhaps less-heralded runners who decided to work hard, as a group, to achieve great things. Certainly, Desiree is a demonstration of the idea that hard work and teamwork over a long period of time will pay off with success. Desiree has been willing to make life-style choices that allow both a fulfilling life as well as exceptional athletic success, and she has remained committed to these choices in order to achieve her goals. Her message is very relevant to high school cross-country runners who balance academic goals, family responsibilities and growing up together with personal running goals.
One of the habits Desiree shared with us is that before every race, she writes down a race plan. Each segment of the plan stands alone so that she can continue to work on the plan no matter what happens, and she has a chance to be successful no matter what happens along the way. For example, she might write ‘pass at least one person in the last quarter mile’; Desiree can always try to accomplish that part of the plan whether she is running a strong race or not. By writing down the plan, even if she keeps it only to herself, there is some accountability to continue trying to succeed throughout the race. Coach Flatow told us that a good business plan is written the same way, so you don’t throw the plan out the window if the first month is bad. The idea of a written plan could apply not only to races or businesses, but also to terms at school or classes or a lot of other things in our life…so using a plan in running can be practice for using plans to help us through our lives.
That evening, we had a smaller dinner out with Desiree. Five members of the team wrote paragraphs on ‘why I want to go to dinner with Desiree,’ and these five had the opportunity to share dinner with her and talk more about running and life.
There are some photos up in the Gallery on Desiree’s visit.
Thanks, Desiree, for coming to see Monta Vista—you have a lot of new fans out here in Cupertino! We learned a lot. If you ever want to put on the purple and run for MV let us know, you have an open invitation!