The State Cross Country Meet

The State cross country meet is truly an experience to remember. I have only been able to run at state my freshman year, but I still remember it vividly.

The drive up was full of anticipation, excitement, and if I am being honest, a lot of dread and pressure. My team and I rode up in two white vans and sat pretty quietly the whole way, listening to the subtly music that our coach was playing. No one wanted to say much of anything, and we were all pretty tiered, because it was only about 6:00am on a Saturday. When we arrived at the course, I was surprised by how many people I saw roaming about and all of the excitement. We arrived early and started walking a little ways around the course before picking up the pace to a jog about an hour before the race began so that we could warm up a little. I remember that we passed a team carrying a boom box as the walked and blaring classical rock from the speakers and singing along. I remembered that I could not relax enough to dance along like they were, but I did mumble the words a little and nod my head as were continued past them. As we finished our warm up our coach came over and gave us a description of the course, though we were pretty sure we already knew it. We talked for a while as we stretched and tried to keep relaxed, which I remember was a very hard thing for me to do freshman year. The announcer came through on the speakers and proclaimed that there was only 20 minutes before the race would begin! I drank some water, put on my spikes, and headed to the starting line to do some strides with my team, but I was filled with nerves as I looked around at the hundreds of competitors and people watching me. Soon after, I stepped to the line, heard the sharp intake of breath from 200 girls, and then the crack of the starting gun. My heart was pounding and I made my way through the race with the help of adrenaline and a few parents and teammates who came to watch shouting my name. In the end the state meet was not my best race ever, nor did my team finish very well, but it was still an honor and a great experience to have run against people much better than me and see how I could do against the best in the state all together in one race.