Lathered in sweat, legs are aching in pain. You just want to finish the race. Less than a hundred meters left, but there’s a long, gradual hill, up and into the finish. You can’t bear the pain anymore, but decide you can do it. You can see the finish and you start to sprint. Hard. You cross the finish line and triumph overcomes you.
On Friday, September 29th, the Junior Varsity Cross Country Girls attended the Millard West Invite 2023 at Walnut Grove Park. The cross country girls have faced this same course at Walnut Grove earlier in the season for the Omaha Burke XC Invite 2023.
“I think I did good. I didn’t PR (personal record), but I did better than I did last time I ran there, earlier in the season,” freshman Anna Jensen said.
On the day of the Millard West Invite 2023, it was very hot outside. The JV girls race was supposed to be at 11 a.m, but it was already getting so hot that they had to move the race schedule up by an hour.
“It was very hot for a race day. I would say it was like, eighty degrees already that early in the morning,” freshman Lilly Coleman said.
Walnut Grove Park is a hilly course, but the girls cross country team is tough enough. Compared to other courses, Walnut Grove Park is more on the easy side of courses.
“It’s kinda hilly, but I think it’s one of our easiest meets, but there’s definitely some challenging hills,” Jensen said.
Walnut Grove Park has some easy hills and some more challenging hills. The park also has lots of trees, which gives a lot of shade in most spots, that should help the runners in their race.
“I think it was a very, like, average course. I wouldn’t say it was hard, but it sure wasn’t easy, though,” Coleman said.
The cross country meets are usually during the day, so of course, the cross country runners have to miss school and makeup work later.
“To me, when we run during a school day, it always feels like a weekend. It doesn’t feel like a school day, it never really does.” Coleman said.
The Girl Cross Country team only has one more meet left, the Metro XC Championship 2023 at Walnut Creek, NE. The Walnut Creek course is known for its very hard hill at the end.
“I’m definitely very nervous about the hill cause I have to run it twice and it’s probably one of the hardest hills we have to run.” Jensen said.
Based off of the race at Walnut Creek, some of the Cross Country Girls will get to compete at districts and maybe even state. The cross country season is almost over but there’s still time to accomplish some goals.
“A goal that I have is that I really just want to improve my time from, like, my first-ever meet to my last-ever meet,” Coleman said.
This year’s cross country season has been very successful. There have been many freshmen that joined and they have done well, as a team, this year. There has been blood, sweat, and tears shed, but it’s totally worth it.