Get to know All-WNC Cross Country Girls Runner of the Year Caroline Barton
Carolina Day girls cross country sophomore runner Caroline Barton has a strict regimen she follows on race days.
She eats two Bob’s Red Mill Gluten-Free Oatmeal Apple Pieces and Cinnamon cups, and two bananas. Then Barton mediates. She then grabs her Carolina Day team socks and her Wonder Woman sunglasses and heads off in her parent’s car to a meet.
Those Wonder Woman sunglasses are extremely valuable to Barton. She said she has worn them since her mother gave them to her in eighth grade.
“I wear those all the time,” Barton said. “Rain or shine because they are my good luck sunglasses.”
She can’t recall ever running a race without them.
As they pull up to the venue, The White Stripes’s “Seven Nation Army” plays through the car speakers getting her pumped up for the race.
Barton's routine is an integral part of her success. She finished first in three different races this season. The last one clinched her an NCISAA 2A State Championship on Oct. 28 in Pleasant Garden. Barton also set a personal-best time of 18:28.30 while winning the title. Because of her dominance this season, she was named the Citizen-Times and Times News Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year.
Barton exploded onto the scene this season after not winning a single race and finishing 15th at the state championships last season. She turned a corner after being diagnosed with an iron deficiency a year ago.
She believes that is one of the biggest turning points of her young career so far. The moment when Barton was diagnosed made her passionate about female and athlete mental health and nutritional health.
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“But for any girl who feels like they aren’t living up to their potential, I always highly encourage them to get their iron checked. It’s a lot more common than you think,” Barton said. “And I think it specifically impacts female runners in high school and college but it really impacts more people than you think.”
Barton, her doctor and her family devised a plan to help her. And now she’s back and better than ever.
Barton said she felt confident about her chances heading into the state championship. She was because it was held at Hagan Stone Park, a course she is very familiar with.
“It was my home course, which made me really confident because I knew every single step of that place,” she said. “And I knew what the finish looked like and I knew what the start looked like I knew every twist and turn.”
Barton found her parents and her brother immediately after crossing the finish line. Tears started falling from behind her Wonder Woman sunglasses.
“My ninth-grade year I was so uncertain of what was happening and what was wrong with my body,” Barton said. “Just crossing the finish line and knowing that it was fixed and that I was back. It meant so much to me.”
Now, she is turning her attention to track season where she hopes to win a few more state championships.
This article originally appeared on Hendersonville Times-News: Meet All-WNC Girls XC Runner of the Year Caroline Barton
