XC RACE REPORT: THE LAST FIRST MEET

"Even the wrong words seem to rhyme." ~"Collide" by Howie Day

My last first cross country meet. My last high school cross country season is officially beginning. So this was the meet where I wanted to do something special. Something that would make me smile. I wanted to show everyone how fast I could run after working so hard to get that fast. Something good.

This was the last time I will run at the place my first ever meet took place. The meet where it was over 95 degrees without the heat index and four people were taken to the hospital. The meet where a kid next to our camp was being given oxygen, there were four or five ambulances, and multiple fire trucks and police cars. The place that welcomed me to cross country.

I was nervous all day, as I usually am so I couldn't concentrate at school. I wasn't freaking out as I thought I would, but most of what I thought about had to do with the meet. My legs were feeling pretty good but I was still a little nervous. The first meet is always different because it's the first meet. This is when we find out exactly how fast everyone is. Who can run what. Not just on other teams, but in your own team. I wanted to be the fastest from my school. I'd like my teammates to be fast, especially AK and JS because their my best friends on the team, but I want to be faster. I wanted to make my coach proud. I wanted to make myself proud. I wanted to run a race that would make my last first meet a good one. So this wasn't just any race.

I got lost twice going to the school where the meet was being held. I was driving myself and it's not like I know that area well. I usually am good with directions so it might have been me being nervous. I ended up getting there a couple minutes before 4:35, when we were going to warm up. I was running at 5:35, in the middle of the meet. The weather was actually okay, only about 70 degrees; sunny with blue skies and white fluffy clouds.


We ran and walked one lap of the course. Two laps makes it the full 4k, including a hill that you go up twice each lap, and part of the track that is where you finish. It's not a bad course, just one that sucks in the heat because there's no shade. There is a steep and short little hill in one place that is short enough to sprint up but steep enough to hurt your legs. The other hill isn't that bad, it's just a matter of getting up it.


As we watched the fresh/soph race finish, I began getting very nervous. Two of the freshmen, who were supposed to run around 18:00, both ran under 17:00. My coach told me, AK, and JS that we should run around 17:00. I would have to run under 17:00 just to beat the freshmen. The pressure was on.

Our race started five minutes late because the fresh/soph boys race started late. My legs were feeling pretty good but I was still a little nervous. Before I walked over to the starting line to do strides with my teammates, my coach came over and high fived me. He told me that he thought I could run 16:20. I'm not sure he knew that my PR was 16:24. It gave me a little extra confidence though. After he said this to me, I turned around and started walking again. Then he said, wait, one more thing. He told me to have fun. He is definately not the kind of coach to say that. At all. But when he said that to me, he meant it. It made me remember what I was doing out there in the first place. To have fun.

We were in box three, on the right side. And I was ready. The first race of the season. My last first cross country race. And so the race started.

It's only about 200m before you hit the main hill so everyone is bunched up and elbowing each other. I ran along the outside, in the longer grass, with AK so we could pass people. Going down the hill, I passed AK and kept moving up. My legs wanted to race. And so I kept going.

There's a part of the course that loops around a soccer field. There was a sign by the field that said "this is not a practice field". I'm not sure why it was there but it reminded me that this was not practice. This was a meet. And that I needed to impress some people, to prove something.


Around that same field, after the short steep hill that takes the course next to the road, there wasn't really anyone there. It was quiet, with the only sounds being everyone's ragged breathing and feet hitting the ground. It becomes a different kind of race, but one that I love all the same. It seems more real, like a true race. Truly one person against another and against themselves.

After going back up and down the main hill, I hit the crowds. My first mile was done somewhere around 6:18. Doing the math, I figured that was around 16:00. I became worried that I started out too fast. But my coach was just telling me to move up. So I made my way around the track and started lap two. My last lap around the course.

Lap two began while running through crowds. It's always loud and you can't really understand what anyone is yelling, but it's still awesome. The people were lined up all the way to the hill. But there was someone standing at the bottom of the hill cheering me on that made me smile, like all the freshmen did during their races when we cheered them on (one girl actually posed and gave us a peace sign, but we won't talk too much about that). One of the fastest, if not the fastest, distance runner that went to my school. She graduated about four years ago, but she comes back to practices sometimes or shows up at our meets. She is the distance legend at my school and she was cheering me on at the bottom of the hill during my last first cross country race. That made me smile. And then I ran on.

After going down the hill and crossing a ditch, my legs didn't seem to have as much of that fast feeling. Which made sense, because I was running really fast. And because I could see about five members of the team who won the meet last year (and scored 22 points, only one more than the lowest possible) ahead of me. I was getting tired by the time I ran up the short steep hill. But my coach was yelling at me that I was having an awesome race. So I was going to finish it awesomely.

As I ran up the hill on the course for the last time, my legs were tired. They hurt. But I was almost done. And I wasn't going to give up. So when after coming down the hill, a girl passed me and seemed to be going much stronger, I did not let her just pass me. I hung on to her, fighting every single step. I knew there were people close behind me, people that wanted to beat me. As I hit the track for the last 100m, running around that curve for the last time in cross country, I ran. Fast. The girl was ahead of me and going to beat me, but that didn't mean I was going to let anyone pass me. So with 50m left, after leaving it all on the course, having spent all my energy multiple times, I found something. I was not going to let someone pass me. And no one did. And when I looked down at my watch after crossing the finish line, it said 16:11. 16:11. Which would be a PR for me. At the first race of the season.

My principal congratulated me as I went to get water by the fence around the track. I stood there by myself, waiting for my teammates, my coach, my family. I congratulated my teammates, gave my coach a high five, and talked to my family. It felt good after those minutes of agony, as JS describes our races.

During our cooldown, I said goodbye to the course. When I looked over the course, on top of the hill, it made me miss it. Girls in all different colored uniforms were strung out all over, in a brightly colored line. It was beautiful. It was cross country.

I ran 16:10 in the first race of the season. In my last first cross country meet. That's a PR. I took 14th place so I also received a ribbon. I made myself proud. I also made my family and coach proud. I actually did it. I don't know how. Well I do, because I ran fast. I gave my all and did my best. And I did better than I thought I could. I did something to make myself proud.