Running Free With Victoria Markham

“I started cross-country in sixth grade; all of my friends were cross-country and I kinda felt left out a bit. They said I should do it, and I just really loved it and kept it up ever since. It was at first really more of a social thing.”

Victoria Markham, a freshman interdisciplinary studies major and runner on the cross-country team, laughed at her middle school memories as I sat, somewhat distracted by the adorable décor in her dorm’s living room.

“I realized I was half-decent at [running], and then I started winning my meets and I was like, ‘Oh, I actually really really like this!’” Markham said. “I realized running is actually fun, I learned to enjoy it.”

I had known of Markham through my cross-country roommate but had not gotten the chance to interact with her until now. Her reputation preceded her—Markham has earned many awards since she started running in high school, including starting six races, being voted Freshman of the Week twice last semester and making Gulf South Conference Championships Second Team All-GSC all in the same semester.

This amount of success and personal accomplishment, I learned, did come with struggles as she ran through high school—especially humility.

“When I was younger, all I wanted to do was tell people about how I was winning races,” Markham said.

She went on to describe the all-too-human tendency to view ourselves as the rightful recipients of the glory, and how it was through becoming a Christian that she began to grow from that.

“It was 2019 when I got saved, and the reason why I was running shifted,” Markham said. “I don’t know what happened, I don’t remember a specific day I knew I needed to be more humble, but slowly I was like, ‘Why am I doing this?’”

Markham became more and more animated, and I could see that this was a story that meant the world to her as she spelled out the lesson she had to learn in high school.

“As humans, when we get all the glory, it crushes us when we just accept it and don’t turn it over to anyone else,” Markham said. “That’s why we know we are supposed to turn it over to the Lord, because He’s the only one who can take all of that.”

This change did not stay just in high school, but continued as she came to Union and began running with a team for the first time. That was a bit of a learning curve for her last semester.

“In high school I was kind of a solo runner, because there were not a ton of fast people, especially girls,” Markham said. “In all my years running there was never anyone for me to compete along with. So I wasn’t used to having teammates to compete with.”

One conversation with Union’s cross-country team coach, Bailey Bell, in particular helped her to identify just how her pride in her wins was hurting rather than helping her and her teammates.

“I felt like there are so much pressure on me, and it was crushing me. I talked to Coach about it, and I think I was viewing my team as competitors,” Markham said. “Coach really helped me to see that and helped me slowly start to shift my mindset.”

Union’s cross-country team is a small, tight-knit family, and Markham confirmed my impressions of how all of them work so hard to be there for each other when she shared with me their encouragement to her at GSC.

“We were at the hotel, sitting around the firepit, and Coach had all the seniors go around and give advice for us at Conference,” Markham said. “And it got to Holly, and she said her biggest advice is just to run free—just go up and have fun and don’t worry so much what other people are thinking. That just hit me, and I felt this peace came over me. ‘Run free.’ I don’t know if Holly even knows how much of an impact that had on me.”

Teammate Cami Haas, junior conservation biology major, remembers working to encourage the freshman girls on the team.

“I remember talking with them about how you do in the race doesn’t matter, we’re going to love you no matter what, and even though this is an individual thing, we’re doing this as a team,” Haas said. “I think we all grew in that.”

That phrase became something that she would keep in her mind whenever she ran, and she found herself enjoying running without that great pressure that her pride had put on her. Now she can run free even when a race does not end how she wanted it to.

“The very last race of the season I wasn’t super happy with how it went, but I had peace about it, and it was okay,” Markham said. “And that was crazy, because if I had had that race a few months ago, I would have been crushed.”

Ultimately, this struggle has taught her to trust in God instead of her own strength.

“I’ve learned how important it is to rely on the Lord this season, because when I rely too much on myself and my ability, I fail myself every single time,” Markham said. “So, I think the Lord has drawn me close to Him and taught me how important it is to truly lean on Him.”