Senior Melissa Aleman made Bellaire cross country history when she broke the record for the 3 mile with a running time of 21:09.52. We caught up with Melissa to talk to her about her amazing achievement.
Q: How many people were competing against you?
A: I don’t think anyone was really trying to break the record because no one really aimed for it. I didn’t even know about it. It kind of just happened and it was definitely a great surprise.
Q: How much did you prepare for it daily?
I just always went to practice everyday Monday through Thursday and tried my hardest for our weekend meets. I was trying to beat my personal record each meet, and it paid off. We started training a week before school started and stopped November 2, which was our last meet.
Q: How long have you been in cross country?
A: Ive been in cross country for two years. I started junior year.
Q: What is your inspiration?
A: My inspiration for running was definitely my older brother Carlos who ran his junior year and senior year. After his life threatening wrestling accident, he was told he couldn’t do contact sports anymore so he started running, and that really inspired me.
Q: How did you feel after winning this title?
A: I felt amazing. I felt so honored and blessed to be able to do what I do everyday. It’s great to make not only myself proud but my friends, coach and family proud too. Knowing that my name is put down as breaking and holding a record is really the greatest feeling in the world.
Q: What is your next goal after this?
A: My next goal is definitely to dominate during track season and cut down my mile time to around the 5:30s and, who knows, maybe even break more school records.
