Every month, we recognize two student athletes, one male, one female. This month we recognize freshman Brenden Rosenthal.
This is Rosenthal’s first year participating in cross country for Birmingham Community Charter High School and he plans to participate in track and field in the spring. At first, he tried to be in soccer, but eventually found cross country a good way to get into high school athletics.
Q: How long have you been running for cross country?
A: I’ve actually never done cross country before but in middle school during P.E. when we did mile times, I always had very good mile times.
Q: What are you excited for in this season?
A: Probably to explore the different kinds of races. I know we can race in Pierce College, but I know there are beach races. There is a bunch of others.
Q: What is your main source of inspiration?
A: I’d probably say, my history. I grew up in a family with a bunch of athletic people, like my dad played high school baseball. My sister is a part of teen softball. My cousin plays baseball and he is really good at baseball. I’d probably say, it’s how I don’t want to be just a random kid. I want to be someone who is athletic. I want to be someone who sticks out from other people. And always, my biggest source of inspiration was just my past and how I want to be greater than anyone else.
Q: What challenges did you face in this sport?
A: A really big challenge, and every cross country runner will agree with me on this, is you can train your body but you can never train your mind. In cross country you have to push yourself to the limits to complete the race because you have to tell your mind to keep going. You have to push yourself very hard for the entire race. And there are 3 miles, 6 miles, 9 miles. That entire time you have to keep the same pace and pass the people that are still going faster. So, I’d say probably, your mind and how far you can go.
Q: What are the goals you want to achieve in cross country?
A: Probably just to get first place in a bunch of races, improve my mile time from 7 minutes to less than 4 minutes and be faster. Those are the most important goals but overall, just to have fun.
Q: What do you think is your biggest accomplishment so far?
A: So far, I’d probably say my mile times. They’re 7 minutes to 7 minutes 30 seconds. I’ve just been fast and I was able to get some pretty good mile times for my age.
Q: What is your favorite memory in this sport?
A: I’d probably say the first time I went there, I had to run in full black baggy jeans and a baggy shirt and it sucked. But I remember when I got the shorts and athletic shirt it was so much better.
Q: How did the weather affect you doing cross country?
A: I’d say the weather is a really big factor. Because I think that cold races are better than hot races. For example, for the past week we had to stay in the MPR because of inclement weather and it was really hot and really unsafe to get out. And on Monday I had a run in 108 (degrees) which was really not good and I think that it really affected the performance.
Q: What plans do you have for the future in this sport?
A: I don’t really know right now. I just started it and I’m doing very well but I’m going to do whatever the future has for me.
