Personal Narrative: The Monmouth-Roseville Cross Country Team

I refused to ever let someone replace me on the track again. Not only did I earn that respect, I demanded it. My workouts were no longer a social hour, but a boot camp. I was the hardest working undersized athlete in the program. My junior track season finally arrived, yet once again I would not have the chance to compete for a junior varsity district championship. No, this year I competed for a varsity district championship. My efforts in the offseason led to a promotion on the team. The lingering emotions of anger and disappointment were replaced with gleaming pride. My previous failure had propelled me to success within a single

The flags are in sight and off on a wild sprint! I’m going and across the line I am! Exhausted but satisfied. I thought I saw my time was 28 minutes. I had to know the seconds. ( Yes, every second counts.) I was preparing myself mentally for what my time would be. I was eager to know. I ran to my Coach as soon as he was in sight. I ran to him and I immediately asked for my times. He told me and I had to see for myself. 28:04. 28:04!! I was excited! I can’t remember if I jumped up and down or not. Wouldn't be surprising. One thing I did for sure was, walked away and cried. Not only was it 28:04. It was my heart's desire. Coming close to the end of the season, I couldn’t see myself running a varsity time. So the lowest time I hoped I’d get would be 28 and it was!!

For the past three years I’ve been a part of a team that has shaped me into the person I am today. The John Hay cross country team has given me qualities that genuinely made me a better person such as being confident, disciplined, motivated, and a leader. Not only did running help me express these attributes, it also saved my life.

This will help me in the future to remind me to be happy, and grateful for the opportunity to run as I do in my life. This race changed my point of view of “opportunity” to try and do things right the first time, and if I don’t, then forget about it because I can’t change it. Before this race, I felt as if I failed, everything was over, and the disappointment would never leave. For example, if I ran a terrible race, with a terrible time, I couldn't stop thinking about it for WEEKS. Now, I let it go and forget it ever happened. This also keeps me humble, by not letting me think about my accomplishments for too long, because there’s always a new opportunity. Walt Disney once

The final seconds of a cross country meet when you are sprinting down the straight away, looking at the finish line, trying to beat just one more person, is one of the most mentally and physically exhausting moments I’ve ever encountered. In the Fall of 2014 things just clicked with our girls cross country team. Winning Bi-county, Conference, Sectional, and advancing to Regional and Semi-state, was unexpected to everyone around us. Losing five of our seven varsity runners the year before got us moved from our small school rank of 3rd to 13th. Getting moved ten spots on that list motivated us even more to prove to everyone what we could do without those graduated seniors.

So I decided to keep running. I knew that I may be a little more sore tomorrow, but if I was going to accomplish my goals I had to work hard. I kept running, and toward the last mile I began to really feel the burn, but I did push and finished with plenty of time to spare. That practice is what I thought of as i crossed the finish line with a smile on my face. As I headed back to camp still beaming about my time I thought to myself,

It was time to go out to our exchange zones and set up our marks. My team said their last good lucks to each other and we departed to our zones. I could smell the fresh air and see the red track. As all the participants and I walked around the track, my stomach quickly refilled with butterflies. Finally, we had reached the third exchange zone where I set up my marks in lane eight. Then I did a few practice take offs and pretend handoffs. I looked over behind me to see a familiar face, Coach

“Good Job keep going, you can do it, run run faster, you got this!” These were the words coming from the audience as I was finishing my last 100 meters in the cold, pouring, rain during sectionals. I was in second place in my heat and my heart was thumping and I couldn't see through the water stains on my glasses, but I heard someone someone breathing hard and their spikes hitting the track as they ran behind me and I knew I had to push even harder.I remembered the rough trading I had in practice and knew I could do it.

Then, we heard on the loudspeakers, 6th graders, line up for the run. So, I lined up with the butterflies in my stomach now multiplying. There were around a 100 other kids lined and I felt like I was the peanut butter being squished in a sandwich. A man went in front of us, and started the countdown to start. My heart started pounding out of my chest and my stomach felt a sudden ache. The man shot the starter gun, and we were off.

All of us were going to run a mile and a 50 yard dash. They called us up seven at a time, and after about an hour of waiting they call my number. I nervously walk up to the start and stand on number 5. Shaking head to toe I get into the starting position. I feel like a racehorse about to come out of the starting gate. I look to my left and up in the bleachers I see Elle give me a smile and a big thumbs up.

I led a few stretches, ran a few warmup laps, and headed up to the stands. With my parents and teammates beside me, I felt ready to go, until my race was called. Then my heart dropped and the pressure of not false-starting, successfully passing the baton, and running faster than I ever have fell on me. My Coach led the three other runners and me down a tunnel to the track. Then we are placed in order by heat and leg

Throughout the following weeks, I had several opportunities to reflect on our season. The hard-earned wins, the repetitive losses, the adjustments we made. My senior year wasn’t the dream season I had hoped for, but I realized that from unexpected losses true leaders are born. I honestly hope that I left an impression on the underclassmen: to have determination, to be a leader, and to never quit on yourself or your team. These qualities don’t always lead to wins on the field, but they do lead to success in

One gloomy day, my gym teacher knowing that I had been in track for a while, asked me if I would like to be in our first ever track team. The first thought that came to my mind was, did I finally find something that’s worthy of running for?

We were fighting the pain to make it to the last two races of the season, Regionals and States. Regionals was a very emotional race for us. The previous year we were defeated by Parkersburg and was unable to attend states. We had ruined the streak for the girls varsity of PHS to make it to states. We were devastated. This race was different than the others. This race determined who ran in states. We knew we had to give it our all. At the start line, Coach wrote a “1” on our leg to keep in mind the one year we didn’t make it to states. We knew that staying home this year was not an option. We raced hard with everything we had. As everyone finished we had this feeling of defeat. We cried and just put ourselves down. We were not confident in our performances. Coach Martin and P. Sines knew it was a close race. However they had more information than we did. They knew the results. They watched us cry as a team and continue to believe we didn’t make top three. This was the moment I will never forget. “Coming in third place is…..PRESTON HIGH SCOOOOOOL” announced the official. No longer were we crying sad tears. We were crying tears of

My basketball team had just finished traveling Connecticut winning game after game to end up finally making it to the state championships, coming in second place by a small margin. I was energized and felt insurmountable. This attitude quickly changed however, as a result of undertaking a new sport in the fall season of my freshman year: cross country.