Stories And Inspiration

GO FAR Benefits Student in the Long Run

Submitted by Anonymous on Sep 12th 2014 - 7:00AM. | Perma Link

When Christian Coggins started running GO FAR, there wasn’t a club at his school. He learned of the club because his mom, Jami, was volunteering with a GO FAR race in High Point.

He ran his first GO FAR 5K in first grade. “I immediately felt a sense of accomplishment as I crossed the finish line and was given my medal,” Christian said. “The whole event was so much fun as a kid and even now.”

Now a sophomore at Wheatmore High School in Trinity, he runs cross country.GO FAR student

Jami credits the program for her son’s continuation with the sport. “Christian may have never known he loved running without the GO FAR program,” she said. “The races are fun and he looked forward to them every year.”

GO FAR introduced Christian to a positive experience and one that he plans to continue. “Before GO FAR, I never really ran or had any interest in it, but once I started running the GO FAR 5Ks, I began to run more and more,” he said.

Though Christian’s elementary school never offered GO FAR in those early days, sticking with it proved beneficial in the long run. When Christian was in sixth grade, mom Jami started coaching GO FAR at Trinity Elementary. “I still went to the GO FAR practices and tried to encourage the kids that my mom was coaching,” he said. “My mom being a coach and practicing with her kids encouraged me to keep running.”

Christian said his running experience also helped him stay in shape for other sports, like basketball.

Entering high school, Christian used that experience to run track his first year and then moved on to cross country. “GO FAR prepared me for cross country and track by motivating me to run all of those years, making it a much easier transition to cross country,” he said. “I'm really enjoying cross country because it allows me to be able to run with my friends every day after school and has such a high competitive aspect.”

His advice to kids just starting GO FAR: push yourself. He still does. His running goal right now is to be able to run a sub 20-minute 5K.

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