Running through pain and adversity to represent her hometown: Amara Goodale qualifies for State championship

Nearing the finish line at the Section XI Cross Country Championships on Thursday, Nov. 5, Shelter Island freshman Amara Goodale thought her chances of qualifying for States were gone. 

But as she approached the final stretch along the water at Sunken Meadow State Park, she spotted another runner ahead and gave herself one last challenge. “For some reason, I told myself, just pretend she’s the one keeping you from getting to States. So I passed her,” Goodale told the Reporter following the race.

In the final strides, the Islander passed the Port Jefferson runner, gaining a 9.3-second lead as she crossed the finish line. “They were going to yell at me if I didn’t push at the end, so I may as well,” Goodale said, referring to her teammates and coach waiting for her at the finish line.

“I thought she was out. I didn’t think she qualified,” said Head Coach Erin Baskin. But when the coach and athletes checked the leaderboard, Amara’s name was listed as the 10th finisher, giving her the final qualifying slot in the Girls Class D division. “It was the nine seconds that she beat that one girl. Literally, that’s the difference between States or not,” the coach said.

With the finish, Goodale will travel to Queensbury, N.Y., on Nov. 14 to represent Shelter Island and Section XI at the State Championship. This qualifier marks the second time Goodale will run at Queensbury; she qualified last year as an 8th-grader running in Shelter Island’s varsity program.

So why the doubts from Shelter Island about Goodale’s finish? It was a rough go, even before the runners took their mark. She suffered a partial tear near her calf earlier this season after overtraining, and the injury slowed her times more than expected. Despite the setbacks, she told the Reporter ahead of the race that she was “just kind of glad to be here,” despite the physical setbacks. 

However, when the race began at Sunken Meadow last week, Goodale said it wasn’t easy. “I was in the worst pain I’ve ever been in, I felt like I was going nowhere,” she explained.

The race course at Sunken Meadow is notoriously difficult, with the names telling the story — Snake Hill, Hernia Hill, and Cardiac Hill, the latter known to take out runners during races. The pain of running with an injury, topped by the intense incline of Hernia Hill (a quarter-mile-long climb with an 80-foot elevation gain), took its toll on her, and when she summited the hill and began down, she collapsed to the ground. “I got dizzy, and I went blurry, then I kind of blinked, and I was on the floor,” she said.

The setback came just past the first mile marker, with the rest of the 3.1-mile course and more elevation ahead. Despite this, Goodale pushed on, then found that other runner in the final stretch, overtook her opponent, and secured her qualifying slot.

“You never know for sure if you’re going to qualify,” the coach said, following Goodale’s race. “It’s really more about your place that day than your time, even. So you could PR [Personal Record], but it wouldn’t matter. But for Amara, we got her there, and it was her work that got her there.”

As for the rest of the team, the three boys representing Shelter Island did not qualify for the State Championship. Henry Springer, a senior who qualified last November, placed 8th overall in the Class D boys race. But unlike Goodale’s leaderboard, being in the top 10 did not qualify Springer for the State race, since Port Jefferson’s team won outright by securing enough high-placing runners to exempt the rest of their teammates, leaving only a select few from Southold and Pierson to qualify as individuals.

After the race, Springer said that, despite the disappointing result, he was still glad to finish in the top 10 and earn All-League honors this season. Springer’s younger brother Caleb finished in 22:03, behind his older brother’s 20:13. Additionally, junior Eli Green ran 23:16, finishing shortly after Caleb.

Goodale said she will continue to train with Coach Baskin ahead of the Nov. 14 State Championship in Queensbury. 

The Reporter will have more on the State race on its website and in a future print edition.