Cross Country Racing is much like survival of the fittest. Animals in the jungle fight tooth and nail for their lives to outrun the predator. A cheetah runs after a gazelle. The gazelle has to outrun even the slowest cheetah if it wants to survive in a race. It all begins in the starting boxes.
The blood in
your system circulates around your body faster than the outrageous flow of
Niagara Falls. The sweat in the palm of your hands collect as your fists
tighten. The blood is pumping faster and faster as the arm of the starter
raises up into the air slowly and sits there like the burning afternoon sun.
The POP of a gun sends you off down the chute. You are the gazelle. All of the
girls behind you are the hungry, vicious cheetahs trying to catch you. You keep
telling yourself to “push ahead”, “keep going” and “don’t let up”. Meter after
meter. Four thousand times.
You forcibly
push yourself up the hills like they’re the greatest obstacles you’ve ever
encountered. The smallest and steepest hills seem to be as big as Mount
Everest. My teammates, friends and
family are lined along the course ever so strategically to give me that extra
push of motivation to maintain my effort and speed. As I am advancing forward
to outrun all of the cheetahs surrounding me, I realize that I am only behind
25 or so girls which meant I have already outrun 180 of them. With this extra
peace of mind, I push through my last 400 meters. Breathless, weak, and
nauseous, I finish 29th/205. I am the 29th gazelle to
outrun 176 vicious cheetahs.
Surviving in a race isn’t always easy but that’s
what makes it one of the most challenging and rewarding experiences I have ever
encountered.
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