By Elizabeth Goldman
Sports Editor
In the past month, Junior Dalia Frias has set new records for three track events: the 800 meter, 1600 meter, and the 3200 meter.
Frias set a new 5,000 meter record earlier this year and still holds the 3200 meter record for freshman. Now, she has set three more records, running the 800 meter, the 1600 meter and the 3200 meter with respective times of 2:10, 4:48 and 10:15.
“It feels awesome being able to break multiple records,” Frias said. “It really means a lot knowing that the people who set those records before me were such amazing athletes and it feels great to have such a strong legacy behind me.”
Despite her successes thus far, Frias is still fairly new to track having started her freshman year. Prior to Mira Costa’s summer program two years ago, Frias only ran during P.E. with Hermosa Valley’s track unit and monthly mile, which she neither loved nor hated, according to Frias.
“[In middle school], we had a track unit and [it was fun], so I knew I kind of liked running, but I didn’t really know what it was or how it worked,” Frias said. “But after the summer program freshman year, I knew that I liked it a lot.”
In March 2020, when schools shut down due to COVID-19, it created a challenging environment to continue running and training, according to Frias. Frias had her own training plan to follow, but did not have any team practices or races, which typically start in March.
“During early quarantine, when nothing was happening, it was really hard to see a future with running because there were no races and we were just running on our own,” Frias said. “But I knew that we would come out of it and I just had to keep training because it would be for the better.”
Frias runs almost daily, doing two workouts a week as well as longer runs of six or seven miles, with Sunday as a recovery day. According to Frias, recovery days between workouts are just as important as the workouts themselves. However, consistency is key to being a successful runner.
“The most important thing to becoming a good runner is consistency,” Frias said. “If you are consistent and keep adding a little bit of mileage each week, and you’re running at least a few days a week, you’ll definitely improve.”
Frias plans to continue running through both high school and college, as well as after, in some capacity. According to Frias, she has truly discovered a love for running.
“The most rewarding part of running is seeing all [of our] hard work and training pay off,” Frias said. “We run almost every day and do all [of] these different workouts that it feels so good to see that all pay off in a race.”
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