Why Cross Country is One of the Hardest Sports
Why Cross Country is One of the Hardest Sports
Cross Country. When you hear these words, the average person may not think much about it. It may be one of the most overlooked, underappreciated, and unvalued sports in all of history. However, it has existed for thousands and thousands of years. After all, it’s just running, right? How hard can it be? Well hold on tight, because you are about to experience the full thrill of running cross country and why it is indeed one of the toughest sports if not the toughest.
The Moeller Cross country season starts on exactly June 10th every year. This is around the same exact time that football starts. The team practices every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and even on Saturdays come July. If this doesn’t sound difficult enough, each practice starts at exactly 6:10 in the morning. Practices usually last around 2 or 2 and a half hours, and what we do at practice varies from day to day. Usually for the first month or so, we will mostly do longer runs ranging anywhere from 2 or 3 miles for the lower groups, and upwards of 5 or 6 for the upper groups. Usually in July, we also transition to Saturday morning practices as well, making it six day a week practices.
As the summer blazes on, practices tend to get more strenuous, and mileage begins to increase slowly. We slowly begin to start adding in interval runs, and more tempo runs. Eventually, it is the end of July, and Team Camp begins to take action. The team spends a few days up in Springfield, Ohio. During this time, we take place in a variety of team bonding activities, and more workouts. One of these workouts that we do is the miracle mile. This is a short, mostly uphill run that is the climax to team camp. The run is basically an all-out sprint, the culmination of all the workouts over the summer. Eventually, team camp is over, and the team returns to Moeller. Soon, it is August 1st, and the it’s the very first day of official practice.
For the first 19 days of the official start of the season, the practices are at 6:10 in the morning. That is, until school starts and all practices transition over to 3pm. As you could probably imagine, this makes practices rather difficult and a lot more tiring. As practices go on, the mileage goes up, along with the heat index. Soon, September rolls around and the races begin. During this part of the season, we reach our most difficult and trying workouts, using a combination of long runs, and shorter, more strenuous interval runs. Long runs usually reach upwards of 7 and a half, to over 8 miles for some of the higher groups. Interval runs are much shorter, but take even more out of you. Monday tends to be a track interval workout, Tuesday is usually a long recovery run of about 7 1/2 miles or so, Wednesday is the hardest workout of the week with an interval workout. Thursday and Friday are always easier runs, usually ranging from 3 to upwards of 5 or 6 miles.
When race day comes, there is an entirely new mindset. You have to switch from practice mode, to a competitive mode. Races are always 3.1 miles. As you step up to the starting line, you look down each side of the line, and see so many schools. You have to be careful to keep your balance, and keep your mindset. As soon as the starting gun goes off, you have to be ready. The first one and a half miles or so of the race tend to go by pretty quick, mostly fueled by your adrenaline. Its when you hit that 2-mile mark that things really tend to get tough. You begin to really feel the pain in your legs, and the fatigue starts to build up severely. The only thing you can do is keep your eyes on the guy in front of you, and try to keep your aggressive mindset. You pass by hoards of parents and other spectators, yelling out both your name, but usually the names of the guys ahead of you or behind you. The fatigue builds up even more, and you just feel like quitting. However, you know you cant because you have to just keep going. Soon, you can see the finish line in sight. You can almost feel it. “800 meters to go, 600 meters to go!”, you hear your coach yell. Keeping your eyes on the guy in front of you, you begin to quicken your pace. That is when the big decision comes. Do you give it your all to pass him, or do you fall back and give up? In reality, the entire race is a choice of going forward, or falling back. You must choose one. Before you know it, you have hit the finish line, and you realize that you passed that guy. You made the right choice, and you followed through with it. This is a choice you make every race, and every practice. You ask yourself this during every summer conditioning, and every long run.
“Running is 90% physical, and 10% mental. But never underestimate that 10%.” This is a quote that one of my old cross-country coaches use to always say, and I think it is spot on for me and always has been. I started running cross country in 7th grade, and I kept going all through high school. It was a choice that I made, and I think that it was a good one. So to any student that stayed around long enough to read this paper, ask yourself this question: what choice will I make?
Image Courtesy: Dave Prenger