Saturday Spotlight- Christine Dapolito

I really don’t consider myself a ‘warrior’. But somehow Lou was able to convince me to take up the spotlight challenge.

I have one sister and she is 2 years younger, although I like to say I look like the younger oneAt about the age 7 my parents got us involved in soccer. My dad was a super athlete and my mom more of the educator, but they both felt sports would be good for us. I took pretty quickly to the sport and enjoyed the fast pace and running involved. I eventually added volleyball, softball and track to my list, but lost interest in most of them except for track. I was a sprinter and ran the 50/100/200. The most I ran was probably a mile at that point, and never consider doing more distance. As sophomore year approached I started to lose interest in the school soccer team, and decided I would just continue with my outside travel league and was convinced by my track coach to join the cross country team. I remember the first day of practice was a 3 mile time trial. I don’t recall doing very well, but I finished. After that I became hooked, the long runs became enjoyable and the team had a different bond than I had experienced on any sports team. After HS I went to college but never really thought about running competitively. I would lace up occasionally to clear my head. That went on for most of my 20’s. Here and there I would sign up for a local 5k for fun with friends. In the Winter of 2014 things in life weren’t going so well, and I was unhappy. I had really fallen off from doing any running and then decided I needed to get back to it. So of course the first thing I did was sign up for a Marathon. I started running 3-4 days a week to get myself back into shape. I realized that this was not going to be easy to do on my own. A friend of mine belonged to the Leukemia Lymphoma society had done a bunch of races with them, and suggested I join. I remember my first practice and being so nervous that I wasn’t a true runner and that I was way over my head. Instead I left practice feeling more motivated and determined to run this race. A few practices in I became friendly with Lisa Spitaleri-Ospitale. She was always so happy and positive and helped make those early practices fun. I started looking more forward to our Saturday team practices. From there I was introduced to the Selden Hills Warriors, and last summer I made my debut. Since taking up running again I have met a great group of people. Right now my work schedule has made it difficult to meet up with many of my running friends, but I’ll be back with all of you soon.