A Run to Remember
On Oct. 14, junior cross country runner Aishling Callanan broke a seven-year-old record at the first Bay League preliminary meet of the season, which was hosted by Palos Verdes High School and was exclusive to teams from schools in the South Bay. Callanan placed first out of 32 other varsity cross country girls on the three-mile course, finishing with a time of 18:23.72, while the second place runner finished more than 10 seconds after her with a time of 18:37.16. The previous record, set by Amber Gore from Redondo Union High School back in 2014, was recorded to be 18:34 (Daily Breeze). Callanan has already accomplished one of her biggest personal goals for the season–getting a time under 17 minutes on a three-mile course, which she beat with a time of 16:37 at the Woodbridge Invitational Sweepstakes race on Sept. 18. Now, she hopes to qualify and compete at the state meet later in the season by continuing to keep up her top times. Callanan feels that her competitive nature drives her to continue accomplishing her goals to break more records and believes one of the best parts about running is seeing all the effort and preparation pay off.
“I did not even know the record time [beforehand], so I did not expect to break it,” Callanan said. “It is really exciting [to break the record]. Right when I finished, I felt really good [about the race] and when I heard that I broke it, I felt so proud.”
Callanan first discovered her love for running when she started playing soccer at age five. She began to compete in the Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District elementary school “fun runs”, which are fundraising events held to raise money by running. Callanan then ran competitively for her middle school’s cross country team and now runs for the varsity cross country team. Currently, she has been running cross country for six years and plans to continue in the future. Teammate and junior Madison Woodward recognizes the hard work that Callanan has put in throughout high school and looks forward to seeing what Callanan can accomplish in future races.
“Aishling has worked so hard to beat records this season,” Woodward said. “She runs a crazy amount everyday on top of the workouts we already do as a team. Running is very important to her and she has definitely put in the work for it. People can all look up to what Aishling has accomplished.”
Callanan is seen as a role model for many underclassmen on the team, one being sophomore Roxanne Rahimi. Rahimi hopes to grow as a runner and break records just as Callanan has. Rahimi is inspired by Callanan’s endurance and drive to continue to improve.“We are all so happy for [Callanan] and so proud of her,” Rahimi said. “We know that she works so hard [to achieve what she has today] and it is admirable. Everyone [on the team] supports each other, [and we inspire each other] to be the best we can be everyday.”
