My legs are screaming. Thud, thud, thud, feet pound the already beaten grass; arms pump in unison, the finish line is a blur. GO! Scream the spectators. Coaches pace up and down next to the line, perspiration dotting their faces and neck as they shake their stopwatches over their heads. There is a girl ahead of me, I have to get her, nobody passes us with a hundred meters to go, nobody. As I pound my way past her and slide through the finish line, my legs go to jelly. Energy levels exhausted, myself and other racers totter our way out of the line, another race completed.

I’ve been running cross country since I was a sophomore in high school, and with every passing season I find myself itching to come back for more. But why? Why would anyone volunteer their time to running up a hill five or six times for fun? For everyone there is a different reason. Some love the “runner’s high”, that feeling you get after a hard workout and you feel fantastic. Others like how it gets them in shape. For me, running is very liberating, there is nothing like the feeling of being able to run fast and have the world all passing you by in a flash. I sometimes feel like a vampire in Twilight, not that any of us actually run that fast, but the incredible feeling of adrenaline that I get with running is hard to find in any other sport.

A typical practice lasts for about two hours. The coaches push us hard, and they have high expectations for the team. Whenever we feel like we can’t give more, our legs are rung out like rags for that last bit of energy. Long grueling practices are exhausting physically, mentally, and emotionally. I think one of the most important skills to have is mental toughness. In a sport like cross country, you are inevitably trying to out think the person next to you. How much can you take? How much can they take? Physically someone may be completely capable of winning a race, but if they aren’t ready for it mentally, they won’t succeed.

Personally, whenever you run, I believe you should run with your heart. No matter what you have going on in your life, when you run, you leave it all behind. Whether that be for twenty, forty, or sixty minutes it doesn’t matter; time can pause for you to go back to a much simpler time in your life, when things weren’t as complicated. As little kids, we chase our friends and siblings across fields and backyards, all for the heck of it. There is nothing stopping us from doing that as we grow up. Before the state competition in Colorado Springs, I can remember standing in our team huddle, doing our team prayer, and feeling the sickening hole in my stomach widen as I realized that this would be my last official cross country race. Trudging back to the starting line, muscles tensing with the anticipatory anxiety that could only be alleviated with the start of the race, I stopped us all to remind us of that. It doesn’t matter how old you are, or what you look like, everyone has one thing in common, heart. What makes you stand out is how much heart you can put into one race and make an impact on your team.

Distance running is unique from other sports in that you are most likely going to be surrounded by the same group of people everyday. It’s a great place to get to know people, and make long lasting relationships. If you do cross country for multiple seasons, you will have been running with the same people for many years. Realizing that you are going to leave these people is very emotional. You learn about the “fluffy” stuff like what your teammates like to eat, their hobbies, their favorite songs, and then you learn about their character, how hard they work in practice, what drives them. Running purifies. It brings people together.

As a senior, I have loved making connections with younger runners. Everything they do is somehow nostalgic to me; I can remember the days where I didn’t know how to tie my chip into my shoe, I can remember the days where I didn’t know what a “threshold” run was in comparison to a “race pace” run. The innocence of their humor, the innocence of their actions, is humbling to be around.
Whether you run only to get to the cookie jar, or maybe just as a mile in your workout, cross country is still something everyone should think about getting involved in. If not for the running, then the people. Make connections, make long lasting friends, and learn to love the simplicity of a sport that we’ve all been doing since we were little. Go run!