Choosing the right sport.

If you would’ve asked me a year ago if I would ever do cross country I would’ve said no. I always thought that running was a stupid sport. Oh my has my perspective on that changed, but that’s what I always used to think. I never realized it but I’ve always loved running. I used to do karate and we had to run a certain distance to get our next belt. I used to run during the summer as a challenge and so I could say that I did something productive with my summer. I did modified soccer last year and we did a mile fitness test and I came in first. When I did modified track I ran the 1500 and the 800 and by no means were my times good, but I was good in comparison to everyone else in modified.

Over this past summer I signed up for cross country and soccer because I couldn’t make a decision on which to choose. I had my mind set on doing soccer, but I had people trying to convince me to do cross country. I was nervous about joining XC because I thought I would do terrible. I continued to run throughout the summer because It had become a habit. All summer I thought about which sport to pick; soccer or cross country or soccer or cross country... I just couldn’t make the decision. Finally the summer was coming to and end and pre-season practices started the next week, I had to make a choice !! Just a couple days before practice started I made the decision. I was going to do cross country. I was nervous and scared I was going to come in last. I was scared that everyone would judge me because I had siblings who had run in the past.

A couple weeks into practice we did a time trial 5k. Suprisingly I stayed with the top girl until the last 200 meters of the trial. I thought in my head “well this isn’t real, everyone must be taking it down a notch because it’s a time trial, once we start racing I’ll probubly come in last.” I carried on this thought into the first few meets of the season. Our first was a dual meet and I was super nervous! All the older kids were talking about how bad the course is, and that made me more nervous. Once we started I was very worried that I started off to fast because everyone else on my team was behind me. I finished in 5th and I was again astonished. A couple days later we had our first invitational. I still had that thought in my head that everybody just wasn’t trying and that they were all gonna smoke me during the race. Because of this thought, I started of the race really slow and got cut off instantaneously. Suprisingly I made up some ground and ended up finishing 22nd out of 200 girls. This was when I started to really realize that I had some talent.

Fast forward to now I’m a runner. I have stopped playing soccer, karate, and other small activities I did on the side. I run all year round. I’m focused on running and being the best I can be. I still haven’t figured out how to really race, but I’m getting there, and next year I will come back better than ever. In the one year between modified track and varsity track I have dropped 40+ seconds off my 1500 time. Let’s see how much I can drop off my 5k time next fall.

- Anonymous