LUNCH WITH LEDYARD PODCAST

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Quiet and silence can be hard in a world that teaches to us to have a busy life. The silence of life is filled with smart phones, music, social media, and just plain life. Taking time to be silent is a practice and just doesn't happen. Elijah Baker thinks otherwise.
 
It started at a young age, the life of a country boy. An East Texas native, Baker grew up in the country raising cattle around his grandparent's 200 acre ranch just outside of Hallsville, Texas. The practice of silence became a normal item while tending to his cattle on the ranch.
 
"It's lovely (to be in the country), especially at night. On a clear day I love to sit out on my front porch and look at my cattle out in the pasture. At night on my grandparent's ranch there is no one out there and I can just go walk in the pasture and not hear anything and look up at the stars and look at the cattle. It's lovely out there," says Baker
 
That silence and peace became instilled in him through his family raising cattle as he is the third generation on the ranch that started with his grandparents. Raising BeefMasters cattle, Baker learned the life of a country boy. Hard work. Playing outside. Taking care of a ranch and animals and generating a work ethic in him. The country became a part of him learning what it meant to have peaceful moments in the midst of quietness in the middle of nowhere.
 
"I started showing cattle in sixth grade as all of my dad's side grew up showing cattle. My uncle was a team roper. I have always been around cattle and they are my babies," Baker says.
 
The idea of running became real in the sixth grade at field day. After years of just participating in field day and coming in second or third place in the 800 meter run, it was time to win the race. The competitiveness in Baker became real at that moment heading into sixth grade.
 
"In my last year (of elementary school), I wanted to try and win it so we mowed a path in our pasture so I could work out to win the race," said Baker.
 
The work ethic learned on the ranch in the quietness of the country had now come full swing and was being put to the test. His family took the time to invest in him creating a space in the pasture to run. The same place he learned to be silent and peaceful now turned into a competitive arena to grow into the runner he is today.
 
Baker says, "I really didn't start learning to run seriously until I was a sophomore in high school. Coming from a small school you do all the sports so I played football from seventh grade until my sophomore year in high school."
 
Competiveness learned at a young age in the sixth grade running in the pasture trickled into what he loved to do in high school. What started on the ranch led to Baker running at the Texas 2A State Championship and being a two-time District Champion. He says, "I just liked running and I was competitive and that was the best sport I was good at so I wanted to do well at it."
 
Just like the support he had from his family in running, his small town community of Union Grove did the same. They loved their State Meet participant giving him his own pep rally. "When I went to the State Cross Country Meet in high school, after the football pep rallies, they would have a small pep rally just for me. It means a lot to me to have grown up in a small, country town," says Baker.
 
Coming from the small 2A high school, he wasn't getting recruited at all to run in college. He had to do the recruiting himself. East Texas Baptist wasn't on his list of schools growing up because he thought it was too small a school. That all changed when he wanted to run collegiately close to home.
 
"I actually emailed Coach P (former head coach Natalie Bach-Prather) as I was not recruited to come here. I had to tell Coach P I am interested in running here if you will talk to me. So I came on a visit and I really liked what she told me about the program and what I saw at ETBU. That's how I chose ETBU as I saw it as the best fit for me," says Baker.
 
Since that time, Baker has become a leader on the ETBU men's cross country team and team captain. His experiences of the competitiveness at the NCAA Division III Regionals has him set to lead this season after seeing what post season was like in Los Angeles. It was the first time for him to fly, see a real beach, and top competition.
 
He says, "When we took off with the plane I didn't know the plane was going to be at an angle and I wasn't too sure about it. I didn't like it a lot. After some of the turns and getting up in the air I was gripping my chair and basically praying saying 'please do not let this go wrong.' Going over the mountains was pretty cool and seeing the valleys. It was also my first time being to a beach and we went on the pier and I had the chance to put my feet in the ocean. It was pretty cool. I have a lot of good memories from that trip."
 
With all those experiences, training, and quiet nights on the ranch, Baker is set to have a strong year. He has been training hard for this final season at ETBU which has become his home. What started in a pasture in East Texas led to the beaches of LA and competing against the best runners in the nation. Baker has taken time in life to slow down, put his toes in the ocean, enjoy life, learn peacefulness, and be silent.