Thud, thud, thud! That is the noise you hear while running cross country.
Cross country is a sport where you run. I could tell you all about cross country the likes and dislikes and all you could ever need to know. However that is another story.


It all started two years ago, I was sitting on my couch watching The Middle. My dad comes in and says son you need to do a sport. I said dad I don’t want to. I really didn’t want to be a part of any sport. My dad says son you can pick any sport you would like, but you will choose a sport tonight.
I thought about all the sports my school offered. Only one came to mind that I could do.
Cross country. I got the idea for this sport from watching the middle on TV. In the show this girl was running Cross Country. All I have to do is run. Little did I know that cross country is 3.1 miles of running?


My dad comes back a few minutes later and asks; did you choose a sport? I did. I said.
When school started I joined the team. The head coach gave me a packet. The packet had a lot of writing in it. Do I have to read this? That is what I should have said. What I really said is ok thank you. That was the end of that. Then I had to run. Coach said. Ok, everybody partner up. I partnered up with this kid named ben. Ben was white, had blonde hair, and blue eyes. Welcome to cross country. My name is coach Gun. Today everybody is going to start out with running 4 miles. Said coach Gun. I thought 4 miles that’s not too bad. I was wrong!

Ben and I started jogging. There are 6 other guys and 2 girls jogging with us. Ben asks me if this was my first time running. No I ran track in middle school. I said. That’s cool. Ben Said. Then slowly, but steadily they all start to pass ben and I around 1 mile and half. Ben picks up the pace to catch up. I can’t do it! I’m thinking in my head. I fall back behind ben. I try my hardest to keep up with him. Ben is gone! Coach Gun said to stay with your running buddy. My buddy left me. I was lost; I had never run in this area before. Once, Ben was out of sight I started to walk. I was afraid I was going to get lost.

I saw Amy! Amy was running toward me. She said if you walk it will only hurt more. I thought that was stupid advice. I asked her where to go. Her answer didn’t matter anymore though. I saw where everybody else was running too. I said thanks and started jogging very slowly. When I got to the end of the street and turned around everybody was gone. I started walking again. After 15 minutes I felt like crying. I knew at that moment this sport was too hard for me. I wanted to quit. I was going to quit. Amy’s advice was not completely off. She was right it hurt to walk but it hurt less to run. I didn’t figure this out until later.

I didn’t quit. I got back to the school; it took me 30 minutes of walking. This was not fun. The coach greeted me with a question. How do you feel? I wanted to tell him how I really felt; that I wanted to quit. Why would you have me run 4 miles on my first day of practice? I didn’t say any of this though. I said I feel very tired. He said ok I hope I see you again tomorrow for practice.

Later that night, my dad asked me how was practice. Practice was hard: I jogged 2 miles without stopping. Everybody else did 4 though. I said.