Personal Narrative: Cross Country

Most people are all grown up when they finally figure out what they want to do with their life. I was 4. I realized what I wanted to be when I attended my very first Rodeo. Even though it was so long ago I can remember that day like it was yesturday. That day got me on the path to my future.

yelled as he pulled me up. Right as I looked into his deep blue eyes, I felt like I was in one of the cheesy romantic movies. It felt as though there was a spotlight shining on us, and we were the only ones in the world.

He ran in the marathon ,for he wanted to support his mother who suffered from a cancer relapse

By this time I would be on the track getting my workout in to run the 300 hurdles. I was solid in that event, but the events I took the most pride in was the 400 and the 4 by 4. It had been a rough ending to basketball season but this would be the major turning point for me. I could make it all up by going to state. My track coach knew my coach from middle school so she has heard quite a bit about me. I never really had training or anything I just ran at first. I started to do summer training and ran with a local track team. Coach George wanted me to run the 200. It was new to me so we trained in the mornings before school. She bought in the assistant coach and he had me and few more girls lined up on the track. He wanted us to stand side by side and sprint out and merge into lane one. It was kind of crazy because we were all kind of jumbled up together. The first time as I merged into lane one my legs tripped another girl and she fell so I felt bad. So the third time I tried to make sure I didn't trip anyone up because my legs were so long. I dodge tripping the same girl but I almost hit another. By the fourth time I was really just over it, I jerked my body one way and my hip went the other. I ended up limping to the finish line. I thought it was just a little kink and I could just pop it out. I was completely wrong. It was way worse than the ankle injury. I guess it was a sign from good telling me to

Last year I started a new sport, cross country. I only did it because my lacrosse coach said that it might help me get better for lacrosse. So I went to the first late summer practice last year to see what this was like, so then we did warm-ups and a lap around the track. Then it was the first time I met coach Chase, My first impression of him was going to be very strict, But soon realized that this was false because of one of the first things he said. He said “I know there are a lot of nerves here right now, but cross country isn’t about winning every race, that comes later” then continued with “Cross country is about showing what you can do to yourself.” This struck me very hard because I was not that fast and was near the back. Through that fall the team did very well, I also made some progress myself. After the season was over I made a decision.

Throughout the active school year, I take part in cross country, track and basketball. I also played volleyball for a year, but I decided to concentrate on my main passion, cross country, instead of dividing my time and attention into two sports at the same time. I have been running cross country ever since I was old enough to run in the munchkin races. The sport has been passed down through the family, almost every single one of my siblings have run or at least tried it. In track, I have ran the mile and two mile since the seventh grade. These last couple years I joined into the long distance relays. In 2016, the first year we decided to start a relay it consisted of my sister, Victoria, Tristen Ness, and Sammy Swanson. The first time we ran

Cross Country is one of the hardest sports out there. That may be a biased opinion, but in my experience it is true. Only certain people are willing to put themselves through such physical and mental pain for a race that is less than 30 minutes. I am a very driven person. When I want to do something, I set a goal and I work towards it until I have achieved it. That’s why cross country is such a satisfying sport for me. It’s hard--harder than anything I’ve ever done--but it’s so much more rewarding when you look back and see how much progress you’ve made. Cross country may seem like an individual sport, and it can be, but to succeed, you need your whole team’s effort. I have learned that not everyone is as driven as I am. Few people are willing to put in the hard work in practice to do well at meets.

Some people fracture a bone in their body; some break the same bone twice. A few rupture a bone from slipping on a rug. I happen to be one of the very few for whom both of these scenarios are true. Between the ages of five and seven, my parents enrolled me in a gymnastics class because I loved to tumble and twirl. I knew how to execute everything a little gymnast aimed for: a cartwheel, a handstand, and splits. I always tested my limits with the dream of getting to the Olympics. So, as any athlete, I practiced outside of the gym. However, a normal practice would turn out to crush my dream of winning the gold. Outside at my aunt's house, my cousins and I decided to practice what we learned in the class that week. I had diligently watched the older kids master a back handspring so I thought that I could tackle the challenge. All I remember is falling backwards, thinking I had stuck the landing. However, lying on the floor, I realized that my arm appeared abnormal and shooting pains came from all angles. I had broken my arm for the first time.

At first I just shrugged it off, but sooner than none the pain became so unbearable that the only alternative was to take a couple of weeks off and focus on recovery. During this time, I started biking and lifting weights to the extreme. Even though I was dealing with an injury I was training relentlessly; trying to get better as quick as possible was the only thing on my

I enjoy doing cross country in the fall of the my school year and track in the spring of my school year. I love running cross country after school because it’s a time I find relaxing and nice to breathe in the fresh air after running 3 miles. It’s also enjoyable to talk and bond with my friend on our 3 mile runs together. In the spring, I love hurdling because I enjoy the feeling of jumping over one obstacle after another. My favorite nonacademic activities are playing tennis and American Sign Language. During my free time, I like to play tennis with my friends, especially during the summer and at Weymouth Club. I also enjoy watching ASL videos on YouTube in my free time and learning how to sign new songs. It’s an awesome hobby I like to do

I first started running Cross Country in 7th grade. I had never run before, so I was on the low end of the team in terms of speed. I got faster as I ran, and could run longer as I increased my endurance. Soon the races commenced.

It was freezing cold out, and the coach had made the call that there was still going to be running today. Some of the runners on the cross-country team were relieved to hear this news, but I was frustrated with this weather. “Is there any way I can just run farther tomorrow? We’ve already had to run three to five miles each day for the past week,” I commented. “I know it’s tough running in this heat Michael, but it builds endurance and stamina,” coach replied. “You need to push through the heat in order to perform well.” Coach had been making us do mile repeats to prepare us for the next meet, but I was already feeling discouraged about the upcoming meet from my last performance. My goal was to make varsity before the end of the season, which

Over the summer of 2015, I drove to City Park to run in one of their many nature trails. I entered the trail focusing on my time, distance, and pace of my run; and not the beauty of the trails. The more I was on the trails the more I felt a part of all the vegetation surrounding me. Since these trails were marked by the City Park administration, I was able to read and learn about different plants, trees, and other foliage. I could also feel the cool breeze of the wind passing through the trees within the trails. This cool, gust of wind helped me enjoy my run and keep me cool while on the beautiful paths. At one point, the trail led me up hill for quite some time. Once I reached the top of the hill, my breath was taken away by view I

On mornings as cold as this, there were only a few things I imagine one could think of that might be an appropriate form of activity. A moderate list. Running would probably be somewhere towards the bottom of that list. Yet, there I was, struggling through hundreds of people in dri-fit T-shirts and above-the-knee level, elastic gym shorts. I’d never been a fan of unfamiliar crowds. I could learn to deal with that. As I moved around and did copious amounts of stretching to get my body ready for the task before me, I unknowingly would soon have to learn to deal with something much harder to overcome than unfamiliar crowds.

I stood at the top of the Park City water ramps, trying to balance the rational reasons for bowing out against my goal of learning and certifying a backflip on skis. To a barely five-foot eighth grader, the wooden jump seemed like a rickety and terrifying recipe for disaster. I was sure that my ill-fitting life vest would abandon me as I sank to the bottom of the pool, or that I would catch my sharp metal edges on the ramp and slam into the unforgiving concrete. I stood at the top and waited, even though there was no line. I dropped my skis; I felt detached from my body. Thoughts raced through my head. I concentrated on the mechanics of the jump, visualizing the backflip. I fought back intruding images of over-rotating and splatting the