Grace Lovejoy

Palmer doesn’t get much time to talk to his teammates during races, but trys his best to keep them motivated. “Usually during the raves, [we] don’t really talk that much. So before the race we all know who we are supposed to run with and we just try to focus [and] keep up with them as much as we can,” Palmer said.

Senior Logan Palmer started his athletic journey playing soccer during his eighth grade and freshman year. During those two years, he dislocated his knee twice while playing and had to quit soccer to let his knee heal. While Palmer attended physical therapy, Palmer found that he enjoyed running. In his sophomore year, Palmer decided to join the McIntosh cross country team to build up his stamina.

“I couldn’t really run or do anything, my knee was so weak and I had to do physical therapy to get back into [running,] I just wanted to keep running as much as possible,” Palmer said. 

Practices with the cross country team was a lot for Palmer to get used to compared to running for soccer and physical therapy.

“I remember I threw up [during the] first practice. It was pretty brutal at the start, but then I started to enjoy it,” Palmer said.

While cross country is a team sport, runners still compete against themselves and their teammates to improve their personal record. 

“[Cross country] has a strange kind of balance. You’re always trying to get a personal record, but at the same time, you’re trying to support your teammates and work together. That conflict can be tough,” Palmer said.

This year he is serving as the captain for the varsity team. Palmer’s leadership role on the team has taught him how to bring a group of people together to achieve a common goal.

“[Leadership] has taught me how to motivate others. It really just showed me that everybody is different and how difficult it can be to get a group of people to all want to do the same thing.” Palmer said.

Palmer has not only learned about leadership, but he has also learned new skills from working with his teammates. 

“[Being on the team has made me] more open-minded because when we are running for sometimes hours, we learn a lot about each other and [I] just got to learn a lot of new perspectives,” Palmer said.

Palmer is coming on to the track with new personal goals and team goals for the new season.

“Goals for my last year, to get sub 18 in the 5K and for the team to make state. In order to achieve [this] we are practicing harder than we’ve ever before and just keep [the team] working hard,” Palmer said. 

Palmer doesn’t plan to continue cross country in college, but he does have a plan for after high school.

“Currently, I’m thinking about going to school for biology then going to Mexico,” Palmer said.