Cross country has made an impact on myself and has changed me forever. Cross country is really a sport that starts to make you realize in the middle of the race you’re in say to yourself, “Why am I doing this?” Some of the most fun experiences that happened to me came because of cross country. I would say I am definitely a tougher person mentally because of how hard I pushed myself when I was running.
I first started doing cross country in the sixth grade. The previous spring I had tried spring track and liked it enough to try and do cross country. I remember it being very different from track, as the distances were longer. I enjoyed practice as me and a few friends would run. However, when my first race came, I thought I had done enough to prepare myself. Well, I was pretty wrong. I came in way towards the back of the pack, and felt really out of breath after my first race ever. I was really disappointed with myself, and got frustrated easily. The rest of the season was better, as I improved. The rest of middle school cross country was pretty much like the first season. I would go to practice once a week and race about six times a year. I never really was dedicated to the sport as I never ran by myself or did anything else to really improve myself. I wasn’t even sure if I wanted to do it in high school. With a little bit of help from my dad friends, I decided I would do cross country in high school.
Freshman year of high school cross country I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t run on my own and went right into the first summer practice. It was hot, and I didn’t hydrate as much as I should have. So the first practice we did something called cruise miles. Cruise miles are where you just run a mile, have a short break in between, then start the next mile. I remember I could only run two miles, and during the third I was told to stop because I was running too slow. I knew that it was going to be hard and I would be better next season, so I wasn’t stressed at all. The first race went just like the first one of middle school. I was slow, and didn’t do anywhere near as good as I wanted to. I felt terrible, but knew it was still early. The next race however, I ran a huge pr (personal record), and built off of that each race in the season. Every race I got better and cut off around 30 seconds on my times in the freshman races. I went from running around 10:00 minutes for 1.6 miles to 10 minutes. After the last race of the season, I knew that I would be more than prepared for running cross country since I was going to do winter and spring track.
In the summer of 2015, this was where I really became serious about running. I previously would run about five to six times a week while training with the team. However, this summer i decided to do the same thing on my own. I started doing 35, 40 and 45 minute runs on my own. Sometimes I would even do 75 minute long runs on my own which is not that easy to do at all. I really wanted to improve and I could feel myself getting faster. The whole summer I had no stress of races and enjoyed running. So when the first race came, I did so bad I instantly became frustrated. It was only a duel meet, or in other words a race where you run against a few schools. I knew I had a race in a few days, and eventually prepared myself for it. It was an INSTANT success, and I ran a huge pr. That was eventually what would happen the rest of the season. I would pretty much only run prs and have good races. I ran a personal best of 18:09 and my season was over… or so I thought.
I eventually received a text from my coach if I wanted to run in a race in New York that was called regionals. I immediately said yes, and was so happy that all the hard work had paid off. I trained for two weeks where I probably trained some of the hardest in my life. I was with a small group of people and eventually race day already was here. The first half of the race was all uphill, and I felt so exhausted at the end that I ran only 18:47. However, if you convert the time to I ran to the course I ran an 18:09 at, I would have ran 17:47 on that course. I was so excited with this season and knew that everything I did really paid off. Of course I continued to do winter and spring track and field after this. Eventually came next summer, which meant cross country was back.
In the summer of 2016, I kept on running like I normally did. I increased my easy runs to around 40-50 minutes, and long runs were the same of normally 70 minutes. This summer training felt longer, and the summer seemed much warmer than the previous one. After a long summer of hard work, it was back to racing season. However, this season was filled with disappointments. I wasn’t PRing, and I had to change my form and shorten my stride a bit. I struggled in the first few races with my new form, and didn’t cut off as much time as I wanted to. I improved on some courses where I previously ran only around high 18 minutes, but did not really improve that much. This season was frustrating and made me really look forward to winter track. My form was taking a lot of getting used to and I struggled a lot. However, after a bad winter and spring season, I was looking forward to the final push of senior year.
Going into senior year, the summer of training was rough. I just did my first full season after I missed a full season from injury during the winter. Missing two to three months of running can really set you back, and it did to me. I struggled that summer, especially during workouts. When the first race came, I struggled badly and was considering to stop running. I was starting to get as mad as ever as all the hard work I was doing wasn’t translating into success. I was sleeping better, stretching more and drinking more water to help for the season. The results weren’t coming in, and I wasn’t happy with what was happening. The next race however, was one of the best of my four years. I went out in the first mile at a normal pace, then the second started getting tired at the 2 mile mark. However, during the third mile, I gained so much unexpected energy and just ran as fast as I could. I started passing a lot of people, and the finish line eventually came. I ran a personal best of 17:45. I truly felt like the hard work that I did came back and worked in my favor. During the rest of the season though, it didn’t translate. My team ended up winning our conference, but I didn’t have a good race. I did grow really close with my teammates during this season, and this season really made me dig down and figure out what I had left in me.
Overall, cross country was one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life. It taught me how to use 100% of what I had into action. There were times where I have never felt so tired in my life, while also I was in the best shape of my life. I made some friendships here that will last a very long time, and made bonds with a lot of people. At times, I really wondered why I was doing this sport, while during other times I was saying wow I know exactly why I am doing this. If I did not do cross country, I would be a completely different person today and would not be nearly as mentally tough as it made me become.
Brian's Blog 