My favourite runs are alone in the mountains

My name is Jack Beaumont and the biggest motivation for me is not winning races or competitions.

It’s the high I get when I’m out on the road, track or trails by myself or with friends.

Running calms me and everything feels so peaceful. I’ve been running nearly all my life, so it’s a daily routine for me. If I miss a few days of running I definitely notice it.

My favourite runs are alone in the mountains, that’s were I enjoy running at its best, without having to worry about things around me.

The air is fresh and the ground is soft. Whenever I’m up in the mountains I love every minute of it.

I can go running for hours and it can feel like minutes, I almost zone out and go into a daydream. 

All the stress and worry of life seems to vanish, which is the biggest reason why I love running.

In August of 2017 I began college at the University of North Texas in Denton, a suburb outside of Dallas.

It is a large University with over 40,000 students. I run for the track and cross-country team and am studying a bachelor in Kinesiology, which is similar to sports science, and minoring in Spanish.

I have had a great first year and love the student athlete life in the United States.

My days can be busy but I have enjoyed every moment so far.

A usual day starts at 6am where I prepare for 6:30am practice - we normally drive somewhere to a trail or park and train for a couple of hours, on Mondays and Wednesday we would come back to the gym and do our strength training following the run.

After training I would eat breakfast and start my first class at 11am and usually finish classes by 2-3pm. Two or three times a week I go for another run in the afternoon, normally shorter around 30-40 minutes.

After that I would have an hour or so of tutoring and then the rest of the night is for free time. 

During winter we run cross country and I had a great cross-country season, running very consistently.

We began with a few smaller meets and then had conference championships and regionals where I ran my best races.

Over winter break I traveled the United States and trained very hard for indoor track season, which unfortunately was reduced to only one race as I became injured.

I was also ineligible for outdoor track season, therefore from January to the end of the semester I did not compete. I still trained hard with the team but I was not nearly as consistent as I had been through my cross-country season.

I am currently back in the United States working at a boy’s summer camp and training well for cross country.

I hope to qualify for the national championships this year. With my degree I am not still set on what I want to do, but I am taking the general track through kinesiology so it opens me up to many options.

In the two years I was in the Academy Southland programme I learned many things that have helped me throughout the process of coming to the United States and during my time here.

Patience was a key thing I learned, especially when it came to decide on where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do. The academy worked with me to make the right choice for my career as an athlete and student.

The team building work we did in the Academy applies so well here in the United States, even in a sport like running. It is a real team sport in America, especially in cross country as we run as a team and placings are done on team points.

The environment in the U.S. is similar to what we were offered in the Academy too. We have strength coaches, nutritionist, sports physiology coaches - all of which were offered in the academy - therefore I find working with them is great in the United States because I am used to doing that from my years in the Academy.

Being in the United States is a great goal that I have achieved. It is a stepping stone towards my larger athletics and academic goals in life. The coaching and team that I train with is hopefully going to allow me to become an even better athlete each year.

My goal is to get closer to the Olympic standards but I also want to continue mountain running after college and win a world championship.