Nov. 4, 2024

Cross country may not be one of the most recognized sports but it is undeniably one of the most difficult sports both mentally and physically. This past week our very own Covenant Cougars competed at the TAPPS State Cross Country meet. 

When competing in the State Cross Country, the athletes have to be prepared for the hardest course of the year. No matter how much preparation or experience with the course they have, this specific course is always a struggle. The race is set up on a golf course which is filled with tough hills, so there is never a moment where you are not going up or down. If that wasn’t enough the weather at this meet is always extreme. This year it was scorching hot with forty mile per hour wind, and last year it was raining and freezing. When the team was asked what they were expecting the weather to look like and how they were going to deal with it they said, we already know the weather is going to be terrible so all you can do is run as fast as you can so that the race ends as fast as possible. That is all they could do, after months of training and mental preparation all they had left was one short race left.

All sports have unique mental challenges that come with competing in them. For cross country that is the challenge of pushing past what you believe is possible for you and getting your “second wind” and not letting the fatigue control you. I asked Andrew Byrd, one of the athletes, how he dealt with this at state and this is what he had to say, “I took my mind somewhere else to keep my mind off the suffering. I was thinking about what God has done for me and that this is nothing compared to that… It’s just a few more miles.” I think what Andrew had to say was beautiful, I could talk all day about the achievements of our team and how much work we put in to run great at State. But as Andrew said all we did was give it to God, without him we would never be able to run 3.2 miles in the first place. That was the focus of our team for State. We may not have been the fastest team or the strongest, but we were there to give all the glory to God no matter how we performed, win or lose. We learned from our mistakes this year and we will put all that knowledge into the 2025 season.