 |
Win sets up showdown for Bucks
NHS girls set for playoff game
After loss to Mac, Tigers set to close out
season
|
Running down anxiety |
NHS sophomore Sarah Boyd has battled anxiety
throughout the cross country season |
By B. Scott Anderson, Newberg
Graphic sports editor
E-mail Scott at banderson@eaglenewspapers.com
|
From a distance it looks as if it is
just another cross country season for Sarah Boyd.
The Newberg High School sophomore has won four meets, placed second
in two others and fourth in two more. On Thursday, she won her
second consecutive Pacific Conference district meet at Clackamas
Community College.
It would appear Boyd’s season has been nothing but rosy. However,
that isn’t the case. She’s been fighting an acute case of
competition anxiety.
 When she
enters races that feature scores of runners, she becomes anxious and
nervous. It gets worse when runners come from behind and challenge
her. She becomes so anxious, her body reacts.
“I don’t know exactly what it is,” she said. “I tend to vomit in
the middle of my races and gag. It has been that way in every big
meet. I just lose it when runners close in on me. I start to lose my
momentum I have.”
In her second race of the season on Sept. 16, Boyd, along with her
teammates, competed in the New Balance Invitational at Western
Oregon University. It’s a meet that boasted more than 100 runners
from around the state. Boyd, who placed ninth at the state meet last
season, bolted out to the lead and held a commanding advantage for
the majority of the race. However, with 800 meters to go, her
anxiety didn’t just creep up on her, it sprinted.
Bend’s Ashley Sol happened to be the vehicle of that anxiety. She
ran past Boyd and it triggered a reaction.
“I just started gagging and I just kind of lost it,” she said,
shaking her head. “That’s the only way I can say it, I guess.”
Boyd, however, was able to respond. She shook off the feelings and
wound up passing Sol to take second with a time of 19 minutes, 47.3
seconds.
Later this season, the cross country team traveled to Gresham to
compete in the 27th Annual Nike/Jim Danner Invitational, a race that
sees dozens of teams from Oregon, Washington and Canada compete. The
invitational is also home to more than 3,000 competitors, including
152 who competed in the Division 2 competition — Boyd’s race.
Boyd didn’t have an episode such as the one she had at the New
Balance meet. With the help of a sports psychologist, she was able
to fend off her anxiety. During the race, she repeated the word
“time” to herself to remind herself she’s running for a time, not a
place. With that mind set, Boyd finished fourth (19:24).
“It helped me to lose that feeling and I was able to finish really
well,” Boyd said. “We’re just getting me to focus more on my times
and splits rather than the other runners in the race.”
The Start
Boyd first started noticing her anxiety in middle school when she
was competing on a cross country team. The episodes led to her not
want to return to the team. Once she started cross country as a
freshman last year, the symptoms returned. At the state meet,
Newberg coach Bruce Sinkbeil said he noticed her symptoms with about
300 meters from the finish.
This year has been different, Sinkbeil said. He said Boyd would
start showing symptoms halfway through the race. At that point, the
symptoms started affecting Boyd’s performance.
Boyd, however, has been able to stave off the symptoms most of the
time. At last week’s Pacific Conference district meet, she got off
to her customary quick start and led by as many as a few hundred
meters throughout the race. But with a few hundred meters to go,
Tigard’s Ali Davis crept up on her. During the final 100 meters, the
two sprinted toward the finish where Boyd (19:12.20) edged Davis
(19:12.89).
“I thought it was good to see her respond at the end of the race
...,” Sinkbeil said. “I was glad that she was able to do it.”
On Track
Boyd is also a competitor on Newberg’s track team, where she
competes in the 1,500 and 3,000. Throughout her short track career,
Boyd has yet to show any signs of the symptoms that plague her
during the cross country season.
Part of it, Boyd said, is because she can see where everybody else
is running on the track. On cross country courses, it’s nearly
impossible for runners to tell where other competitors are due to
the landscape of the course. Also, all the tracks are the same,
whereas cross country courses can vary radically from course to
course.
“During track season, it’s so easy to see the times because every
track is the same,” she said. “But in cross country, you don’t know
where the other runners exactly are and how they compare to you.”
Before Boyd enters her track season, she has one cross country meet
remaining this season — Saturday’s state meet at Lane Community
College in Eugene. The physical tools are there for Boyd. She knows
it.
“It’s going to be more mentally challenging than anything,” she
said.
Sinkbeil knows it, too.
“I always feel like my job is to take pressure off them, not put it
on them,” he said of his runners. “So I just try and keep things as
they are. There’s nothing you can do to get better in that week in
between the district meet and state meet, but you’ve got to
maintain. Your conditioning is there; you’ve just got to coax it
out.” |
|
From
Nov. 1, 2006, Newberg Graphic
Click Here to Subscribe |
|
|
