Junior endures the pain of a cross country run

Half a mile into the run with the cross-country team, I felt my shins stinging with pain. The concrete roads were infinitely harder on my recurring shin splints than the gym floors are at volleyball practices. So why then, you might ask, is a volleyball player running with the cross country team? 

Well, that’s a bit of a story. Last week in newspaper, I was mapping out cross country routes for a spread and I began to wonder — how hard would these routes be for the average runner?

So I decided to try it out. I volunteered to run one of the more challenging routes called Springer, which consists of three miles of hills near downtown Saratoga.

While I hate running, I figured it couldn’t be hard. I managed to convince myself that the run would be no problem since I was on the varsity track team last spring. What I left out in this inner discourse was that my event was long jump and my daily runs were down a 70-feet runway.

I didn’t want to get very sweaty from the run because I had volleyball practice afterwards and, since it was almost 91 degrees that day, I decided to make the run a little easier. One of my friends from track, who also does cross country, and I decided to run downhill and walk uphill for the second half of the run. Let’s just say was not the first time we decided to slack off together in a workout. 

The first part of the run was tiring, but my willpower wasn’t truly tested until the last part of the run. We had to run through downtown to get back to school, and those cafes and coffee shops were practically luring me in. It was hot and I was thirsty, so an iced tea from Starbucks sounded perfect, but I did not want to be the last one back because I’m a bit competitive so my friend and I just went on with our run, enduring the thirst, heat and pain.

The run took me about 30 minutes and when I got back, the team was stretching. The runners usually do a core workout after stretches but because they had a meet the next day, they decided to skip these. 

Although my shins were in pain and it was 91 degrees, the cross country run was a lot of fun. I got to spend the run talking with my friends, which is very different from other sports where coaches tend to get irritated when my friends and I talk too much at practice. Not to mention, the cross country coach, Danny Moon, was very friendly in letting me join his practice, and he even provided water for his athletes after the run.

The run was challenging and tiring, but the overall experience was enjoyable and everyone was super friendly. The team seemed very supportive of each other and there seemed to be a stronger sense of unity. If I weren’t part of the volleyball team, I would definitely consider joining the cross country team.