Kevin Blake, sophomore international business major, is constantly working to improve himself both as a student and as a cross country runner.
“I don’t like to fail. I like to prove myself,” Blake said. “When you’re going through pain and when you push through that pain and end up succeeding you feel much better about yourself.”
In the past two races that the Cavaliers have competed in, Blake has brought down his time by five minutes. He only has one minute between his personal record from last year, which is 36 minutes for a total of 5 miles or 8 kilometers.
A five-mile run is not an easy task for most people but for Blake, it offers an outlet for him to push his limits.
“When you push through pain you build yourself. You build character,” Blake said. “You build physically and you feel a lot better.”
“You get that feeling in your gut before that says ‘oh my God,’ I’m about to run five miles and then you push yourself. It is hard, and then you finish and say ‘look at what I did,’ and that’s an intrinsic reward,” Blake said. “Just like a test that you thought you couldn’t do.”
Blake has not always been a runner but decided to begin his cross country career upon entering his freshmen year. When asked why he made the commonly difficult decision to begin a new sport in college, Blake said, “I do it because I thought that if I’m going to get good at something it might as well be something I’m not already good at.”
“It’s hard. It is a challenge to run five miles without stopping and you get better at it but it’s always been hard for me so I wanted to become really good at it,” Blake said. “When you finish a race there is nothing like that feeling.”
From a very early age, Blake’s parents always wanted him to join a sport whenever he could, ranging from anywhere from soccer to fencing.
Recently, because of the limited amount of sports teams on campus, he has begun to play club rugby at Eastern University and is currently taking efforts into his own hands to recruit more students to play alongside him. The team meets at Eastern University’s campus on Sunday evenings at 4 p.m. and he hopes enough students will join so that Cabrini has a chance to form their own club level rugby team.
Blake is also pushing his boundaries by attending class at Eastern University to study an introductory German course.
In reference to learning and trying new things, Blake said, “Just because you think you’re not going to be good at something doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t try to push yourself at it. You should try to push yourself at everything, especially if it’s worthwhile or a worthwhile activity.”
