Today was our cross country Regionals race at Dickinson’s cross country course in Pennsylvania. The course is notorious for its difficulty in the wooded sections during the middle section, but we had ran it before this season and have done a ton of hill workouts since we started training in August.
For two of our team members, it was their very last cross country race ever. Joy and Kristen are both seniors who have been with our team since freshman year. Joy has aspirations to run marathons when this school year ends! Luckily, we have two more seasons of track to run together before we graduate, so it didn’t feel particularly sad.
Today was also special because I got to run against two of my high school teammates, one who is a sophomore and another who is a freshman. We were all captains of the team during our senior year and still maintain contact. Hannah, who is in her first year of college at Johns Hopkins, won the whole race today! It’s awesome to see her succeed because I remember her very first day of cross country practice when she first joined our high school team.
Though I felt a little apprehensive about racing today because I wasn’t sure if I was mentally ready, the friends I raced with reallly made me glad that I did. From people I’ve met here at McDaniel to those who I ran with back in high school, my running friends are some of the most important in my life, and they keep me coming back to the sport each year.
It’s been a great season, GTXC; I can’t wait for track!
