Shahzeb Rashid '22 Recruiting Profile

The sport of running I have always enjoyed, when I was younger I would race my dad and friends and just loved to compete. My goal would be to be the best I could be and to win. There would be times where It would seem like there was no hope, I would not be able to finish the race for whatever the reason may be but I never let that stop me. I pushed and continued till the end. I started to run competitively in high school, my first year of XC and Track took place when I was a sophomore. I never had ran a 5k in my life before sophomore year I did not know what to expect going into the season. I took things day by day worked on bettering myself and training to become faster. I ran open races for my first couple of races but always had the mindset to train harder and to get faster I did just that. I ended the season going from 21st on the team to 10th. Track season is where I had the best display of what I could do. I had never ran a mile race or an 800 . I went  into track with the same mindset that I had in XC to win to become faster. I ran only 3 official 800 races because of Covid-19. I made all my 3 800m races count, that season my times  were 2:16,2:12,2:08. I was able to get faster each race that I took part in and show what I was capable of that is also when I realized that I was an 800m runner. To never have run the 800m and than come out and be able to run that fast I knew what I needed to focus on and prove that I had what it takes to run at the collegiate level. For my mile my goal was to break 5. 2 races, it took me my 2nd race ever for the mile to break 5. My first ever race I went 5:03, when I saw that I missed breaking 5 by 3 seconds, I used that to drive me to motivate me to put in more work and train harder and I was able to showcase what I trained for when my second mile race I went 4:56. I have a really strong drive to improve as a runner as a person and once I have a goal for myself I do not stop until I achieve that goal. Once I achieve that goal I do not stop there, I tell myself that now I need to go faster to move forward, I reached one goal on to the next, to go even faster, train even harder. 

My goal is to run at the collegiate level to further myself as a runner to train to be one of the best. I have had some setbacks I will admit, I have been injured that caused me to not have a full xc season this season but I did not let that stop me. I have things to prove to myself and get faster than I ever was before. I am a scholar athlete, I train hard in class and harder on the track. School and Running go hand in hand, both of those things are very important to me and so I work everyday to better myself as as student as well a runner and as a human overall. I will always train hard and no matter how hard the challenge I am presented with I will show my abilities and overcome that challenge. I will surpass my limits, train everyday, overcome any and every challenge in hopes to one day run at the collegiate level and showcase my training and work ethic on the track and the classroom.