What is your name and grade? My name is Ari Elmayan and I’m a senior.
What are three words to describe yourself? Awesome, awesome, and… Awesome.
What was your craziest cross-country race? Probably the craziest cross country race was at Conference this year, like a week ago, because it was really windy and terrible conditions. The wind was so bad and broke umbrellas. It was just really hard conditions. I think I ran like a minute and a half slower than I normally would.
Who is your favorite teammate? I don’t really say I have a favorite teammate but you know, Evan is definitely someone that I run with every day. Whether we’re doing anything from a hard workout or racing, we’re always together.
Cross country or track? I love both for different reasons. Track is fun because you can run fast. And cross country is fun because it’s like a mental battle. You don’t have to be the fastest one to win. You just have to have a good day. Track you have to do a bunch of speed work and it’s fun because you just try to run fast. But in the end, my goal is to kind of better myself as a runner in general. Not just cross country or track. I want to continue in college and I want to do both. It’s not an option to do just one.
What do you think about when you run? I think about well, it’s a pretty obvious thing, but I kind of think about running. But then again, like I’m not the type of person to distract myself. I try to be very focused on what I’m doing because it is a good mental practice. Some people like to listen to music when they run as a distraction, but I honestly kind of hate that. I mean I have before and I kind of did a couple of times recently, but I wouldn’t consider those good runs because in the end those ones are super forgettable, and if I look at all my top 10 runs ever, they’re all runs where I was feeling good. And I wasn’t listening to music because I was focused on what I was doing. And like, I think I focused on the task, especially when doing a workout on a run. It’s kind of fun to kind of just like have conversations with like your teammates about stuff and it’s like, that’s fun. But like in the end, I’m still kind of focusing on what I’m doing and how I’m doing it like how I should pace my run like that.
How are you prepping for Sectionals? I’ve been prepping for Sectionals since I started running. I think a lot of it is just consistency over time. I’m not now starting for Sectionals– I’ve been prepping for it for a while. I’ve been motivated and ready to go.
Who is your role model? My role models are actually my coaches because a lot of who I am now is because of them, and I wouldn’t be where I am without them.
How do you feel about being a twin? It’s just a part of my life. I mean, it’s just like having a brother just that he looks similar to you and he’s in your grade. It’s not any different. I mean, it’s kind of fun because I get called Tev sometimes. But also then again, we’re very different people so that doesn’t happen that often. It just happens to people we don’t really know. If you know us, you’ll immediately know that we’re very different.
Can you sing well and can Tev run well? I mean obviously, how our bodies work, it’s not that different. So if we both started [running] as freshmen, he probably would be the same as me. But that’s just not kind of the route he took. And I cannot sing, no way. Don’t have me sing. It’s embarrassing. Or dancing too. No. [Tev] can dance. At least he has more confidence. I’d say that’s a difference between me and my brother, he’s more of an extrovert, confident. And I’m shy.
If you had three wishes, what would they be? If I had three wishes, I’d wish for more wishes first of all, and then I’d decide what would I do. I’d probably try to solve world hunger and stuff.
What’s your biggest pet peeve? My biggest pet peeve is when someone in front of me is walking slow, but they’re taking up the whole hallway. It’s like… walk faster. It really bothers me.
