Courtney Baker - Women's Cross Country
Courtney Baker is a junior captain of the women’s cross country team. She is pursuing degrees in chemical and biomedical engineering.
Of all the benefits of running, I think the biggest thing I have
taken away from joining the cross country team has been self
confidence. In order to be successful in such a grueling sport, you
have to believe in yourself, even when your body is telling you
that there is absolutely no way that you can run that last mile, or
complete another interval, or run until your legs become numb at
the end of a race. Since joining the varsity cross country team, I
have learned quite quickly that these distracters become
incomparable to the competition and drive to do well.
Not too surprisingly, this confidence I have gained from running has made me successful on and off the trails, and definitely been a factor in leadership roles and successes I have found around campus. As a student, my confidence has shaped how I approach my schoolwork. I can look at a problem set and know that I have the capability to solve it as opposed to the temptation to give up and say that it is impossible. I have learned that how any problem is approached drastically changes the outcome, and the majority of success is attitude. I am a strong believer in the phrase, “you are what you believe you are,” and cross country has only emphasized this even further.
In addition to the skills I have developed as a team leader, I have thoroughly enjoyed being a member of such an awesome group. My team is passionate, funny, charismatic, quirky, enthusiastic, caring and so much fun to hang out with. Everyone is dedicated to the sport and being a student athlete. I consider myself lucky to be grouped with such amazing and talented people. Although cross country is a very individual sport, there is an amazing amount of teamwork needed to pace off each other during races, run our workouts together so that everyone is improving and encourage each other to keep going.
Furthermore, running on the team has allowed me to compete in many interesting parts of the country, such as New York, Atlanta, and Chicago. It is always fun to compete in different parts of the country because it makes running so much more dynamic.
As our team prepares for our upcoming races towards the end of the season, I can easily say that I am proud to be captain of the Carnegie Mellon cross country team.