Most athletes take the off season to relax and enjoy life without the everyday intense workouts, practices, and games, but for one Emerson College cross country star, the activity never stops.
Lauren Cortizo, a senior marketing major and journalism minor at Emerson, has made it a point to stay active and in shape even when her cross country uniform is put away in between seasons. However, this lifestyle has taught her much more than what it feels to be physically fit.
“For me athletics has taught me a lot about myself as a leader,” Cortizo said. “All through high school I did sports and it kind of taught me that no matter what you think your limit is, you can always surpass that, and that is something that I’ve held with me forever in all different aspects of life.”
Her athletic journey is not one that most would expect. As a sophomore at Canton High School in Canton, Massachusetts, Cortizo was a member of the wrestling team being one of the only females to step onto the mat in her district. Being a girl in a typically male dominated sport wasn’t always easy for the twenty-one year old.
“I initially joined [the wresting team] as a joke because I was a dancer and I thought it would be funny to tell my mom I went to wrestling practice, but I actually fell in love with it,” Cortizo stated while laughing.
The difficulties of being a female wrestler stemmed from the added pressure of being “the girl playing a boys sport.” The constant attention that was brought to Cortizo made her realize she needed to do more than prove to herself that she could win.
“While I obviously wanted to win matches and learn skills, I also had to prove to my coaches and to my teammates that I was there to wrestle, because there are a lot of females who join boys’ teams strictly for attention,” she said.
Cortizo stated that wrestling was her main sport in high school, but this is where her days as a cross country runner began. At first she only joined the high school’s cross country team after the direction to play a fall sport by her wrestling coach.
“I actually hated [cross country] all through high school,” she said, “because even though I could run the ‘5k’ in a decent time, I was never going to win, and as a competitive person it stunk knowing I was never going to win.”
Cortizo admitted that the only reason she ran cross country outside of her coach’s advice was strictly to stay in shape; however, it wasn’t until her move to Boston after entering college when her attitude toward running changed.
“I think it’s because the Esplanade is so gorgeous during the spring time,” she said. “Running is also a time for me to be alone, and at the time I was living in a triple and I loved my roommates, but I very much needed to be alone sometimes so having that hour and a half of alone time is where I learned to love it.”
Although she became one of the captains for the Emerson College cross country team, she said her proudest moment in her athletic career came during her junior and senior years in high school as a wrestler.
“We used to get these wrestling magazines every month because my coach used to write for them and it had highlights of the best high school athletes and All-Americans,” she stated, “and they had a section for the Girls Wrestling Association and they always had the top twelve ranked girls in the nation and the first time I saw that I said, ‘I want to be in this.’”
It was at that moment that Cortizo made it her goal to become one of the best female wrestlers in the nation and it didn’t take long.
“I told myself that I would be ranked in the nation before I graduated and then during my junior year I was finally ranked,” she said.
After ranking tenth in her weight class her junior year, Cortizo sat at seventh in the nation her senior year for the United States Girls Wrestling Association. She also went on to place fifth in the national tournament along side her fellow female teammate Christie Keough who finished ninth.
It has been four years since that moment, but in a little over a month, Cortizo will have another proud moment to add to her athletic career. On April 15th she will take part in the 117th Annual Boston Marathon, but she’s not just doing it for herself, she’s doing it for a cause.
Currently holding a position as co-chair for Emerald Empowerment through her sorority, Kappa Gamma Chi, Cortizo and the rest of the members have been raising money and awareness for Casa Myrna, an organization that delivers solutions to end domestic and dating violence.
After scanning Casa Myrna’s website for more information, she found that there was a number left through their organization to run the Marathon. She applied for the spot back in January, but was accepted only after a spot opened up following another runner getting the number ahead of her.
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| Courtesy of Emerson College Athletics |
“I always wanted to run the Boston Marathon, so I was going to do it this year anyway, but I was probably going to run it as a bandit, because I really didn’t think about the amount of money I needed to raise,” she said, “but it worked out perfectly because I was already training and I was able to get a number.”
In order to run the Boston Marathon, training and fitness is crucial, but for Cortizo she says staying active in college can be difficult, but there are are many ways to keep it part of your everyday life.
“It’s definitely tough when you’re in college,” she said, “but for me it’s literally all about having to put it in my agenda and that I need to make time to run, because it just gets so busy that it’s hard to stick with it.”
Another way she has found time to keep exercise in her every day life is heading off events for the Active Living learning community in the Piano Row residence halls on Emerson’s campus.
As the Active Living Resident Assistant for the building, she serves as the guide to help promote an active lifestyle for the Emerson community. Through social media and e-mail, she helps spread the word of various activities and health options around the city for residents to explore.
Active Living has even developed an hour and half sports night in the building where she and the help of her colleagues put on mini-sporting events for anyone to join in on.
Keeping a consistent and persistent effort to stay healthy through exercise and daily activity is difficult for most people, but Cortizo says it’s up to the individual to stay active.
“I think the key is to just find the motivation for yourself,” she said, “because most people fall out of it in just a couple of weeks, but after three (weeks) it almost becomes a routine.”
She went on to say that in the most simple thing people have to do is, “Find a reason to love it” and that, “If it becomes a chore, you’ll set yourself up to fall out of it.”
For now, the quick-witted runner will continue living her active lifestyle, but plans to head off to Los Angeles to work as a marketing associate for Disney Studios. She says that even with the new job the nice California weather always makes it easier to stay active.
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