Cross Country

By: Addison Heck and Ellie DeForest

Runners on your mark, BOOM! The gun shoots and the runners are off. Already feeling the pain of a side ache coming on, the first 800 already done. Cheering all around me as I run through the trees almost at the mile mark. There’s my coach as she reads off my mile time 6:50 ok good pace I think to myself. Time to slow down and keep a strong pace. Now down to an 8:00 minute pace. With only two miles left to go. In pain trying to breathe in through my nose and out through my mouth to try to get the side aches away. Breathing hard as if I am suffocating. This is an experience for many cross country runners, such as Bella Walth. In a recent interview, she said her personal record was 20:50 in the 5k (3.10mi), and her average pace is 6:50. At WDA she ran her best of the year, and although she doesn't enjoy the running aspect of cross country, she loves being with her teammates and building relationships. She plans to continue cross country through her high school career.

The overall outcome of the season was great- the upperclassmen treated the younger runners with kindness and respect. This year was different from other years due to combining the middle school runners and the high school runners together for practice, but some girls still run for Horizon in meets. This happened with both girls and boys this year. Ty Backes, Bella Walth, and Addison Heck said that they made a relationship with many more people this year including the upperclassmen. One of the reasons the coaches wanted to put the high school runners and the middle school runners together was to create a relationship with older people, and they wanted to combine because this year was an opportunity to move up and run with the high schoolers. The coaches were happy with how it all worked out and thought this year was better than other years. In addition, Kate Fox, the assistant coach for CHS Cross Country was interviewed. She is still new in the coaching environment but has a couple of years under her belt. The first question was ¨what was your running experience as a student?¨ Kate responded, ¨I had a lot of highs and lows from my running experience. I competed in five different national meets, so I was either on a bus or a plane every month going somewhere new. Some of the places I traveled to were Alabama, California, Indiana, South Dakota, Minnesota, Missouri, and many more places. I really enjoyed going to different places and making memories with my teammates. One of my favorite memories was running in Indiana. My team ran at 8 am, and we got 2nd in the nation. Some of the lows was my foot injury. I was being treated for the wrong injury that I didn’t have which led me to have feet problems all four years of my running career. My overall running experience was good. Each and every event that occurred made me who I am today.¨ Kate was also asked, ¨Why do you want to coach?¨ She responded with, ¨I wanted to coach because I wanted to give the athletes a chance to be the best they can be. My high school coach made a significant difference in my running career by making me more confident and helping me believe in what I could achieve.¨ She said,¨it is rewarding to see hard work pay off, and I want to help athletes achieve this. The running world is a very supportive environment and is great to be in. It is a different sport and teaches life skills and can be an awesome outlet for school. When asked how coaching went this year she responded, ¨Coaching is great. I like that I can see one version of the student during the school day and a totally different version of the person at practice. I like that I can see the student/athlete grow into a better person, and have fun while doing it. She said that the best part about coaching is seeing the success, relationships, and confidence flourish in each athlete.

Mrs. Sullivan, an English teacher at Horizon, said about cross country,¨it is a really good life skill, and you can do it your whole life. I think it is a really challenging sport. They are dedicated and work very hard.¨

You can see the colorful flags and the orange cones. It’s the finish line. You speed up passing many girls on your way, you accelerate, almost unable to lift your legs off the ground. Your side aches as if someone is stabbing you. Almost done you think to yourself, as the distance between you and the finish line shrinks with every step. You throw your body across the finish line, you later find out you got a personal record. All the hard work paid off.

Sources

Works Cited

Fox, Kate “Questions about cross country” Received by Addison Heck, 19, October 2021.

Walth, Bella. Interview. Conducted by Ellie DeForest and Addison Heck, 15, October 2021.