Elizabeth Pickett is no stranger to change. A Texan and army brat, she moved around often in her childhood, living in places like Hawaii, Colorado and Maryland. 

After constantly moving and adapting to new environments, Pickett is prepared for life’s curveballs.

 “Because you’re moving around, you don’t have the typical childhood like everybody else,” her father, Julian Pickett, said. “It taught her to be super resilient and also to experience a lot of different things.”

That resilience has shown in her races. She kicked off her senior cross country season with a first-place victory at the University of the Incarnate Word Invitational, running a time of 17:10.3. She followed this win up with a team-high third-place finish at the Chile Pepper Cross Country Festival this past Saturday, running a time of 16:15.4, a personal best. Despite this success, Pickett admits she still struggles with handling pressure and negative thoughts. 

“It’s so easy to focus on the failures, rather than the successes,” Pickett said. “For example, the UIW meet — it’s really easy to be like, ‘Oh, yeah, I did win, but I didn’t run the time that I wanted to run.’ … Like, you have to find those little wins because if you keep focusing on the minute losses, you’re never going to be happy, and you’re never going to find the joy in why you’re doing it.” 

To combat this, Pickett relies on guidance from assistant coach Sarah Smith. Smith helped her realize that as Pickett develops in the sport, the way she evaluates her progress needs to change. In the past, Pickett could shoot to shave minutes off her time, but in college, every second matters. 

“There was some hard moments last year with that, but she’s learned that the better you get, it’s the same amount of hard work for smaller increments of improvement,” Smith said.

Pickett’s ability to overcome those tough moments didn’t appear overnight. Cross country and track athletes don’t just rely on being physically fit — they also have to push themselves to improve mentally.

For Pickett, she relies on her faith to get her through tough moments in her sport. However, even that is a balancing game. At times, she found herself questioning how much of her journey she should leave up to God and how much is dependent on her own efforts. 

“I kind of expected God to pick me up and levitate me towards the finish line rather than, you know, running the race myself and just fulfilling His plan,” Pickett said. “I just have to be bold and courageous and know that God will get me through, but I have to be the one to take the steps.”

Pickett has been taking steps toward being a successful cross country runner since she was in high school, where she placed first in the state of Maryland twice in the two-mile race. She also ran for Team USA, winning the five-kilometer race at the U.S. U20 championships. According to her dad, however, Pickett is not one to flex her successes. 

“She has an outgoing personality, but she’s really the most humble person that you will ever know,” Julian Pickett said. “She does a lot of things, and I wouldn’t even use the term brag, but she doesn’t really highlight a lot of things that she really does.” 

That could be because she is focused on not rooting her entire identity in cross country. Pickett acknowledges that running is a big part of her life, but it is not the only thing that defines her. 

“Yes, I run for the University of Texas,” she said. “But I’m so much more than that. Like, I’m Elizabeth. I have a personality. I’m not just a robot running.”

For Pickett, running is just one piece of who she is. But for others following her career, what she is doing in cross country carries a larger impact.

“It matters for the little girl that is in sixth grade, that’s thinking that her body doesn’t fit the mold or that her skin color doesn’t fit the mold to run with white girls,” her father said. “I’m not making this racial. I’m just saying … this is not a white or Black person or Hispanic sport. It’s a whoever wants to work the hardest sport.”