Running on the track in middle school was a new experience for me. I had never ran competitively before and I was convinced that I hated running. Eighth grade year, my mom made me run track and that is when my running life began. I ran the 800 that year. I was not a sprinter, but a distance runner, and my coach saw potential in me as a runner. I started the season hating running and everything about being a runner. As I ran more and more meets I started to feel like this was something I enjoyed. By the end of the season I had actually grown to love running and my coach suggested I join the cross country team in high school.
I was very scared about joining the cross country team because I didn’t have a lot of running experience. I had only run track and I thought that cross country would be hard. My first practice my coach told me to take it slow and to do as much as I could. I ended up running 2 miles without stopping. This was the moment that I finally decided that I actually liked running. When the season officially started I was so excited and couldn’t wait to start competing. At the end of my freshman year I had improved so much, but I noticed something about the support that we received as a team.
When the announcements would start every morning we would always hear praise about the teams that won a game the night or weekend before and about the games that were happening soon. Every single day I waited to hear if the cross country team would be announced but it never happened. I saw that on the school social media pages we were never mentioned. It was disappointing to me because the cross country team works very hard to perform well and to represent our school.
Cross country is not an easy sport. We practice in the hot summer weather and we run many miles at a time. We go into the weight room two times a week and we have speed workouts often. The team has competitions every Saturday in different locations. We work just as hard as everyone else but have never received any recognition. Any sort of support or recognition will be recognized and appreciated by teams who don’t get a lot of support. It doesn’t have to be a big announcement, but maybe a little mention. Just a little support goes a long way.
