Jaasiel Contreras

Age 15 | School Brawley | Grade Sophomore

Asked how she feels about running, Jaasiel Contreras is not shy. “I love it,” she says.

Informed that this amor is not universally held, she just laughs.

“It’s always been my thing,” she confided, “I was raised on a farm, and after I started to beat the chickens … ” She trails off, laughing again.

Alien though it might seem to some, there is indeed a sizeable community that shares Jaasiel’s fervor.

Asked what about distance running resonates particularly strongly with her, she grew introspective.

“It’s about knowing that you can always push through that wall,” she said. She contends that, getting to what feels like a stopping point and then moving beyond it, and then doing it again is an extremely uplifting sensation.

And it’s transferable.

“It gives you determination to push through that 1 a.m. essay,” she says, before smirking away the assertion that 1 a.m. is perhaps not the best time to be leaving schoolwork until.

As with anything, it’s easier to love when you’re very good at it. And good at it, she is.

This past Saturday, Contreras paced all lady-runners at the Southwest Cross Country Invitational, finishing the 3.1 mile course in 20:08.57, a good 20 seconds better than any of her competitors and nearly a full minute better than anybody in her particular race of freshmen and sophomores.

Regarding any wrong turns she may have taken in the running of the race she admits to getting a bit confused at one point but claims she was, “just following the white lines,” a task that even the most skilled of drivers will occasionally get tripped up by.

Last school year she became a Brawley record-setting track and field athlete, and with a first and second place finish under her belt two 2018 cross country meets, it looks like she’s intent on breaking some more. And it’s all because she loves running.

Lucky.