Descriptive Essay About Running

Of the more than twenty million Americans who are running today, most who start do so for the wrong reasons, with the wrong attitude, and tend to lose interest after a few weeks or months. Many quit. This is usually because they become concerned with superficial goals such as time and distance and never discover the more profound mental benefits that running offers. (Lilliefors 15)

“In running, it doesn’t matter whether you come in first, in the middle or last. You can say, ‘ I finished’ There is a lot of satisfaction in that” - Fred Lebow. I began cross country in eighth grade shortly after my brother joined the year before. He enjoyed it a lot, so I thought it would be fun. I’ve been on the team for two years. I would like to run for the rest of my life. Cross country changed my life positively forever. It taught me to push myself past what I thought was my limit. It revealed to me a great community of people and it taught me to leave my comfort zone.

When I began as a high school freshman, it quickly became a normal as well as an essential part of life. I ate, I slept, I sometimes did homework, and I ran but, not necessarily in that order.

Although I had only participated in the school Cross Country team for two years, I felt very connected to the team and wish I had participated my sophomore and freshmen year as well. Over the two seasons, I have made many great friends and learned the importance of working hard to achieve my goals. Throughout my life, my parents have pushed me academically, but never really encouraged me to try hard in sports or physical activities. Cross country filled that void for me and helped me become a more well-rounded person.

In all my life, I’ve never had a commitment that required so much of me as track and field, both physically and mentally. Towards the end of my high school career, track and field for me meant having to push through a difficult physical condition known as tarsal coalition, a condition that causes inflammation in my feet. With help from my coaches, I had to learn to endure past physical limitation and strengthen my faith in my abilities. By doing so, I became more confident in myself and I was able to help lead other team members to do the same. Not only did track and field teach me to lead, but it also taught me how to be a part of a team. I learned the value of teamwork through building relay race teams. In all relay races, I was either the

I wasn’t always a runner. Some kids are born into the running cult, but not me. We have a treadmill in our basement that my parents occasionally use when they got on a health kick, but neither of them pushed me to be a runner. During the summer of sixth grade, my mother was talking to our neighbor in our driveway. While they were standing on the blistering pavement, the subject of Cross Country came up. My neighbor’s son was on the high school team and it was doing a

I’ve always had a desire for running and when I heard Richland Center High had a Cross Country team, I knew I wanted to be on it! When I did start, it was tough. There were times my sanity would ask, “ WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE YOU

I had heard about the cross country team but I didn’t know anyone who was a part of it. The cross country team was full of girls who were welcoming and shared the same passion for running as me. I was putting in a lot of time into this team, from long practices everyday and meets every Wednesday and Saturday, but I wouldn’t have had it any other way. I was able to mentor the younger members on the team and share my love for running with them. After being a part of this team for three years, together, we have won three consecutive senate championships and developed a bond like no other.

I used to be able to run so fast I could fly. Racing through the woods behind my house I was untouchable, unbeatable; I imagined I was a graceful as a fox and as fast as a deer racing over bushes, logs, and ditches. Running served as an escape from the perfect student, perfect manners persona I adopted in the classroom allowing me to break out of my shy shell and go from being ¨the teacher’s pet¨ to ¨the fast girl.¨ My love of running-- as well as my parents-- drove me to play soccer; I ditched my goody two shoes for cleats and never looked back. I could chase down any opponent and outrun any defender, through sports I completely let my boundaries down.

I often get asked by friends why I run cross country. They wonder why I think running is fun and how I can run so far. Although there are days I often ask myself why I run cross country, the answer is simple, it is fun and we are all crazy for joining a sport that is other sports punishments. Cross country is an amazing sport that doesn’t get enough recognition. Even if there are days where I hate practice because of a workout or don’t do well in a race, at the end of the day I still get support from the team no matter what happens.

In the world today, people have created different hobbies for themselves. Many people like to read different books from different genres. Some like to do life changing experiments for science. Some like to engineer robots that could help us in the near future. Some people like to run and run and run until they know that they accomplished something. This includes me. I enjoy running because it helps me ease of stress, in a way, and helps me grow my strength. And because I enjoy running, I decided to join the Cupertino Middle School cross country. Here I started to on the weekdays, not including Thursday, with a lot of other people. We would run around 2-3 miles everyday thinking that “good enough” is not enough. We went to many meets against

I take a deep breath, as I am waiting on the 4th lane of the track. The marshall yells his command,

Sports differ in many ways even the things that should be the same can be complete opposites. I have played football, basketball, soccer, track, and cross country and I never payed attention to running in any of those sports except for in track and cross country. I did not notice the amount of running I did in all those sport until I had to only focus on the running aspect. To this day I can say I have learned lessons in all of my sports, but running sports have taught me the most. Running is mandatory in so many sports, yet it has presented some of the largest obstacles for a me to overcome mentally.

Running is easy, enjoyable and is very social. Many people see running as a good place to meet new people and enjoyable to do, it is also one of the easiest ways to exercise. Running can be very fun, it is easy because you need no experience to run. Training for races is also fun it can be done by men and women, girls and boys at any age. You can meet new people who can be very social able, you can meet new people by either running by yourself or with a friend or spouse. People of all sizes and races and ages can run it is a great way to meet new people and a great way to exercise.

Many see the foible of running, for they believe it is repetitive and boring. Those who say that have a good point. After all, one is just moving quickly down a long, straight, unchanging asphalt road with no electronics to play with or nothing to eat or drink. They do not understand that running is very versatile