To Be A Cross Country Runner

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

“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.

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.

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

Cross Country is a sport that is more about your mental strength than physical strength. It's all about whether you can keep running even if your exhausted. Cross Country strategy is very simple but it's hard to accomplish because not many people are willing to push themselves to finish the strategy.

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.

First of all, most are aware that there is a very large absence of sports that Kihei Charter School offers to its students. Although there is a lack of a variety of sports to be involved in, cross country is one of the many quality teams we have at our school. Among the many perks of this sport, becoming a more socially active with other athletes is a very important one. There are a few hundred students at Kihei Charter School who barely even know their peers. Since the cross country team is open to all grades at any skill level, there is a wide variety of people who run with

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.

After working they would go back to coach and run from four, six, eight, or even ten miles and would have to run back home. Their parents worked very hard but barely had enough to manage the house, all of the runners ran with just schools shoes. The school eventually had the funds to buy each of the runners a pair of shoes. Arax went on and stated “With runners drawn from farmworker families too poor to buy racing shoes, the McFarland High cross-country team has won five state titles in a row, a feat unmatched in any sport by any high school in California. They've beaten the rich kids from Carmel Valley and the surfer kids from Laguna Beach. They've beaten prep schools, suburban schools, Indian reservation schools and the big boys from L.A.” Everyone is probably amazed, look at that they beat all those schools in order for them to capture state not once but several of times. They don't practice in what you call the best conditions but around the fields they live in and next to those fields is a big dairy farm that of course has a bad small but they manage to run past it. Mcfarland goes by the poorest cities of California with not just by the economical status but how most of the kids are

This sport affects my leadership attitude more than anything else. Cross country is a difficult sport, and everyone needs to have mental toughness. By encouraging my teammates, I indirectly impact the results of their race. It is easier to run well with a positive mindset rather than complaining. For example, before the biggest competitions of the year, the conference and the districts race, I wrote notes to my teammates. My goal was to motivate each runner to perform her best.

After another great year of running and training, Chino Hill’s Cross-Country team ended with an amazing season. Throughout all the hard-core training and rigorous races, both the boy's and girl's teams had successful results. Injuries had been a recurring problem, as some runners didn't train during the summer. Despite struggles and injuries that had occurred throughout the season, there were many improvements and achievements in the team. In League the Girl’s Varsity Team won first, and the Boy's Varsity Team achieved second. The Boy’s JV, Frosh/Sophomore, as well as the Girl's JV placed second. In Boy's Varsity the top runners were, Andrew Arvizu, Jake Bergmann, and Noah Rehfeldt, and the Girl's Varsity the top runners were, Rachele Sunagawa,

Do you ever look at the high school cross country team and think they look just like MT’s cross country team. Sometimes you can but sometimes not. That's because both teams share things in common but have lots of differences. They are full of different ages and separate their team in different ways. But they both love to practice after school and welcome anyone on to the team.

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.

Running is in my blood. If you ask my parents, they will tell you as soon as I learned to walk, I ran everywhere I went.There are pictures of me at 18 months old chasing my dad as he mowed the lawn. It was difficult to convince me to walk anywhere. I’m a little bit older now but not much has changed. I’ve been running for PD since 8th grade, and it was a mistake that I didn’t start in 7th. Every year I have shown growth in not only my times, but also my character and attitude toward the team. As each season went by, I’ve come to realize how PDXC is more than just a team: it’s a family. During my freshman year at camp in Boone, Coach Hovis had a speech that conveyed how and why PDXC is a family. I remember almost scoffing at that in 9th grade,