Endure. That’s the first word that comes to my mind when I think of cross country. Maybe it’s because I’m a runner. I know, if the majority of people had to choose a word to describe it, endure would not be on the top of the list. But to me it is. I believe that word, in itself, is the sport. The whole point of it is to see how much you can endure. Some sports require little heart, dedication, or work; this is not one of them. If you lack or give the minimal in any of these, you will not reach your potential. You practice hard and run harder. No amount of running is unheard of in practice. You can literally run eight miles (or more) for five days in a row, in order to run 3.1 miles one day, and one day only. The conditions cannot be depended on. At all, ever. It can be 90 degrees one day, and rainy and cold the next. You eventually learn to build up immunity to all types of weather, but getting there is no easy task. Of course, it really doesn’t matter what you are running in, once you really are running… Especially when you are racing.

At some point in the race, without a doubt and without fail, you hit it. Yes, it. That’s the time when you are going along and you question your own sanity. You wonder what you are doing and what even prompted you to want to do this in the first place. You begin to wonder if every other runner there is just as crazy. Then you have to stop thinking; it’s time to start focusing again. As you are focusing, you begin to forget what color uniform you are wearing. You no longer hear the crowd; no longer feel any pain, no emotion, just exhaustion. But you push through it because if you don’t, you will never finish the race and because you are a runner- you never stop. Stopping is the sign of failure, weakness. There are only four things spinning around in your head: not dying before you reach the finish, breathing, doing what the coach tells you, and catching the girl in front of you. From beginning to end the race is tough, cunning, and draining. Once you finish, you are drained- emotionally, physically, and mentally. The only things you want to do are lay down and drink some water. But the challenge is getting yourself to the finish. Only the truly strong compete; only the truly insane do it.

The admiration for this sport is great because the amount of work that is put into it is greater. For some, the mere thought of it is ridiculous. For others, it’s what they do. I am a cross country runner.