So I don’t do this often, but I just feel like it must be done.

I just ran my last high school cross country meet yesterday. It was our sectional meet. I thought I was going to cry at the start line, but I was able to hold it together.

Then I thought I’d cry after the race, then I thought maybe once I got home, but I still hadn’t cried. That is until now as I write this.

It seems like a crazy thing to all those people who don’t run. “Why on Earth would you want to go out and run for fun?” “I would die if I ran a mile” ect. But for those of you who do run can truly appreciate this post.

I started running is 7th grade, a whole 6 years ago. I can honestly say I do not remember the reason I started running. I was not the fastest kid on the team, I didn’t posses any great deal of talent, but one thing was certain, I always had fun doing it.

It was nice spending everyday after school with my friends. It felt good to be part of a team. Most of all I loved that sense of accomplishment I got after every race. I knew I was making my parents proud and I was proud of myself.

When I got to high school I was scared I wouldn’t be able to handle cross country. The increase in mileage, harder work outs, faster runners, longer practices, and balancing school on top of it all. I never expected for it to become such a huge part of my life.For those of you who may not know, cross country starts early. We started practice the very first day of summer vacation, we practiced every Monday-Friday at 7 am. We would put in anywhere from 2 to 5 miles a day.

My freshman year was a wild ride. I was still the slow one. My first ever high school race I clocked in at a finishing time of 33:00 minutes for a 3 mile race. That’s an average of 11 minutes a mile. While the rest of my times that season were faster they were still 26’s and 27’s.

I became the team motivational speaker, before every race I had positive things to say that really helped calm people down and do well.

I didn’t make it to post season, but I still practiced with the team anyway. I loved it too much to just stop. If there were gonna be more practices I was gonna be there. Turns out it was a good thing I stayed. A couple of the upperclassmen started skipping practices, showing up late for meetings. My coach saw how much work I was putting in to the team even though my season was over. He decided to take the upperclassmen out of the race and put me in instead because I was more dedicated. I never expected something like that to happen.

My sophomore year was unexplainable. I worked hard putting in all those summer miles. I really wanted to improve myself as a runner to benefit the team. Our team was made up of 5 sophomores and 3 freshman. Having no upperclassmen to provide senior leadership, my coach chose me and another classmate of mine to be co-captains. It was a huge honor to get to be a captain as a sophomore.

I worked really hard during the season. At each race I took anywhere from 2 to 5 minutes off of my races times from the previous year. I ran varsity all season, was an all-conference runner, and I won the “Most Improved Runner” award at the end of the season. It really was an exciting season.

My junior year I returned as the sole team captain (the other had to stop running because of time management issues). Even after taking off so much time last season I continued to take off a minute or two here an there. Our team was very talented that year. We got 2nd at conference only missing 1st by 2 points. And we got 2nd at regionals only missing 1st by one point. Although it was disappointing coming so close to winning on more than one occasion it was really cool to be a part of such a good team.

And finally my senior year was full of so many memories. I became the first person in my school’s history to be a 3 year team captain. It was such an honor to be considered for the position in the the first place, so being able to have it for 3 years was amazing. We got 2nd at conference again this year, missing first by 4 points. We got 4th at regional, in which new schools, faster schools had been added. If they hadn’t been added we would have gotten 1st.

So that brings me to yesterday, when we ran sectionals. I ran a season personal record. It was a nice way to finish the season. It will be weird going to school tomorrow without my practice bag and being able to go home after the final bell.

Cross country was my escape from the stress of school, homework, drama, everything. It was my home away from home, the team was my second family. My best friends were on the team with me since day one. I’m going to miss it, but in my heart I know it’s time to move on.

I will continue to run, whether it be on a college team or just on my own/with a group of friends is still up in the air. But cross country will always hold that special place in my heart.