Annie Frisbie's Journey
Article name: Annie Frisbie's Journey
Writer and Interviewer: Elizabeth Moua and Hana Soltani
Annie Frisbie's Journey
“Annie Frisbie’s time in the New York City Marathon was the fourth-fastest marathon debut for an American woman” (Minsberg-News York Times). Annie Frisbie’s journey as a runner started at River Falls Middle School and continued to River Falls High School and Iowa State College. She won the Wisconsin D1 State of Cross Country individual title in 2015. Currently, Frisbie is a professional runner who trains in Minneapolis MN with a team of fifteen to sixteen people. Annie Frisbie’s career, journey, and the highs and lows of being a professional athlete can teach us a number of lessons such as perseverance and patience.
Frisbie dreamt of becoming a professional soccer player, a fashion designer, and an artist. In fact, becoming a professional runner was not her goal until college. According to Annie Frisbie ¨Having success with running makes it more fun and pretty addictive¨. Slowly as she improved and found the joy in running, Frisbie understood that her dreams were to make the Olympics one day or compete at major world marathons. At first, Frisbie didn't know how she could reach her goals, but it was all through her perseverance.
Annie Frisbie used to be a student at Iowa State University, while she continued running. After graduating college, she became a full-time graphic designer, but her job and company were adaptable with her running practices. Last fall, she decided to become a full-time professional runner so eventually, she came back to Minneapolis and joined a running team. Frisbie didn't expect to have a post-collegiate career after college, but there could be many ups and downs during her career. Even though her dreams at first were unrelated to running; after college she decided that it was her passion. Frisbie’s coach, Chris Lundstrom, has guided her in her running career and successes. She stated he helped her jump to that next level.¨ Frisbie's supporters have helped her in her running career as well.
“There are many highs and lows in this sport just like any other sports” according to Annie Frisbie. There are times that one achieves great accomplishments, but there are also some years when a person might not win any competitions. It is very easy to feel hopeless and burnt out during those times. Although it is important to not forget the successful years. According to Annie Frisbie, “All forward movement is good movement and should be celebrated whether it is an inch or a mile”.
In order to be successful in sports such as running, it is essential to learn flexibility and recognize signs of burnout. Since the nature of this career is unpredictable, the athlete needs to learn to accept the ‘bad’ years and learn from them while practicing and improving their skills. As well as that, another noteworthy skill is understanding burnout and its signs. Feeling burned out in sports and anything else is completely normal, and Annie Frisbie found out that understanding when burnout is close always helps her plan ahead to prevent long-term problems.
In Annie Frisbie’s opinion, young athletes should set big goals and dreams for themselves even if they “seem crazy.”. “It takes an internal belief to reach your goals, so focus on where you want to be in your own sport”, Frisbie said. “Something Frisbie has learned over the years is that When you’re down eventually things will turn around, and when you’re on top of the world, you know that eventually you’ll hit rock bottom. That’s just part of sport and life.” There are several key lessons that could be learned from Annie Frisbie such as: finding your passion might take a long time, learning that it is perfectly normal to make mistakes, celebrating small victories, learning signs of burnout, the importance of flexibility, and setting goals.