Personal Narrative: My Love At The Cross Country Team

With my relay team stretched,warmed up, and ready to go, we headed towards the stadium where we would race against the fastest girls in the nation. Intimidated but not deterred we headed out of Tent City and into the gates of Turner Stadium. Knowing this was my last race I would run with my close friends and relay team, being it 's the last race of the season and we all weren’t going to be in the same age group next year, I had a whole new mind set. I was constantly thinking, “we have to make top ten because we can make top ten.” “We have the times, we have the strength, we have the speed, we just need to have the guts to walk in there like we are going to shred the track into pieces.

To me, running is the greatest feeling I could ever feel. In my elementary days I knew I was the fastest kid on the playground. So naturally when I got to high school track was a must for me. My first track meet I was so nervous it felt like my heart was in my stomach. Then as I set myself up in my blocks, close my eyes, and wait for the gun to go off it was like everything went quiet.

Cross country has helped me with my transition from childhood and adulthood by teaching me that success is earned through hard work, determination, and leading by example. That's what I did after my first bad race, I worked hard and continued on my quest and showed my coaches and my teammates that I could lead the

But I guess the most important thing about Cross Country is never give up. And that 's exactly what I did. Have faith in yourself, and keep it going. I didn 't miss any of the practises, I always try my best during the

In life, even though we are told not to do so, a lot of us “count our chickens before they hatch”. We make assumptions on things before they happen because we believe that if something seems so likely, it will happen. Well, that is what my Liberty High School cross country team did my sophomore year. Going into the year, we not only knew we were going to be strong, we thought other teams were going to be weak. The top teams from the state finals the previous year had all lost most of their key pieces.

During my final year of Cross Country around Regionals at Oglethorpe, I ran my final race for my high school career. Banks County was nearly number one in the State, the furthest we had ever ranked in history, and spirit and hopes for State Championship were high. I was nervous, like nobody’s business, I had messed up during my senior night because I was upset for my parents for not showing up and escorting me. And I was scared that I was going to do horribly. But as I ran, I realized that if I let my past mistakes and failures hold me back or get in my way, so I ran, harder and better than I ever had before and apparently even beat a “skinny kid”.

At the end of the season, I realized cross country was a lot of fun instead of just running you get to meet new people that you didn't even know went to your school or just get to hang out with people you were already friends with. But when cross country season ended, I was kind of sad because I didn't really get to see my friends that weren't in my class and I had nothing to look forward to to do after school, so I would always think to myself I can’t wait till next

Cross country is more than just a sport. Most people associate cross country with running, but there are other things that come to mind when I think of cross. Family, pasta parties, get togethers, overnights, and the most devoted teammates come to mind. My life has been changed by cross country in so many different ways. Since I joined the men's high school cross country team three years ago, I've picked up a ton of really valuable life skills.

As my high school athletic career comes to an end and I look back at past seasons of cross country and track I feel privileged and blessed to be a part of the sutton community. Cross country to me was a way of reliving stress after a long day of school and

I have not been able to participate in athletics nearly as much as I would have liked. I started running track in the spring of my seventh grade year. I performed surprisingly well and decided to participate in cross country the next fall. I spent the summer training and preparing for the season, and it definitely showed. I ran in the varsity race for my first cross country meet ever.

Have you ever had a passion for something that you love so much that you keep on doing it no matter what time of the season it is? For me that was going to club wrestling at Coe College to practice for two months. My Dad, and my wrestling coach Jeff Voss suggested that it would be a good idea to go to these practices. I didn 't want to at first, but then I thought that if I do the practices I will get better. Also I didn’t want to do track.

My dad, mom, and I all started riding our bikes and running together. I have always liked running outside. Ever since my sisters did cross country and for the two years I did in middle school, running through a forest trail has been entertaining to me. I tried track and field, but the circular path that confined us always bored me. People

Have you ever ran in a cross country meet? I have ran in countless cross country meets; I have been running cross country for eight years now. Every race I run is a challenge, no matter what, because I push by body to its limit. Most people do not consider cross country to be fun. The enjoyable part is definitely not the race itself, but the feeling afterwards knowing that I kept pushing myself when my body and mind were both telling me to stop.

In those two and a half years I started racing. My first time I ever raced I got first place and it was the best feeling ever. I was so proud of what I had accomplished and wanted to keep racing. But after I placed first in that class I got bumped up to a new class that had bigger bikes and faster kids. At the time I was still on the 100 and I was racing kids on bikes twice as big as mine.

It was eye opening to see how everything works together. School no longer became a chore, it became a way for me to learn about the world around me. Science quickly became my best and favorite subject and I started to make more time to read. I immersed myself into every science book I could get my hands on.