A 103 degree fever. Exhaustion even after 13 hours of sleep a night. Half the week’s worth of missed assignments waiting to be completed. Veyd Patil (12) faced all of these obstacles as he prepared to run one of the final races of his sophomore year. Despite his intense illness the week prior to the meet, Veyd remembered one of his goals for the season: to break the 800 meter school record. Swallowing past the burn in his throat, Veyd locked in and ran. 

“When I crossed the line, I didn’t know [I broke the record] until my friend told me, and then I was really hype,” Veyd said. “I didn’t feel how tired my legs were, or in how terrible shape my lungs were, I was just yelling with my friends.” 

Veyd beat his time again in junior year, resulting in an even faster 2:00:32 school record in 2023. He didn’t stop at the 800 meter, though, as he also notched an impressive 4:22:82 in the 1600 meter race. Apart from his track and field accomplishments, Veyd also earned seventh place in the cross-country individual Central Coast Section tournament, which qualified him to compete in that year’s California Interscholastic Federation Cross-Country State Championships. There, he achieved a new personal record of 16:40.0 in the 5 kilometer event.

Before he set school records and competed in state championships, Veyd played basketball alongside cross-country and track and field. Once he started high school, he decided to specialize in running and joined the varsity cross-country team as a frosh. After spending nearly a year and a half in remote learning due to the pandemic, the transition to an unfamiliar environment proved difficult. 

“I was the only freshman, and everybody else was juniors or seniors,” Veyd said. “It was very much imposter syndrome, I was quiet. I don’t think I said a word to anybody for the first two months of practice.”

Despite the challenges of assimilating to a new team, Veyd realized the extent of his passion for running and began participating in external meets in addition to the regular cross-country and track seasons. His rigorous competition schedule involves competing nearly every two weeks, forcing him to have incredible self-discipline. Veyd finds this standard challenging to maintain at times. 

“I’ve definitely dealt with [burnout],” Veyd said. “Sometimes I’m just dragging along. I find it to happen more during track season, because the team’s more sprinter-heavy. It’s just me and a few other people [running long-distance]. You don’t have that team aspect in the full form [that] you have in cross-country.” 

His intense schedule came with more than just mental challenges; in part due to his extensive training, Veyd suffered a common injury involving his IT-band known as “runner’s knee,” which barred him from training extensively for nearly a month. The painful setback unexpectedly affirmed his love for the sport after being forced to take time off. 

“Once you’re burnt out, it’s very hard,” Veyd said. “But, honestly, getting injured has been good in that aspect. Because I was injured for a month of just no running, [it] made me miss running even more.” 

As Veyd completes his senior seasons, the perseverance he has gained through his years of running comes in handy in a sport as endurance-based as cross-country. Veyd emphasizes the mental fortitude he has developed and his ability to push his physical limits. 

“I definitely know that my body can handle way more than I think I can,” Veyd said. “I’ll be seven miles into a 13 mile long run, and my body will feel bad. It’ll be heavy and I’ll want to stop. A mile later, my mind was completely off of it. My body’s way tougher than I think it can be.” 

Cross-country co-captain Adam Sayed (12) said Veyd’s dedication to the sport remains steady despite its challenges. Apart from his individual work ethic, Veyd’s hard work inspires his teammates to push past their own boundaries.

“He’s definitely willing to put in the work,” Adam said. “He’s always going the extra mile – literally. We’re trying to get a good team energy and make practice more fun, and he definitely motivates the team to do well.”

To help overcome his mental barriers, Veyd reframes the painful parts of running and adopts the mindset of sacrificing speed for longevity. With proper technique and regimen, running becomes a rejuvenating activity rather than a chore. 

“A bunch of people say that our sport is like other people’s punishment,” Veyd said.“If you see it as a punishment, you’re just running too fast to enjoy it. Once you get to the point where you can go comfortably, it’s so nice and very therapeutic.” 

Along with developing his mental endurance, Veyd transformed his leadership during his time on the cross-country and track teams. After his isolating experience on the team his frosh year, he aims to promote team bonding as a second-year team captain. 

“When we’re doing stretches and there’s an awkward silence, I’ll always [say], ‘You can talk to people,’” Veyd said. “I like it when everybody’s talking with each other, especially because my freshman year it was not like that at all. Since my sister’s a freshman, I want her to have a better experience than I did.”

Harker upper school cross-country coach Kevin Oliver also commented on the value of Veyd’s interactions with his teammates. Veyd easily adapts to circumstances to suit his team’s needs best, never losing sight of the joy running brings him and trying to spread it to his teammates. 

“He’s able to strike that right balance between the seriousness and the focus versus the levity and the fun side of cross-country,” Oliver said. “You need that in a sport like cross-country, where a lot of it is going through a lot of discomfort and pain […] His ability to step back and recognize the fun side of it and be able to spread that side of it [to] the rest of his teammates is something that I really appreciate.” 

Above all, whether as a part of a team or on his own long runs at home, Veyd’s passion for running beats out all else.  

“At a certain point, you just don’t feel the fatigue of running,” Veyd said. “It’s euphoric. Everything is just out of this world, and you have a greater appreciation for everything. It’s just something you can’t even try to describe.”