I KNOW EXACTLY WHERE I WANT TO BE

This is My Journey From the Back of the Pack to the Front

Champions' TriBUne 10/15/2019 8:51:00 AM

Champions' TriBUne Archive

By: Lindsay Walton

Champions' TriBUne is a special feature through Baylor Athletics that gives you the student-athlete's perspective and the chance for them to share their own story. Lindsay Walton, a senior from Peoria, Ill., came to Baylor as a walk-on three years ago and has developed into the team's top runner with third-place finishes at the Bear Twilight and Texas A&M Invitational. A business major, she has earned Academic All-Big 12 honors each of the last two season. Baylor will host the Big 12 Cross Country Championships Nov. 2 at Cottonwood Creek Golf Course:

My freshman year, I came to Baylor as a walk-on. There were 14 freshman girls, and 10 of us were walk-ons. So, it would have been easy to feel like I was just another number. Seniors that impacted me were Maggie Montoya, Peyton Thomas, Maddie Zimmerman and Alex Davis. I knew that I wasn't going to come in and be slow for four years. I wanted more than that. I wanted to be as fast as Maggie and run so hard that I pass out like Peyton. Coach (Todd) Harbour told us in our first meeting about all the walk-ons before us who made huge impacts on the program. I am not a floater, even though I knew my place, and my pace wasn't helping our team at the time.

Freshman cross country season, I was one of the slowest girls on the team. I didn't travel to any of the far-away meets, and my season was over before postseason began because I wasn't fast enough. I observed Maggie training hard in practice and other girls making an impact in practice. I saw Hana Marsheck, one of my fellow freshman walk-ons, work up to be on the travel squad that year. I was honored just to be given a shot to run with these girls, but I wanted more. I trained hard and would hang on as long as I could in workouts.

I got my first small taste of success when I started to see improvement during track season of my freshman year. It drove me to run more than I ever had the following summer. Coming in from high school, I had only run maybe 35 miles a week, max. Over that summer before my sophomore year, I ran about 50 miles per week.

Sophomore year, the first practice back at Cameron Park was a mileage run. I remember running the whole thing with our top girls, who were not expecting me to be up with them. Maybe I shouldn't have run that hard on an easy mileage run. I was certainly going harder than my teammates, but I wanted to prove my potential. I made the travel squad my sophomore year, traveled to big meets and ran with faster competition. I was in the back of the pack most of the time, if that, at these meets. I ran decent at Notre Dame, and then that next morning I had an amazing long run with Madi Johnston along Lake Michigan in Chicago. Madi and I ran 13 miles, which was the farthest I had ever ran and sped up the whole run. We finished with consistent sub-7-minute miles, which at the time was unheard of for us. That long run was a big moment for my running career, because it let me see the potential I had. We still, to this day, talk about that run. The Wisconsin meet my sophomore year was a nightmare. I finished second to last. I think my roster bio says something along the line of "top 300 at the Nuttycombe Invitational." Cringe. That season ended for me at the conference meet at UT. I ran well and PRed, but I was beat out of the top seven that went on to compete at regionals.

I wanted more. I wanted to be faster.

The summer before my junior year, I wanted to be a consistent top-5 runner on our team and see my times drop. I ran all summer and trained extremely hard. I was very motivated, knowing that there were opportunities and openings to make a difference on the top part of the team. My family is extremely supportive and wants this just as much as me. My dad ran as a walk-on at Indiana University, and my mom high-jumped there. They would bike next to me as I ran in the heat and humidity for an hour. My parents and sister even went out and biked next to me as I ran through the pouring rain one summer night. No one saw my potential and believed in me like my family. I worked up to running two 60-mile weeks by the end of the summer and came back in great shape.

Lindsay Walton

Coach (Jon) Capron was our new cross country coach, and I trusted him from my time working with him as a counselor at the summer Baylor Cross Country Camp after my freshman year. It's evident that Coach Capron cares about each of his runners. I came back junior year and scored at the Bear Twilight. It was a great race to solidify the value of my summer I had just come off of that year. My junior season felt like it was filled with underperformances, race-wise. I was faster than I had been in the past, but my times and races were not showing my fitness. I ran mediocre at Notre Dame. I did have a reprise of a good long run along the lakefront the next morning. Not quite as successful or memorable with Madi Johnston, who was out with an injury, but still good work. Wisconsin was terrible for me. I went out way too fast and raced horribly. Again at Big 12s, I felt like I underperformed. I was passed by two of my teammates in the last straightaway and had nothing left. I knew I was fast, I had potential and was fit, but was constantly underperforming. I finally made it to the end of a full season after being picked by Coach Cap to run at the regional meet.

Coach Cap told me that when he used to race, he wanted to stand on the line knowing that he did all the work and everything in his power to beat his competitors. If they still beat him, then great, but he didn't want anyone to cross the finish line before him because they out-worked him. I want that, too, but I also want to beat them. I probably won't beat them all, but I think it's a waste if I don't at least give it a shot.

Regionals was at the Texas A&M course. I knew it was my last race of the season, and I really wanted it. I trained so hard, did all the extra miles. I really, really wanted it, and it finally clicked. Regionals was a mudslide, a wet mess of a course. Exactly the conditions I needed. It played to my strong suits: ambition, grit and perseverance. That was the most fun I had racing up to that point. I went out hard and felt good. As we made the first turn into a foot-thick trail of mud, I knew it was my race. Passing the 1-kilometer mark, I knew I only had 5K left in my junior season, and I wasn't going to let it go to waste. I was ahead of my teammates who regularly beat me, but I was where I wanted to be. Seeing girls sliding and failing left and right, I couldn't help but think about how crazy fun this was. That is the definition of the spirit of cross country to me: running through horrible conditions, over thick mud, with a glob of runners in different colored jerseys surrounding you, fighting for your life and your team. I finished that race as Baylor's fourth runner, coming not far behind Sarah Antrich. That was a breakthrough race for me. Later, I found out that I had PRed by over 30 seconds, despite the terrible, muddy conditions.

Lindsay Walton

I came back in January to compete in indoor track for the first time ever. I was in great shape, but found out the week I returned that I had a stress reaction in my tibia. I dealt with that nagging injury throughout the rest of the school year, which only made me hungrier. This past summer, I knew what I needed to get done. I want to be the fastest runner for Baylor and lead our team in meets. I am not scared of any of the other girls on opposing teams, because I have been at every part of the pack. I started out in the back of the pack, as a straggler. I worked my way up past the middle of the pack, and now I belong toward the front of the pack. My coaches gave me a shot and believe in me, and God has kept me healthy for the most part, so I am going to give it all I can give.

I had my best summer of training yet, building on past summer mileages. I reached 60-65 with a certain ease and experience.

Bear Twilight, I PRed in the 4K by more than a minute. I beat Maggie Montoya's senior year Twilight time, and I ran seconds slower than Rachel Johnson's times. I got to share the race with my teammates, family and friends.

I didn't get here on my own. I am here directly because of my incredible support system. From freshman year, when Coach Harbour would play worship music as we ran intervals on the track as the sun was rising, to my parents who schedule their fall around my cross country meets. My teammates who pray for me, and also happen to be my best friends. I completely believe that God led me to Baylor. I am hesitant to shout the name of Jesus in times of joy like this, because so often He is forgotten in an injury. But, I also know that this is not of my own doing. I also believe in the power of prayer and the community Jesus has given me here. It is not often that you have coaches who let you know they are praying for you and are genuine about it, or teammates who love you like mine do.

I know exactly where I want to be and how I want to get there. I feel like I do not have pressure on me. I am not a superstar. I am a walk-on. No one expects me to be fast and run with the fastest girls in our conference. I doubt I will have the option to go pro after college. No one is incentivizing me with scholarship or medals to work hard. It's just me. And I am as ambitious at the front of the pack as I was behind the end of it.

Lindsay Walton