The Life of a Runner: Martin Bria’s Story
Track of Champions.
Martin Bria is a racer, through and through. This Madison sophomore competes in cross-country in the Fall, swimming in the Winter, and track and field in the Spring.
Martin is either training or racing at all points of the year. He even trains during the Summer for the cross-country season. Despite his all year grind to improve himself and his times, Martin believes that the hardest part of his colorful racing career is “mentally pushing [him]self to finish the races”.
With racing sports, the right coach can be transformative. Martin’s father and ex-coach “is always trying to make [him] push [his] hardest out on [his] run”. In addition to his father, Martin believes that another influential coach he has had is Chris Monaco. As a distance runner, Martin has the pleasure of being coached by Monaco during the cross-country and Winter track seasons. Spending a vast amount of the school year with Monaco as a coach has allowed Martin to learn a lot from his experience and Martin believes that it has made a “mark on [him], and [he doesn’t] think that mark is gonna be fading any time soon”.
The cross country coaches -as of the last few years- provided the opportunity to go to Cross-Country Camp. Martin jumped at this opportunity. This camp ended up being Martin’s favorite moment in his high school sports career, in part due to the effect it had in team bonding. According to cross country coach Nick DeGennaro, Martin, “through his great work ethic, is a good example for all our athletes as someone who puts forth good effort”. Martin hopes to continue making a positive impact on the team dynamic in the years to come.
When asked about the future of his running career, Martin stated that he would like to continue running, and doesn’t see a time where he would want to stop. Running has been more than a method of keeping in shape and competing for Martin. Although he doesn’t want to compete in college, he believes that racing has provided an opportunity to prove himself. The MHS community is excited to see how far Martin can go in the world of running.