Cross Country

Race Day

Race day is one of my favorite and least favorite things about Cross Country. I love the thrill of running and the good feeling you after you finish. At the start my anxiety always get really high and I'm scared I'm going to fail.

I'm really going to miss it when I graduate. I'm really miss all of it. The team, the craziest workouts that afterwords I feel so tired, but at the same time really proud of myself because I survived. I didn't quit or give up I'm still alive. I will miss all sorts of things about cross country. It's been part of my life all of JH and most of high school. My team has always been there and it's crazy to think we all have to move on at some point.

Anyway this chapter is about race day. On race day I always feel kinda excited, but also kinda nervous. Here a race from my perspective.

We normally ride on the bus. I look around and see everyone talk so I put some headphones in get pumped up to some music. (Look playlist from before). When we get there we grab our stuff and head out to a place that we claim as ours.

From there we all probably head to the bathroom before going and jogging/ walk the trail. Afterwards say we are up to run next so we go and get ready. Then we go warm up. Basically running around with me trailing behind breathing heavily and wave an arm in the sign for come back.

Time flies when you feel like your going to die so we are finally stretching up and doing different little exercises to warm up. We all head out to talk to Coach and get some inspiration.  After a bit we all get called up to the guy with the flag.

As always he tell us the rules and we as a team start creeping out the other teams by holding hands. As we get back to the start line. Everything is quiet and you can hear everyone breathing and times seems to freeze for a second. Like it's stopped completely and life has just paused. Then it all comes rushing back into focus as the official fires the gun.

The next thing you know your running without even a thought. Pretty soon everyone has separate's out and pretty soon mile after mile is gone.

You hear everyone yelling around you as the finish comes into sight. You hear your self breathing heavily and you focus in on the finish line thinking how far it is from you and then you take off. Your picking up speed and pretty soon your at a dead sprint. You see the person beside you and they are pulling a head of you so you pick up just a little more speed giving it all you got. You pull a head and finish.

As soon as you finish you feel your breath catch in your throat. You feel the exhilaration in your bones and the exhaustion weighing heavy on you. The official are pawing at you and pushing you forward. Finally, you get your water and if your me you dump it on your head and then steal another one and down it.

I then start looking around and see my friends, my family, every time I see one of them I say good job and finically I find my mom and fall into her arms as she pats my back and says, "Good job."

I know I have never been first. I have never won a medal, but to me that doesn't matter because it's about the team not the medals or my placing. It's about how I feel after I run.