About Us
Mid-Illini Podcast Group 2022-2023 XC Season
From left to right: Josh Holloway(Pekin), Charlie Serrahn(Dunlap), Ayden Thompson(East Peoria), Nicholas Delgado(Host,Morton), Ryan Krake(Metamora), Chase Sauder(Morton), Brice Banning(Washington)
Beginning of the Gently-Used Shoe Drive
Nicholas Delgado (Founder of Going The Distance) on the Morton High School track with hundreds of shoes that were collected during the first wave of the gently-used shoe drive
Going The Distance originally began as a podcast in 2022 started by Nicholas Delgado when he was a junior at Morton High School. The podcast was designed to shine light on the top distance runners in the central-Illinois area for cross country and track. Based out of Morton, Illinois, Going The Distance covers the important meets from each week during the season and typically features a special guest speaker to help contribute to the statistical analysis of the local running community. Each guest comes from their own unique team and area which allows each episode to have new insight on another local team. Occasionally, the Mid-Illini conference will have an episode during or before each season to discuss the outlook on the conference as the season progresses. As the podcast continued, more and more things snowballed into effect as the gently-used shoe drive began along with the charity 5K benefitting the Salvation Army. Pictured above are photos of some of the guests featured in the podcasts and where we are located in Illinois. To get the full experience, follow our socials and listen to our weekly podcasts which can be found in the "Connect" tab (also linked below).
About The Founder
Hi! I'm Nicholas Delgado and I am the founder of the Going The Distance project and podcast. I started this podcast while I was a junior at Morton High School because of my involvement in my high school cross country team. My first idea was to create a podcast to promote local distance running in the central-Illinois area. This podcast paved the way for many other interesting ideas that I had which started with a yard sign fundraiser for my cross country team. All the proceeds went to our team's endowment fund at our local community bank. As talked about above, the organization snowballed into many other things as well such as the charity 5K run benefitting the Salvation Army. Read below to see what else I do outside of my podcast as I am extremely involved in my school and community!
Outside of the Organization
Holding the 3rd Place State Math Team Trophy
Playing Shakira Luster in chess at state 2023, a girl who was on Good Morning America
Running cross country at the East Peoria Invite 2022
On a family vacation in Turks and Caicos
There are many things that I do outside of the Going The Distance organization. I have played violin since age 5 and am the co-concertmaster of the Morton Symphonic Orchestra for the 2023-2024 school year. I am also in a small chamber music audition group called Prelude which travels around the area throughout the school year to play in gigs. To go along with my violin playing, I was also awarded the Ben Rumbold Musicianship Award for the 2022-2023 school year. This is a junior-only award given to someone who shows a drive to learn and improve at music as well as leading the orchestra in meaningful ways. I am also on the scholastic bowl team and during the 2022-2023 school year, we won our regional and qualified or sectionals for the first time in 7 years. I have played chess since first grade and became the board 1 (top board) at Morton High School during my junior year. I have qualified for state every year since it has been possible for me to do so (since 7th grade). I also volunteer at local grade schools twice a week during the school year and have helped develop the chess programs at these schools. In the summer, I work at the Morton Park District to help teach kids chess and I also give private lessons. I am a part of the chemistry and mathematics WYSE team at our school and have qualified for state in each subject in each year that I have participated. I've been good at math since I've been young and therefore, am also our school's top math team student. I won regionals in 2023 and placed second in 2021 and 2022. I was also a part of the regional champion 8-person team in 2023 which went on to place 4th in state. Individually, I placed 7th in state in both 2021 and 2022 and placed 3rd for a bronze medal in 2023. I was the leading scorer to catapult our junior algebra II team to win the state championship in the 2023 season (our top 4 juniors were the best in the state). Finally, I am in cross country and track. My running journey started in 8th grade cross country when my mom made me run and now, I run every day no matter what. I love to compete in local races to improve my PRs and see how my training directly affects my performance. I hope this segmant allowed you to learn more about me. Make sure to follow all the Going The Distance socials and keep up to date with our podcasts which can all be found in the "Connect" tab which is linked above.