In the print issue of the Decaturian, we mistakenly gave credit for the story to Rachel Breaux and made a few copy editing mistakes. The real author of the story was Emily Nielsen. Here is the story in its entirety.

One thing is clear with every word Sarah Bradley speaks and every expression she has; she loves to run.

Her sharp features light up at the mention of running, her love for the sport is so apparent in her eyes, it makes every other sport seem dull for just a second. She is eager and yet somewhat reserved as she modestly starts talking about her accomplishments in cross-country. Those accomplishments are many. Bradley is an all conference runner who qualified for and then finished 51^st in the NCAA Division III national meet. She was named the CCIW’s Freshman of the Year. Her running future is as bright as her face when she talks about running.

Until you bring up high school and see her face dim.

“I was the worst runner on the team,” she said. “I couldn’t break a ten-minute mile and came in dead last for the IHSA regional meet my junior year.”

A friend’s joke changed her life.

“One of my friends told me jokingly that I had no hope as a runner,” she remembers.  “I wanted to prove him wrong, and then it became about proving it to myself.”

And she did.

Her first step to proving to herself that she could make it came in her senior year in high school; Bradley dropped 7 minutes off her time, bringing it down from a 30 to a 24 minute, a feat that is hard in any racing sport, let alone doing it in one year.

After the season ended, Bradley started training for longer distance events. One major milestone was when she finished her first marathon on the same day as senior prom. She laughed remembering how tired and sore she was the next day after all of the running and dancing.

Bradley then went to Illinois State and spent half of her freshman year of college as a dance major before transferring here for the science program in spring 2013. Wanting to be a part of the team Bradley went to the head coach and asked to be on the team for the track season.

“I didn’t like the structure, I just like to run” Bradley said, “So I quit for a couple of days, but came back when the coach said I had potential”

Now, with her first season of cross-country over, her potential is plastered all over the Millikin University Cross Country record book and web page.

On October 19^th Bradley set the Millikin Record at University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh’s Brooks Invitational in Winneconne, Wisconsin. She finished 37^th out of over a thousand runners with a time of 22:36.92.

Her triumphs kept on rolling when at the CCIW Cross Country Championship where she finished fifth in the 6K course with a 22:49.14 and was named the Women’s Cross Country Freshman of the year.

Everything then exploded when at the NCAA Division III Cross Country Regionals Bradley cross the line at 9^th place, earning her a spot in Nationals, as well as the title as the first Millikin woman to make it ever.

“I thought I would be breaking my neck to make it senior year” Bradley says, “So when I crossed the finish line at 9^th place the first person I saw was my mom and I started to cry because I made it. There are no words to describe how I felt.”

On the Thursday before the event all she wanted to do was finish.

“Getting All American is probably not this year, but that is my next goal,” she said “I’m just excited because I when I run every girl there loves the sport just as much as I do, and at nationals those girls will all be there.”

The All-American title goes to the first 35 to cross the finish line. Bradley crossed at 51^st. She is well on her way to finishing her next goal.

Bradley, head coach Jake Shaver and her teammate Rachel Breault left for Hanover, Indiana on Thursday November 21^st 2013 for the National festivities that went on throughout the weekend.

Nationals happened on November 23, 2013 where Bradley took 51^st place with the time of 22:13.30 out of 280 runners.

“Sarah ran her heart out,” Breault said after attending the nationals meet to support Bradley with their coach, She told herself she wanted to place top 100 and ended up getting 51^st which is better than any of us expected. I loved being able to watch her run and be there to support her.”

Breault goes on to say that “She was truly happy about her race and the whole experience of going to nationals.”

It is clear that Sarah Bradley just loves to run, that nationals was the most thrilling, tiring, passion filled race of her life, and that she proved to herself and to the friend who told her she wouldn’t make it as a runner just how far running would take her.