Hello! My name is Eli Spence, and I currently run for Shippensburg Area High School.

I began my running career in 8th grade where I ran two miles a day (at most) during the few months that contained my cross country season. After the season culminated I stopped running until soon before the next season started.

Being focused on mountain biking at the time I viewed running as purely a social activity where I could have fun with friends. Soon my natural competitiveness, lack of money for mountain biking parts, and recognition of my natural talent caused me to begin taking running somewhat seriously.

By my sophomore year I was committed to running seriously but didn’t know how to push myself in training to the results I wanted. To put it simply, I wasn’t ready for the long, hard effort that every cross country race holds.

Come the end of sophomore year I began to click off forty mile weeks, and worked up to fifty mile weeks which resulted in a decent junior season, and a 5th place district III finish. However, days before the state meet I began to notice a nagging foot pain that progressively became worse up until the day of the meet. This foot pain was the first of three injuries I have struggled with since the end of the cross country season.

These three injuries were extremely hard to work through, but I came out of the experiences with a newfound understanding of my body, an established strength routine, and a motivation to push myself to the best fo my abilities. Although I am extremely excited to see wha the upcoming cross country season holds, I can’t help but look even further into the future where I plan to run cross country and track in college. I plan on running for a California school or other western schools in Colorado, Oregon, Utah, or Arizona. The reason for this choice being my love for all of the western states.

I am very excited to to share my running journey with all of you over the coming summer, and can’t wait to see the results this fall.

Train Smart. Run Fast.

Eli Spence