Former Xavier College Prep runner Jessica Tonn will be writing a weekly blog (schedule permitting) for Arizona Milesplit. While at Xavier Jessica won 2 Cross Country State Titles and 10 Track and Field State Titles winning the 1600 and the 3200 all four years. Jessica also qualified for Foot Locker Nationals all four years finishing with a top 10 finish her junior year.
Jessica holds the Arizona freshman (10:37.23) and sophomore (10:30.23) record in the 3200 and the sophomore record in the 1600 (4:50.42) which is also an Arizona All Time #2 mark. She also has the Arizona #3 all time mark of 10:25.85 in the 3200 and ran a 10:24.47 for 2 miles.
Check back weekly to read JTonn's Milesplit Blog!!
High School Track PR's : College Track PR's
1600: 4:50.42 1500: 4:23.64 (outdoor)
3200: 10:25.85 3,000: 9:10.16 (indoor)
800: 2:14.70 5,000: 15:54.90 (outdoor)
2 Mile: 10:24.57 10,000: 34:41.68 (outdoor)
BLOG ENTRY #2
Stanford Girls Team At Camp
The word “team” typically denotes a group of people with different strengths or talents collaborating to achieve a goal. Now although the definition of team is rather resolute, there is a large spectrum on which this word “team” can land. At some point in our lives, we all find ourselves as members of various teams whether they are more temporary or permanent. An example of a temporary team may be the group in which you were assigned to complete a class project, or similarly, a task force team in the workplace set to finalize an important venture. More permanent examples of a team could be your immediate family and of course, your cross country/ track & field team.
Now, I must digress and let you in on something that you may not know about me. I am a total “foodie.” I am completely enthralled by food – the preparation of food, how food gets to my plate, the inspiration behind a dish, and my belief that each chef is an architect, constructing a work of art each time they assemble a plate of food. Okay, so what the heck does this have to do with the above paragraph talking about teams and teamwork? Well, I am now going to attempt to present what may be a rather abstract analogy: each team is like a baking recipe (to the boys and men that may be reading this, bare with me on this one!).
To do this, I am going to focus on a more permanent example of a team– the running team/group to which you may belong. Each team is truly like a family; every member of said team has an important role, and without each person, the team is not complete. It may be dysfunctional at times and you may butt heads every so often, but without those challenges you would never know how strong you are as a unit. Just like a simple baking recipe, each ingredient, no mater how small or large the amount of each ingredient may be, serves an important role in the outcome of the product.
So, in a typical baking recipe, let’s take a classic cake recipe, dry and wet ingredients such as white sugar, butter, eggs, vanilla extract, all-purpose flour, baking powder, milk and salt are added together alternatively until all ingredients are blended into a mixing bowl. After the batter is mixed to the desired smooth consistency, it is poured into a cake pan and baked to delicious perfection, hopefully. Now let’s break this down…
The dry ingredients in this baking recipe (the sugar, flour, baking powder and salt) are the foundation and secure the structure of the cake and ensure that it holds together throughout the baking process. This represents the veterans on your team – the seniors, fifth year seniors, or pros that were on the team while you were being recruited and the ones you later joined on the roster. They are the base and have been through arguably everything you have gone through thus far in your career and are going to go through. Go to them for guidance and use them as resources, because sometimes they are the best bet!
On the flipside, the wet ingredients (the butter, eggs, vanilla extract and milk) are added to the dry ingredients until the mixture binds together. These wet ingredients can symbolize the new members of a team (the recruits/ in-coming freshmen or transfers), or even the people who have been on the team but are beginning to find their roles within the group. They bring added freshness, a sense of exciting uncertainty and invigorating energy. Without the wet ingredients, the dry ingredients cannot do their job. The wet ingredients are needed to make a consistent and stable end product.
Now, of course, it is more complicated than this. Each ingredient, whether it is a wet or dry ingredient, has a specific role. The sugar and vanilla extract bring the sweetness; these ingredients represent the people on the team that add that much-needed joy, love, and agreeableness. They are the ones that lift someone up when they may be having a down day. They are the jokers, the ones that create the laughter and smiles, and are the ones that make going to practice fun and worth it. When I think about my own team, I couldn’t imagine practicing or racing without the girls that bring these qualities day in and day out.
Unquestionably, each team and every practice can’t be sweet all the time because that would get old really, really fast. This is where the pinch of salt comes in; the sugar has to be balanced out by something savory. The individuals characterized by the pinch of salt are crucial to a team’s success. They are the badasses, the ones that are consistent day in and day out because they have that end goal on their mind. They enjoy the process and the fun times at practice, of course, but they enjoy practicing and winning alongside their teammates even more. The sugar and salt in this recipe compliment each other beautifully and maintain the stability and uniformity of the batter [the team].
Although added in a small amount, baking soda gives rise to the cake. These are the few individuals who truly enhance the program because of their relentless dedication, care, and total commitment. They lead by example by doing all the little things right because they really want to and because they love what they are doing. They are the ones that the youngsters and even some of the veterans look up to. They don’t need to be the oldest or the individuals that have been on the team the longest, but their presence and leadership is indispensible.
I hope you are all thinking that I have left some very important people out – the staff. These are your coaches, your assistant coaches, and your trainers, massage therapists, doctors, etc. A.K.A. the ones that do all the hard work behind the scenes. They are the mixer and the mixing bowl, binding everything together and preserving the equilibrium and consistency of the mixture before it is placed in the oven and put to the test. They are also the cake pan, providing the support needed while you are put to the test. They are there for you because they love their job and they love seeing their program, but ultimately you, succeed and flourish. You could not do anything without them because they are the rock. Yes, you will leave them behind when you move on to the next step in your life or running career, but they will keep remixing the batter each year because they love what they do.
So in this very far-fetched analogy I hope you have come to realize that you are important. No matter what your current role on your team may be: whether you are the team captain, the National Champion, the All-American, the freshman, the recently injured, or the one almost on the travel squad, you have a role and you will always have a role so long as you are a member of the team. So when things are getting tough and you don’t feel like you can fight for yourself anymore, fight for the other ingredients in the bowl with you, because if you do, you all can make a pretty darn good tasting cake, or win a few championships. ;)
Until next week,
Jess (jtonn92@stanford.edu)
