Arroyo Grande’s Malia Simon named The Tribune’s Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year

Malia Simon couldn’t wait for the season to start.

Before her first strides at the Greg DeNike Big Ditch Classic at Talley Fields in Arroyo Grande back in early September, the Arroyo Grande junior remembers being filled with anxiety — the good kind, with more excitement than dread.

“I was just so ready,” Simon said.

She turned her excitement into a first-place finish and set a course record of 14:33 in the process. But if she had to do it over again, she would have her season reversed.

“It is kind of ironic because when you really need to have that kind of excitement is the very end of the season. But sometimes you are burned out by then,” Simon said.

Despite a season that included wins at the SLO County Championships and PAC 8 League Finals, Simon said she wishes she did a better job of resting and recovering between races. Instead, she took a “just work more” mentality.

It finally caught up to her, she said, at the CIF-Southern Section Division 1 Finals in Riverside, where Simon finished in 26th place despite running a personal record time of 17:50 on the 3-mile course and missed a chance to run in the CIF State Finals. Her two biggest county rivals advanced.

“I kind of hit a wall there,” Simon said. “It’s not always work harder, it’s work smarter.”

It was a difficult admission for someone who has been able to work hard and smart for most of her life, either as a successful cross country runner, amateur author and editor at her school’s newspaper, or one of the frontrunners to be the Arroyo Grande High School valedictorian in 2018.

But through the ups and downs of her 2016 season, Simon was the most consistent competitor in the county. For her efforts, she has been named Tribune 2016 Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year.

Run Through It

Simon faced tough competition from Paso Robles’ Annie Meeder and Atascadero’s Ellie Nisbet all season long, but her performances in the biggest county races of the season earned her the Girls PAC 8 MVP.

“It took a lot of pushing this season,” Simon said. “It was especially tough on the CIF-SS Division 4 Final. I felt really tired.”

Both Nisbet and Meeder saved some of their best running for last and advanced to the state meet.

Before the training caught up to her, Simon was able to fight off a bout with shin splints to win two of the biggest races of the year.

On a rainy day at the SLO County Cross Country Championships in October, Simon out-paced Meeder, who beat her in the PAC 8 midseason race a few weeks prior, to win with a time of 18:47.

“County was fun,” Simon said. “I love running in the rain.”

At the PAC 8 League Finals, Simon again defeated Meeder by a 39-second margin.

Simon has been a runner since she was about 8 years old, but it was the time between her freshman and sophomore seasons that gradually turned her into the runner she is today.

“I decided I wanted to be fast,” Simon said. “I started realizing that we don’t train all these hours after school to just do that. We train for the race. You should want to be there because that’s the time that it pays off.”

Runs in the Family

Being named Cross Country Runner of the Year isn’t the first — and definitely isn’t the most important — honor bestowed on Simon.

When she was a freshman, Simon and a classmate created a short film that won first place at the Peace in the Streets Global Film Festival. It was part of a “Dude, Be Nice” anti-bullying campaign she created a year earlier at Paulding Middle School.

“I still am into filmmaking,” Simon said. “I don’t do it all the time because I am really focused on school, but I feel like that is something I would want to pursue in the future.”

When she was in 8th grade, Simon, who has a 4.5 GPA, also started work on a fiction novel about the journey of a homeless girl and hopes to get published once she finds time.

“I’m not super worried about it right now. It’s just something that I’m glad I finished just for a personal goal,” she said. “I love to write. I have similar feelings that I have towards running. Just the way that it makes me feel.”

Simon is also the co-president of the Philosophy Club at Arroyo Grande High School.

She said her main focus is school, but she also plans to run in college. She has started emailing college coaches, and her ultimate goal would be to run for an Ivy League school like Cornell, her father’s alma mater.

Simon will now rest and regroup for the upcoming track and field season carrying her biggest lesson from the 2016 cross country season, which just so happens to be everyone’s favorite running cliché: It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon.

Editor’s Note: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated the CIF-Southern Section Division number.

This story was originally published December 19, 2016 at 8:48 PM with the headline "Arroyo Grande’s Malia Simon named The Tribune’s Girls Cross Country Runner of the Year."