runner’s high
Oliver Glass’ first word was “shoes.”
“I was a goddamn energy ball, wanted to do anything but sit still,” Oliver shares. “(I) spent most of my time outside playing sports and other outdoor tomfoolery.” At a very early age, he realized that when people put on their shoes, they were going outside, which meant playground shenanigans.
“People tell you that boys are gonna wear you out,” says his mom, Julia Glass. She describes her elder son, Alec, as a kid that was happy with a book. “And then along comes Oliver, and I find out what everybody's talking about.”
The Glass’ found sport to be the most effective way to alleviate Oliver’s itch. They learned of the town's badminton league after moving to Marblehead, Mass., from New York City.
Oliver’s parents were looking for a sport that small children could play, and Alec was already involved with the local club, Marblehead Youth Badminton. He credits his drive and stamina to badminton because, at a young age, he learned the rigor and routine involved in any organized sport, such as practicing up to 15 hours a week and traveling to compete.
“From age five to 11, I was a full-time badminton player,” chuckles Oliver.
Oliver analogized backyard badminton to actual badminton to mini golf compared to the PGA Tour. “(Babminton) requires a lot of training, heavily focused on footwork, coordination and a lot of conditioning,” he says, “Running suicides and stairs for badminton is where my initial conditioning for running came from.”
After retiring from badminton, Oliver transitioned to basketball when he started middle school. He started running in the off-season in sixth grade to keep in shape for his self-proclaimed true love, basketball.
“I really hated the sport of cross country (during this time),” he says. “I didn't like how I felt before races; I didn't like how much it hurt to race.”
He quit running in eighth grade but picked it up again freshman year by way of encouragement from his dad. During his sophomore year of high school, he got cut from basketball; “Believe it or not, they did not want a five foot six mediocre point guard on the varsity team,” he laughs.
Written and photographed by Kayla Buck
Oliver (front- black shirt left, green shirt right) and his badminton team. Provided by the Glass family.
Oliver was diagnosed with ADHD in third grade. Like many kids with ADHD, he had a complicated relationship with school.
He stopped taking medication in seventh grade through high school because he wanted to operate and succeed in everyday life as everyone else did. He found running to an outlet for energy and a structure that influenced daily life.
“I had started to kind of, I guess, fall in love with the running process and how objective and measurable success was because, like, I was training hard,” he says. “And I was improving, and I kind of liked how much that direct correlation occurred.”
Running is extremely taxing on the mind and body. Oliver explains how one’s performance in a race really only comes down to how well you ran; fundamentally, there are no other dexterities you can redeem your performance with (i.e., defense/offense, shooting, etc.) found in many team performance-oriented sports. Cross-country, at its core, is a competition of endurance of how much pain you can put your body through.
He explained, “I think why a lot of cross country runners, this is definitely true for myself, are willing to endure so much pain really comes down to a unique kind of competitiveness. You want to push your body to physically accomplish something you haven’t yet, and you want to push yourself further than your competitors are able to.”
He talked at length about a runner's “typical” mind: organized, greater ability to focus.
“I'm not the usual type of mindset of a cross country runner,” he says, “cross country attracts a lot of scientific and very type A personalities because it requires kind of such dedication and developing strict routines to be good at it.”
After talking with various collegiate coaches, Oliver committed to Emerson College– a division three school– in the spring of 2019.
“I could have ran at some smaller D1 schools that I talked to the coaches with,” he says, “But I didn't think I would be happy running division one because division one cross country and track of all division one sports has one of the highest rates of depression.”
The trade-off is the lack of general resources at the division three level, especially regarding mental health. Most campuses employ mental health professionals that are accessible to the general student body but neglect to provide specialized services for student-athletes. However, it allows for a more specialized approach to academics and career development.
“It's a really unique student-athlete experience,” he says about Emesron. “And it makes the team fun, and it's certainly I don't think there are many other places where you really get this kind of experience from the sport.”
The two-time captain is considering taking a fifth academic year and a fourth athletic year to pursue a graduate degree at Emerson.