Butler finishes running career

For five of the past six years, Williamstown senior Katie Butler has been a member of the cross country team.
On Oct. 8, she experienced her last race on the course she called home, as she placed 42nd in the race with a time of 26:15.14, a time she wasn’t necessarily pleased with.
“It’s bittersweet,” she said. “I am happy that I am getting older and that I am still running, but this is my last year and not having a good season, but I am still enjoying my time.”
Butler started running cross country for Williamstown when she was in the sixth grade, the first year Michelle Whaley began coaching cross country for the middle and high school.
“We are very close,” Butler said. “My best friend is her daughter. I am over at her house and she is someone I can talk to not just as a coach, but as a friend.”
Butler’s interest in the sport grew out of the difficulty it can bring to an individual. The amount of effort it takes for someone to run 3.1 miles and that not a lot of girls run cross country.
“I like to challenge myself when I am running,” she said. “I fell in love with the sport from the beginning.”
Last season Butler didn’t run cross country because she said she burnt out from the sport.
“I didn’t want to regret not running my senior year,” she said.
Butler said she likes running the course at Williamstown, because that it is not only her home course, but because it is a beautiful course.
“Today’s race was alright, but not one of the better ones in my career,” she said.
Cross country has been such a focal point in her life that Butler likes the feeling after the race.
“You get such a high from running a race,” she said. “When you’re done running, you feel like you accomplished something and that not many can do it.”
With the season ending in a few weeks, Butler is focusing on her career.
Butler plans to go Eastern Kentucky University or the University of Kentucky. She doesn’t plan to run at the collegiate level, but that doesn’t mean she is giving up on running.
“I will participate in other races,” she said.