Remember 1996?  That was the year of Michael Johnson’s golden shoes at the Atlanta Olympics.  O.J. Simpson’s trial was on television an impossible 25 hours a day, and little elementary school student Ashley Zanko probably knew the Macarana, whether she’ll admit to it or not.  Oh, and the Dublin Coffman girl’s cross country team began its string of ten straight state meet berths.  That’s a solid decade of state meet appearances, dating back to just before the movie Titanic set sail with box office history.  Running for a team like Coffman isn’t just about team, it’s about tradition.  It’s a long tradition that’s been carried on the backs, and legs, of many runners over the past decade.  Senior Ashley Zanko is proud to have played her role in that growing ‘Rock tradition.
            “It's been great to be part of a great legacy,” Ashley says of the past three seasons of racing against Ohio’s best.  “It's also good to know that you’re part of such a respected program where it is tradition to qualify to States.”
             Coming into high school as the Karrer Middle School track record holder for the 1600m, having run a 5:23 in eighth grade, expectations were high for Ashley from the start.  She delivered on those expectations, running varsity for the Coffman girls at three state meets in her first three years.  For her fourth and final season of high school cross, she’s looking to continue the streak.  “Last year I definitely felt the pressure of having to qualify for the tenth year, but that pressure won't be there this year,” she says of the state meet.  “I have big goals.”  

Ashley preps the muddy course for the rest of the field at Watkins Memorial this year.

Those goals haven’t always come easily, though.  Injury has dogged Ashley, plaguing her running career often at the worst of times.  Aches and illnesses have followed her into the state meet most years, and her self described “type A personality” doesn’t take well to these setbacks.  “I had high hopes for last year’s state meet,” she says of a cross race that she struggled through.  “Things didn’t click.”  Girls that she had run with all year went on to high finishes.  Then, during the 3200m at last

SIDEBAR-
The Next Kanye
Running comes with a rhythm of its own.  From the steady staccato cadence of a runner’s footfalls to the rhythmic pant of one’s breath and the bass thump of the heart, there’s a hidden music to the run.  Ashley Zanko uncovers this hidden music and shares it with her teammates in the raps she writes each new season. 
    “I’ve been into music forever,” she says.  “Sometimes, when I hear a song I like, I switch the words around.”  Once the lyrics are set, as in her recent “Run Like It’s Hot,” Ashley’s stage is the daily practice sessions with the Coffman team.  “I don’t know what they really think,” she says of her teammates’ reactions to her rapping.  “They probably think I’m crazy.”  Still, each season, Ashley has come up with at least one new running rap to entertain the girls, each a little poem set to a moving beat. 
     Every rap and hip-hop artist has their trademark.  Whether it’s a band-aid under the eye, the tattoo of a teardrop, or the old school look of the giant golden watch around the neck, you’ve got to stand out from the crowd.  Ashley has her own style.  “I like to have a trademark,” she says of the ever present headband that she wears in races.  “Maybe it’s intimidating.”
       “I don't really want to be viewed as a ‘gangster’ or a ‘rapper,” she says of labeling herself.  “Unfortunately, our society has given rapping and rappers negative connotations, but in reality you could rap about anything including God,” she says.  In fact, Ashley’s own rap poetry moved beyond the topic of running this past summer while on a mission trip.  “I went out to this pavilion and just started writing about everything that has happened to me this past year.  I called it a poem, but it's meant to be rap.  When I get the time, I'll definitely record it,” she says.  “I even read it aloud to my congregation when we returned from my mission trip.  Maybe someday in my spare time away from being a doctor I'll be a Christian rapper on the side.”  With “about seven” running raps to her name, Ashley is well on her way to completing that first album’s worth of material.   

year’s regional track meet, a trip on the third lap knocked her out of contention for a state meet qualifier that “I had envisioned coming a lot sooner.”  But Ashley doesn’t let the setbacks slow her down in the least bit.  While qualifying for state cross country meets and regional track meets would be beyond the dreams of many of the competitors that Ashley regularly lines up against, the Coffman senior is always out to better herself, to push herself on to another level and beyond any speed bumps in her path.  “I’m a workaholic,” she admits.  “You can’t get discouraged, no matter what happens.  There’s a reason for everything that happens…You have to find the positives.”  For Ashley, each success has been a cause for celebration, but each success has brought new goals.  When asked what her greatest highlight in running has been thus far, the ultra-motivated senior had only one answer: “I hope my best comes for me at the end of this season.” 
        It takes an incredible drive to push oneself as Ashley does.  “My motivation comes from an inner drive to succeed,” she says.  Former teammate Alison Case attests to that consuming drive.  “Gosh, I can't say enough about her dedication… it might not seem like it because she is so tiny, but she's strong and a super tough competitor…I don't know how she does it but she's a fighter, for sure.”  This year, Ashley’s motivation is about more than just improving on state meet placings and chasing fast times on the course though.  Over the past winter, Ashley’s older brother Andrew had been in a serious skiing accident.  “He’s progressing,” Ashley says of the steady rehab.  “He took fifteen steps last week.  I want to see him talk again soon.”  Still, despite the positive progress, the situation at home has been understandably tough on the senior.  Running has provided an outlet, a relief.  Her family has been behind her every step of the way.  “It’s kind of hard because they don’t run, they don’t know that aspect.  But they’re always supportive and have never been hard on me about it,” she says of her family’s backing.
       With high goals in running and life (she plans to go into medicine and to run in college) and the struggles of the past year, Ashley admits that there is pressure to deal with.  “I think I need to chill more!” she half laughs.  “I try to relax a lot.  When I put the pressure of ‘oh my gosh, it's race time’ into my head I get really stressed, so I don't really try to think of it that way.  I just try to have fun at the line with my team, to ease the pressure.”  Those teammates are helping Ashley relax and enjoy the season, just as they have for the past three years.  So long as they continue their supportive

The Columbus Running Company applauds Ashley Zanko and every runner who pushes through adversity to be their best.  We’ve always believed that you get out of running what you put into it, and determined runners like Ashley remind us all that we can shoot for the stars.

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