Personal Narrative: Cross County

“You should try cross country.” My mom said to me one day while I was in sixth grade. We had been talking about what I sports I should do during my seventh grade year of school.
I was confused so I asked her, “What is cross county?” My mom explained to me that it was kind of like track. The only differences are that it’s only running for miles and instead of running on a track, you run on golf fields. Of course at that time I thought that I hated running and that I would never like it. I had a million different thoughts in my mind, including that my mom was crazy to think that I would like to run. But, I told my mom I would try it, so I signed up for it at the beginning of my seventh grade year. I was the only one in my grade who signed up,
The time in-between the moment we lined up to the time the gun went off, my palms were sweaty, my stomach was in knots, and my heart was beating at a million miles per hour. I was so nervous I felt like throwing up. Then, in a blink of an eye the gun went off and my mind went blank. It was like no one was around me even though there seemed to be a million people watching me run. However, I was running trying not to die. I could feel my legs beneath me more tired with each step. I could feel the ground push back at me with every step I took. During what seemed to be the longest two miles in my life, I remember coach Buse, my parents, high school runners, and other parents encouraging me during my first run. They said things like, “Keep going, you doing great!!!” and “Pump those arms, stride out!!” All the cheering was dancing around in my head, keeping me positive when I felt like dying. Then all of sudden, that was it, I finally reached the finish line, and I felt so proud of myself. I did it, I didn’t get last and I was surprised with myself. In that moment a huge weight got lifted of my shoulders, I felt relieved. That’s when I realized that running was as bad as I thought it was. I thought that maybe this would be my new favorite thing to do. I finished with the time of 16 minutes and 35 seconds. Which, as I see it, was a good time for being the first time I ran