Auburn High School
My most memorable meet has to be Mobile Meet Of Champions 2015. I had a huge PR, and on the way I had my teammates telling me I had to surge on the backstretch to win my heat. After I finished a I had my great friends greet me, and I could hear the PA talking about my shoe color scheme, so that made me laugh a little bit. Mobile is such a great place to race and UMS Wright's facility is such a calming atmosphere. I've always enjoyed racing there.
My biggest competition would be Jesse Owens 2014. Moulton produces some fast times every year, multiple times a year, so going in I knew I needed to be able to hang with a quick chase pack. The most memorable thing from that race is when a good friend of mine that I met at Brevard Running Camp that summer was next to me during the race. About 500 yards from the snake hills, I hear a voice to my right. "Art Loeb" it said. My friend Michael from Brevard was referring to a run at camp where we all had to run up a mountain, and we did it together. He could tell who it was in front of him due to my form and that motivated me to work with him for the rest of the race, and PR big.
The high school accomplishment that stands out to me the most is probably the fact that I overcame a lot of "what if's" my sophomore and senior year. Whether it be moving from Corner High School to Auburn early on, or breaking out in indoor of my senior year, I feel like the odds have been stacked against me regularly and I do what I can to overcome it. "What if Hayden doesn't race well?" or "What if he has a bad summer?", those are questions that have been asked of me and that I've asked myself. The older I get the more I answer "I will give quality effort into accomplishing a goal. My goal might not be the one others set for me but If I reach my personal goal, I will answer the questions I ask myself. That's what matters."
Coach Dan Norton is someone that I hold in very, very high regard. When I first moved to Auburn, Norty saw that I was a two miler at 14 years old, and allowed me to pursue the 5k and 3200M distances. He didn't, and I didn't know that at 17 I would be a middle-distance guy that's been injured half of his career. So I don't regret putting in high mileage summers during my younger years that eventually led to injury. I learned from it, figured out what worked for me, and did it. Coach Norton made the changes for me in workouts, and tailors things to individuals quite well. I can never thank him enough for that.
The most difficult obstacle I had to overcome was not fulfilling my potential earlier in my career. I watched a lot of my teammates run the same workouts I did and run at big meets and hit big times, and I wasn't. So it was hard to see my work not come to fruition at first, but the more I relaxed, let the race come to me, and mixed aerobic endurance with anaerobic endurance during track season, things started to pan out.
I will miss my team, friendships within the running community, the grueling but enjoyable workouts on Wayne Murphy Track. I'm going to miss racing people I consider my friends. Teams like Hoover, Mountain Brook, Vestavia Hills, James Clements, and many more, are some of the most stand up athletes and individuals I know. Alabama has some really volatile young talent, and at the same time they couldn't be more humble about it. Most of all, I'll miss Coach Norton carrying around a bag of popcorn or jellybeans around school every time I see him.
I would say that if you plan on becoming a middle distance runner, and you want to run cross country in the fall, do it. If you use your skill set and play to your strengths, then you can be a very valuable asset to your coach in the spring AND the fall. The advice I have is if you do run cross, DO NOT conduct your full training like the 5k and 3200 guys. Yes you need to put in miles, yes you need to do the things that make you successful, but with mid-distance it's all the little things. You can't just live in the gym 4 or 5 times a week and build up anaerobic endurance, because that will turn into aerobic inconsistency, otherwise known as "out of shape". On the contrary you can't just log miles either or you won't have the leg speed and the muscle tone to power you through a 4, an 8 ,or a 16 like you want. It's a tough mix between the two. You have to be smart with mileage. It's the QUALITY NOT THE QUANTITY especially for people with injury history. Concerning weight lifting : explosive, tiring, and you're looking for tone, not just mass. All of these things I learned the hard way and it took truly 8 seasons of XC, Indoor, and Outdoor to fully figure this out.
I plan on attending Birmingham-Southern College this fall and major in economics. I will be racing for the Panthers and hope to continue the friendships I have made to the collegiate level.
I would like to say thank you to Coach Willis, Coach Rice, and Coach Connor of Corner High School for taking me from a small child in elementary school to a freshman in high school. I would like to thank Coach Norton, Coach Oliver, Coach Hutchinson, Coach Smith, and shoutout to Coach Chris Brandt for letting me look at the alabamarunners.com page during class for the previous week's meet results around the state. Coach Norton has been with me through some tough experiences but it was sweet to finally see the work come to a pleasing result. I credit him for that and I thank him for what he's done for the program. I would like to thank my parents, my teammates, my friends, and the people who told me to keep on when I wanted to quit. If it weren't for them I wouldn't have my story to tell or my experiences to share.