It was a really early morning in the late summer of 2004. My seventh grade school year hadn’t even begun yet. My mom took me into the high school for my first cross country practice ever. I would never have guessed that day would be the rest of my life.
I remember that day very clearly. When I walked into the hallway by the gym, there were people that were at least five years older than I and others that were my age. I only recognized a few faces. Everyone was sitting and waiting for the coach to come and tell us the workout for the day. He finally did tell us the workout was mile repeats around the softball fields after a mile and a half warm up loop. I couldn’t believe that we would have to do a mile and a half just for a warm up. At that time, that would have been a workout in itself for me.
I made it through the warm up. Everyone was going so fast. I was already tired, and the workout hadn’t even begun yet. Again, the workout was mile repeats. I figured one and I would die afterwards, if I even made it through the whole thing. I ended up running two, which was a lot back then. I remember only one other person was in seventh grade, which was Mark Wilcox, who also did two. We eventually ran together for quite a while.
I stayed with it because I figured if both of my brothers could do it and they are still alive, then maybe I could do it, too. I have been in cross country ever since. Cross country has taken me to some interesting places and meeting some cool people. For example, at the end of eight grade, I went to Chicago with Mariah Hofer, and we both ran in the National USATF (USA Track and Field) Meet. We have become very good friends ever since then. Last winter, the team went to Kenosha, Wisconsin to run in the Footlocker Cross Country Meet. This fall, the boys’ squad hopes to go to Nike Team Nationals (NTN) in Portland, Oregon. That is one of our team goals for this year.
I have run ever since that dreadful day in seventh grade. Sometimes I wonder what it would be like if I hadn’t run just that one day and joined cross country.