Have you ever tried joining the MLA Girl’s Cross Country team? Today’s featured athlete is Leslie Gonzalez from the girl’s cross-country team. 

Leslie Gonzalez is a Junior and has participated in cross-country for 2 years. Her best running record would be 24 minutes and 1 .05 seconds, which is about 8min/mile. She joined the team because she loves to run and running helps her distract herself from everything that feels wrong also because she likes to run alongside her teammates and friends. Her friends and her coaches motivate her to keep pushing to not give up but also she motivates herself by telling herself “You are almost done”. 

One of the coaches, Mr.Rizo, nominated Leslie as the MVP. According to Mr.Rizo Leslie has improved in the aspect of leadership, when first joining the team she started very shy but after all, ended up being like the captain. In the last competition that they had Leslie was hurt and he recommended her to not run because it was a 3-mile run, however, she told him that she could do it and that she was going to give it her all. According to Mr. Rizo, she did give her all and finished the race but also almost ended up crying because after finishing the race the pain hit her. Being hurt didn’t stop her from doing her thing. Leslie said that cross-country has made her grow as a person. It helped her motivate herself and maintain a healthy strong side of herself. 

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