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On the Track — What Field & Track Gave Me

· 3 min read
Yisi Liu
Yisi Liu

Cross country taught me to endure. Track taught me to compete.

Same legs, same lungs — completely different feeling.

After two seasons of cross country, I moved to Track & Field. Where cross country is a long negotiation between you and the course, track is immediate and electric. The distance is fixed, the lanes are painted, and everyone can see exactly where you finish. There's nowhere to hide — and I loved that.

The Dublin Track & Field meet — red lanes, palm trees, and the whole season's energy in one afternoon

The Track Is Honest​

Every race on the track is a clear measurement. You ran that time. You finished in that position. No mud, no hills, no wind excuses that feel bigger than they are. Just the clock and your legs.

That honesty pushed me harder than I expected. When you can see your time improving — even by a few seconds — it becomes concrete proof that the work is doing something. That feedback loop is addictive in the best way.

Energy Like Nothing Else​

The atmosphere at a track meet is different from a cross country race. It's louder, faster, more alive. Events happening on every corner simultaneously. Teammates cheering from the infield. The crowd noise rising when someone is close to a PR.

I fed off that energy. On the starting line, heart going, crowd buzzing — that's a feeling I won't forget. Every time the nerves hit, I reminded myself: this is what all those practice days were for. I'd already done the hard part.

After the race — still smiling, still standing

What Practice Built​

The biggest thing track reinforced was something cross country had started: the gap between who you are on a bad practice day and who you are on race day is exactly what your training builds.

There were practices I didn't want to be there. Drills that felt pointless. Repeats that hurt. But I showed up, and race day reflected that. Not perfectly — but you could see it. The body remembers.

Both Seasons Together​

Cross country and track were two chapters of the same lesson. Endurance and speed. Long races on unknown terrain and short races under bright lights. Both required showing up every single day without knowing exactly when the progress would arrive.

They taught me that confidence isn't something you feel before doing something hard — it's something you build by doing something hard, over and over, until hard stops feeling impossible.

I carry that everywhere.

Yisi Liu — built on the track, one rep at a time.