The Reality of Running Cross Country by Nuala Hynes

Most people consider cross country to be easy because "all you have to do is run". The same people complain about running the mile during gym, or when their sports force them to run a lap around the school. What they don't understand is that running a mile is our warm-up before we even start our workout and that after our workout, we run another mile as a cool-down. Most people would complain throughout our mile repeats, our track workouts, our fartlek workouts but as cross country runners, we just suck it up and deal with the pain. During rainy meets, when all you want to do is curl up in your bed and watch Netflix, you have to cheer on your team mates through the pouring rain and treat the mud as a slip and slide during your race. Most sports would just cancel their games but cross country meets go off even when it is dangerous to run, even when its pouring, even when twenty people fall as soon as the gun goes off because its that slippery. The initial stampede is something out of an epic battle scene in the movies, runners dropping like flies as you fly down the field, piercing war cries echoing all around you as your team mates cheer you on from sidelines. Even though you may want to walk in that first 100 meters because you at a full-out sprint, you will be trampled. That thought is basically the only thing to keep you going and that nobody wants to deal with the ridicule of their team mates after they walk. Continuing through the race, once you hit the 2-mile mark, the only thing that makes you continue is that once you get to the end, you can finally collapse/throw-up/cry or all three. I wish I could say that finishing the race is what makes it all worth it, but that would be a lie. All the hard workouts and the daily stretches that keep you from breaking don't make every race worth the pain. Some races make it worth it. The ones where you get a 30 second personal record or the ones where you feel like you don't have to collapse at the end. But in some races, your team makes the pain worth it. They depend on you for points and they depend on you to be their shoulder to lean on once they finish. They depend on you to cheer them on so they don't give up. They depend on you to stay with them as they throw up and wait for them by the bathrooms because they do the same for you. You depend on them to share their bagels and water with you and you depend on them for all the same things.
- Nuala Hynes