Sometimes, the hardest part of being a runner is not always about the miles or the long practices, but actually the mental game, the time remaining after you cross the finish line and how you treat others. 

For Angelinia Buttgieg, or as most of her friends and teammates call her, “Lina”, cross country, or running in general, can at times be more of a mental attrition than a physical one. She explains that mental longevity is tested in all facets of her life as a student athlete, but it can only be exacerbated to the full extent after a bad race.

“Most of the time, my first reaction is, ‘Oh my god, I suck. What is going on? Why am I not fast enough? Why does my body hurt so much?” Buttigieg said.

While to most it may sound like harsh criticism of oneself, to her it’s something that she has experienced. It’s the reminder that it’s about the process and not always about the results at first sight.

“Cross country is very mental. The only thing that is keeping you going is your own mind,” she said, “A bad race does not mean it’s gonna be a bad season, and that’s what I’ve been trying to work on.”

The mental game goes beyond the course; the combination of life, academics, and athletics shrinks time, while putting more on one’s plate than most seems insurmountable.

I asked what goes into a typical day and what the hurdles may be. Buttigieg explained that she, like other student athletes, has a gauntlet of a schedule and time was a rare commodity: a five-class schedule, with a heavy amount of assignments, two-hour training sessions, three or four times a week, plus the occasional meet.

While it seems like a lot to remember, Buttigieg laughed while claiming to have an elaborate system of keeping track of everything.

“I am a sticky note person,” she said. “In my room, I’ll have sticky notes all over my wall, listing usually where the thing is or where I need to be.”

She continued with how detailed her notes have to be to remember a day’s work.

“I’m not just writing down assignments. I am writing down when I need to study. I am writing down my practice times. I’m writing down meetings,” Buttigieg said. “That keeps me very organized.”

Even with a busy life, Buttigieg said her teammates, family, and friends, as well as her athletic and academic goals, are what push her to keep on running every day.

“I feel like what’s pushing me is my goals and my future,” she said. “So I just think to myself, like, ‘Do I really want to do this?’ And that’s usually a yes.”

While academics and athletics can be demanding, Buttigieg said her comfort level with the landscape and people at Oswego made things easier, something she didn’t feel at other SUNY schools when she visited them.

“I picked Oswego because I liked the campus atmosphere and, like, it felt very homey,” Buttigieg said.

The Long Island native elaborated that she wanted to be far enough from home to experience college on her own, but still have that homey vibe.

“It doesn’t feel like Long Island, but it brought me a lot of comfort. Like, even just being on campus. Like, I felt like the community.”

That community chemistry has grown especially throughout her three years on both the Oswego cross country and track and field teams. What started as a small clique of runners has developed into a team that relies on one another, win or lose, good individual race or bad one.

“I feel like us working together is what really motivates me every single day,” Buttigieg said. “We work out together, we run together. We lose together. We win together.”

That teamwork and togetherness spread into meets where if one has a bad race, they all band together to root on each other or celebrate another. Because at the end of the day, cross country is still a team sport.

“So, if Elena (Gaffney) gets 1st place and I get fifth, I still perform very well. I’m not going to be mad that Elena got 1st place. I’m gonna be ecstatic. I’m gonna be so happy,” Buttigieg said.

Buttigieg says that since she was younger, she has always found ways to connect with others, especially in sports. 

“I’ve always been a very social person, and I feel like sports definitely was, like, a social outlet for me. And it was a way to make friends,” she said.

That social side of her personality also shows up in the way she interacts with others, including her teammates. Buttigieg said humor has become one of the ways she gets through difficult practices, and while bringing some lightness to the team, even in its worst moments, even if she gets some ‘not the time’ looks from others in the moment.

“I feel like I’m pretty witty, and I feel like jokes definitely help me get through some hard practices,” she said. “I feel like making people laugh is definitely something that brings me joy.”

Coming into her third year on the cross country team, Buttigieg feels she has more of a bigger team presence and voice, something she feels is reflected in her humor, positivity, and goal of keeping it light.

“I feel like if I bring the good energy to practice that it’ll maybe rub off on my teammates and we could have a better run or a better meet that weekend,” she said. “It’s all about, like, how you see things.”

When asked how she wants her teammates and coaches to remember her, she sat back in her chair and thought about it for a minute before going back to her positive and energetic roots.

“I feel like I want to be remembered as not just somebody that works hard, but somebody happy to be there,” Buttigieg said following a long pause. “I don’t want to be remembered as a negative person. I want to be remembered as a positive person.”