It’s always a big encouragement to see how far your hard work and dedication carries you. After putting hours, days, weeks, and maybe even years into something, seeing results can be extremely impactful. For one hard working student-athlete in particular, dedication has brought him large amounts of success, starting in middle school all the way to his senior year.

Hunter Krasa discovered a major passion of his through running with his parents. He started training seriously in the 7th grade when he joined the middle school cross country team, and later, in 8th grade, ran a half marathon with his father. His passion kick started his journey towards the success of his self-improvement.

Krasa puts a significant amount of time into his training. Depending on the need for training during the season, he maxes out running 50-70 miles per week. Workouts are typically broken up into a few types including endurance based, longer runs, and recoveries to help the body rest. Krasa has been very successful in his races this season, and is pleased with how his work shaped him over the years.

“I’m pretty happy with how the cross country season has been,” reflected Krasa. “I’ve been consistently nicking off my PR (Personal Record) times, and I have been chipping it down to where I’m at now. I’ve finished relatively successful in races that I’ve competed in.”

A while back, Krasa took first in Sectionals. Sectionals consisted of 12 teams consisting of around 7 people, which brought about 80 runners. Recently, Krasa reflects on his race in Woodridge in California. Footlocker, or West Regionals consisted of runners from 12 different states, bringing in 250 racers all together. Early in his racing years, Krasa watched this race from the sidelines with his teammates, comparing themselves, and dreaming about what it would be like to run alongside the amazing runners. At this point, he now got to be one of the amazing runners.

“We were looking at these guys like our idols, then I got to race in that race and be that person that everybody else is staring at. I thought that was pretty cool,” Krasa stated.

Prior to the race, Krasa ranked 34th, but ended up placing 18th among all the runners. His time was a 15:15 for a 5k course. Going in, he hoped that he would place within the top 10 to qualify for nationals, but is still excited about where he ranked.

“Even though I didn’t make that goal, I was still able to get 18th, hit a PR, and drop from the place where I believe I was ranked,” stated Krasa. “Just the sheer chaos and being able to do that among the chaos of the race, I think that was definitely one of the big success moments.”

As far as struggles go, they can be major influencers in preventing us from reaching success. For Krasa, the balance of training and making sure he is getting the right things done are things that challenge him. Making sure that he is able to perform at a high caliber isn’t something that comes easily; it requires a lot of training, mentally and physically. It takes time and practice to get where you hope to be.

“Once you are kind of close to the top, every little thing can make or break your race,” Krasa states. “Determining what those things are that I need to fix and then going out and doing them has kind of been a little bit of a guessing game.”

Getting over the challenges are not always easy either. Krasa stated that there are times where he thinks that if he just tripped, fell, and didn’t finish, no one would blame him. But he doesn’t give up by taking the easy way out.

“It’s just kind of the idea that you know sooner or later you will finish and you will be really happy with where you finished, or maybe not. But sooner or later, it will be over,” Krasa stated.

Krasa stated that his biggest influencers over his racing journey have been his coaches and teammates from his freshman and sophomore seasons. He appreciated how his coaches didn’t just teach him what he needed to do, but why he needed to do those things. He also appreciated the fun and the atmosphere of his early teams, and he carries the energy from them with him.

“Having that kind of influence on me definitely changed and kind of shaped the way I became as a runner now,” Krasa said.

Overall this season has taught Krasa to persevere through all the difficulty. He reflected on one race in particular that he was sick during, which caused him to perform poorly. But despite the things that slow him down, he knows that his hard work has granted him opportunities such as college acceptances and scholarships, which makes him realize that he is more successful than he was previously. So when problems arise, he keeps going, knowing that perseverance will reward him.

Krasa is planning on taking a few weeks off to let his body recover before he starts training for the 2020 spring track season. Then he plans to get himself back into good shape, ramp up his miles, and strengthen a lot. This determination will carry him far into the track season, as well as his future in running.