VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — You’d probably assume all track athletes love running, right? It’s not that simple for Kellam High School's Jane Phillips.
"The sport itself isn't very fun,” she joked.
But she admits running with her friends makes all the difference. “It’s a lot of suffering but I think suffering as a group brings a lot of people together a lot more than I think. They’re really good people. I love my team a lot."
Ultimately with running, it’s a love-hate relationship, she says.
“Even though you hate the feeling of it while you’re doing it, the runner’s high and the reward after is very nice.”
That reward in recent months: a Class 5 state cross country championship. But of course, there’s the dietary reward too.
“I do love a good burger. With an egg too, and a little bacon,” said Jane. “It’s so good. It’s so bad, but it’s so good. I have to save it for my special days.”
But Jane can eat all the burgers she wants. After all, she needs fuel as a year-round runner and swimmer.
"I do TIDE swimming year-round,” she said as she began describing her rigorous schedule. “In the fall it’s cross country and TIDE. In the winter it’s Kellam swim, indoor track, and then TIDE, and in the spring, I have outdoor track and TIDE. I think the constant cross-training is very beneficial."
Jane first started running in fourth grade when she joined the “Girls on the Run” program at Red Mill Elementary School, a confidence & character-building program for young girls.
The program culminated in a 5K at the Norfolk Zoo, where all the girls from the Hampton Roads schools ran a 5K to wrap up the season. Jane won the race clocking a time of 22 minutes at just nine years old. She was a natural, however, she later took a break from running and focused on swimming during the time her family lived in Germany for her father's military job.
“I was a swimmer originally and I was living in Germany and then when Covid hit the pools shut down and I had to pick a new sport. I picked running because it was one of the only other sports they had," she recalled.
What seemed at the time as just an alternative sport turned into long hours spent on windy roads and trails and it led her to one conclusion: a desire to pursue a career working for the National Park Service.
"The more time you spend outside and just running through the woods every day and the more you get connected with it the more you start appreciating the little things," she said.
But really, Jane just enjoys making an impact anywhere and she has done so since she arrived at Kellam.
"I tried starting up a couple clubs where you go out and meet new people and new students because I didn't know anyone when I moved here. There was really no one showing me around. So, I always try to find new students in school and show them around. People are always really kind if you're kind to them."
