If there’s one thing Los Altos High School sophomore Lily Symon needs, it’s hot pink Lululemon socks. These brightly colored, seemingly arbitrary articles of clothing were granted “good luck charm-status” when Symon set a new personal record in them last season, and she hasn’t gone to a track meet without them since.
Last track season, Symon placed third overall in the Central Coast Section Championships — a regional competition — out of runners from schools across the Bay Area. That moment cemented the idea that she had real potential in the sport, Symon said. It inspired her to quit soccer, a sport that she’d been playing since she could crawl to attempt something new and unknown. Luckily, the decision paid off, and Symon said just the thrill she feels after races makes it worth it.
“The feeling after a good race is almost untouchable,” Symon said. “I thrive off of that feeling.”
Symon decided to try out for Los Altos High’s cross country team her freshman year, wanting to make new friends and try something new. Soon after, she fell in love with the sport and all it had to offer.
She runs both at the high school level and at the club level, running for track club Greyhound Track in the winter and for Los Altos High in the fall and spring seasons. She does both cross country and track, specializing in the 800 meters and the mile events.
The thing that makes running “worth it” for Symon is the community. Her coaches, teammates and friends are her biggest supporters and motivators, she said.
The team is extremely close, both as friends and teammates. This bond intensifies her love for running, helping her overcome the extremely painful and repetitive moments of the track season.
“There are days when I’m not motivated or I’m super tired and I don’t want to push myself, but my teammates will push me,” Symon said. “Most of my success comes from my teammates because they’ve just pushed me to do better.”
Los Altos High senior Maddy Randall, one of Symon’s teammates, said that Symon is an inspiration to everyone on the team.
“Energy is one of her best qualities,” Randall said. “She walks into practice and everyone is immediately excited to be there because she is the life of the party.”
Randall said that in the two years she’s known Symon, she has seen her confidence grow — and rightfully so. It’s been exciting to watch Symon fall in love with the sport, she said.
“She’s probably one of the fiercest athletes I’ve seen on the track,” Randall said. “It’s really impressive that she’s able to balance having a lot of fun with the sport and being an amazing competitor.”
Last year was the first time Symon qualified for Nike Indoor Nationals, a nation-wide invitational cross-country meet for high school athletes.
“I was in the gym after practice lifting, and I got a text from my coach that said ‘Lily qualified for Nike Nationals,’” Symon said. “I dropped my phone … I was just in pure shock because I didn’t think it was a possibility.”
Last year, Symon was placed in the third heat, one that “wasn’t extremely fast,” she said. Qualifying for the meet again this year in a faster heat, Symon ended up winning her heat and placing eighth in the competition overall, beating out hundreds of runners from across the country.
The meet, at which the best runners from high schools around the nation come together, is held annually at an indoor facility, accumulating large audiences and substantial media coverage.
Symon said she doesn’t get nearly as nervous at meets in comparison to her freshman year-self. It’s inevitable to have bad races, she said, but one bad race doesn’t make a bad runner. It’s most important to “focus on what you can control,” Symon said.
A lot of Symon’s self-confidence comes from running, especially as academics can often be more challenging for her than cross country and track, Symon said. Running serves as an outlet that “keeps her going” during the more demanding parts of the school year.
“I love the feeling of [achieving] the goal I set for myself, it’s such a great feeling,” Symon said. “If I [get a personal record] or I win a race, it’s such a great feeling I feel like only runners can understand.”
In the future, Symon said she wants to continue running at the most competitive level that she can, including collegiate track and field.
“I definitely want running to be a big, if not the biggest, part of my college experience because it’s just so important to me,” Symon said.
