Just listening to Michelle Bauer describe her typical day is enough to make most of us need a nap.

Wake up at 5:30 a.m. Cross country practice. Weight training. A shower. Maybe breakfast. Classes. Lunch. More classes. Studying. Dinner. Club meetings.

“There were plenty of times that I had to eat and brush my hair in my morning classes,” she recalled with a laugh. “My professors probably thought I just rolled out of bed, but really I had been up for like four hours.”

By the time she got back to her dorm room around 7 p.m., Bauer had already been going for well over 13 hours — leaving just enough time to take a breath before having to do it all over the next day to maintain her incredible academic and athletic standing.

“Honestly, I think being busy was part of the key,” Bauer said. “For me, the busier I was, I was able to accomplish more and more and more.”

Bauer, a St. Marys native, traded in the quiet rural life for the bustling coastal city and the oak and pine trees for those of the palm variety when she made the move to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to attend Nova Southeastern University.

But she didn’t let that 1,300-mile trek impact her on the track or in the classroom.

In fact, she did so well academically in her three years at Nova (a Division II school in the Peach Belt Conference) that she’ll be graduating this month — a year early.

And she did so well running — she was the Sharks’ top cross country runner for two seasons and was named the school’s top female athlete — that she has the chance to run at the D-I level when she starts law school next fall.

“I actually heard about Nova from my sister (Rachel), who is a year older than I am and was at school not far away in Daytona at the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University,” Bauer recalled. “I emailed the cross country coach and checked out their program to see if they had a spot for me. I won the leadership scholarship on top of what I was getting for athletics so it also ended up being the cheapest option for me.”

A 2017 graduate of St. Marys High School, Bauer certainly justified those scholarships during her three years in Broward County.

Just how well did Bauer do in the classroom? She earned a 4.0 GPA despite an incredibly full class load that featured a major in finance as well as four minors: Honors Transdisciplinary Studies, Spanish, International Business and Experiential Leadership.

“Any free time that I had from the moment I got up to the time I got back to my room, I tried to be proactive,” Bauer said of how she was able to manage her course load and her practice schedule. “I loved getting my work done ahead of time … any assignments I got I would do them right away.”

Bauer was recognized with several awards this season, but none more impressive than being named the Peach Belt Conference’s Female Elite 15 winner for track and field. It’s an honor traditionally presented to the athlete with the highest overall cumulative GPA competing at the conference championships. With the cancellation of spring sports due to COVID-19, however, the field was expanded to all PBC athletes in the sport.

“I think it’s all really humbling,” she said. “Going in as a freshman, I wasn’t expecting to win all these awards. I like to say that I was a little fish in a big sea coming from PA to a huge city. I felt really out of place in the beginning but I was able to adjust.”

BAUER first began running in fifth or sixth grade when she ventured out to a local 5K with one of her cousins.

“We were looking at everybody running and we saw this one older gentleman and thought, ‘At least we won’t come in last,’” Bauer jokingly recalled. “Turns out he beat us and then we made it our goal to beat him the following year. From there, I just loved (running).”

At St. Marys, Bauer won the district championship and a state medal in cross country, helped the 3,200 relay team to a district medal during the track season and was named St. Marys’ Female Athlete of the Year.

That success continued at Nova Southeastern where she finished fourth in the 10K at the PBC Championships in both 2018 and 2019. She finished her career with three top-five finishes in the 10K and three more in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. In the fall seasons, Bauer was the Sharks’ top cross country runner in both her freshman and junior seasons.

Even with all of that success, Bauer admits that training for those long distances — both physically and mentally — is exhausting.

“I think from my standpoint, running long distances is probably one of the hardest and most difficult things you can do,” she said. “Just think, in the (10k event) you are running 25 laps around the same track. It’s a huge mental game where you are battling and it’s all about what you do to keep you in your mindset. After lap 10, what makes you want to go 15 more? Even though you’re in pain and you’re suffering, what makes you want to keep going?”

One of the things that Bauer uses to keep going is to give herself a little pep talk in Spanish.

It’s only a three-word phrase, but it’s certainly helped Bauer when things get challenging in those final laps.

“I tell myself, ‘Si se puede,’ and that just means, ‘you can do it,’” Bauer said. “One of the things I did in high school and in college is I didn’t settle. That’s one of the biggest misfortunes is to settle into a pace and not push yourself.”

LIKE SO many athletes around the world, Bauer’s spring sports season was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

She was able to run one in one track meet in the 5K event and was gearing up to be one of the school’s top distance runners in conference action before the season was suspended and then ultimately canceled.

“It’s disheartening because I feel like this season I was in the best shape of my life,” Bauer said. “I ran in (the opening meet) and was running faster paces than I ever had and I was super excited to hit new (personal records) this year.

“When you start out in sports, people always tell you not to take it for granted and that it’ll be over before you know it. And you don’t really understand it at the time, but now it’s like, ‘Oh crap, is it really over?”

Ultimately, Bauer is happy that she took a chance on a school over 1,000 miles away in Fort Lauderdale and is grateful for her time at Nova Southeastern.

And though it’ll be an added bonus if she’s able to continue her running career at the D-I level while attending law school, she’s pleased with what she was able to accomplish through her first three years of college — mostly by persevering with some serious hard work and dedication.

“Two key things never changed: I wanted to run my hardest, just like I did in high school, and I wanted to achieve the same grades, just like I did in high school,” she said. “Those two things stuck with me.

“Things were tough at times. I had to get up early for practices and stay up late to study. But it was a humbling experience to stay with my goals and to keep up with what I wanted.”