Cross Country

First off, I had a really good tine (FOR ME!!) at Ionia with the mile high hill I swear. It wasn't my best time, but it was . . . . .decent. It was only the second time I got under 20 minutes, now bear with me, I'm not super serious about running, really it's just a hobby, and I like to be able to be proud of myself in my head when I find it easy to jog to the track without getting tired, and feel really energetic and good when I get there. Or when I stand to the side and can see my calf with the leg muscle, or when I complete a race, with a better time than the one before.
So my time was 19:15, and my best time EVER was 18:32. Now my friend Kirsten just broke into the 13 minutes. She's REALLY good, but she doesn't like to run, well nobody on my team really likes to run, but they just do it anyway. They come everyday, but they complain. I don't see why they don't quit, it's probably because their parents make them do it. Nobody makes me do it, but I do it anyway.
So me and Hannah were done with our race for a coupla minutes, and we were like, I wanna see my time, me especially because while I was running down one of the ends the coach for Otto, was like if you hurry, you can make 18 minutes, and I wanted to beat my time, so I picked up the pace, but I was super tired from that CRAZY hill ( I mean like really, you could see how HUGE it was from the aerial picture!!) So, my faster pace was actually slower, but I ran the last couple of yards, hard. And there wasn't a clock, so I couldn't see what my time was at all! And I was too tired, to even ask. So I did my relieved smile like I do at the end of every race. Because it's like your legs are being stuffed and stuffed and stuffed with something, and they just keep getting fuller and they are aching, or they're on fire, but you can't stop, because you know you'll dissapoint everyone if you don't get a good time. And then the part where you can hardly breathe, and you're sucking in air as fast as you can but it's not fast enough because your constantly running and not stopping and you're getting tired. But that's not the worst part. The worst part is the time you have to think! You have (for me) 20 minutes to think, and you don't know what to think about, you think you might wanna sing in your head, that works for a little while, until you get too tired and too out of breath to think like that, and then you only think about how much it hurts, or how much you want to walk, or how much you would love to be in your bed sleeping or watching T.V. like your friends. But you can't, and you're only half way through, just passing the mile mark where everyone is standing yelling at you to go faster, but you can't. And then you're finally done, and you pass the line, and you can walk. And you can walk to the people at the end of the line who rip off the tag that says who you are, and grab a snack and sit down. And it feels so good, you feel like getting all the junk food your hands can get a nice soda, and sitting down in front of the T.V. for hours and hours and hours.
And you feel good.  Ready to do it all again next Monday??
Delaney