The insanity that is coss country
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Cross country runners are a different breed of athlete.
Let’s face it, you have to have a few screws loose upstairs to willfully run upwards of 15 miles in practice or a 5-kilometer race each week.
I should know, because I was once one of those crazy enough to absolutely love it.
I ran cross country all four years in high school, and to say I miss my running days would not even begin to tell the whole story.
But to the many who have never participated the sport, it’s hard for them to grasp the idea that people actually want to go out and run long distances every day.
“Some people, when I tell them how much I run, they think I’m a little crazy,” Emporia High junior cross country runner Michaela Reynolds said. “It just seems normal to me to go out and run the distances we run. Once you do it, you learn to love it.
“Some people think that it might be boring or dumb, but once you’re into it, you see that there is so much that goes into it.”
Not only are cross country runners some of the most physicaly fit people you’ll ever meet, but they also are some of the most mentally tough athletes out there.
“Your mental toughness is just as important as how tough you are physically,” Reynolds said, “because the races really challenge you mentally, and you have to be able to keep going when your body is telling you to slow down.”
Beside the distances involved in cross country, the behind-the-scenes aspects of the sport are a bit different than any other. Perhaps I’m just speaking from experience, but cross country seems to take it to another level.
When I was a full-time runner in high school, our runners — guys and girls — had no problem stripping down to our skivvies in public, as nothing could keep us from changing into our workout clothes to get ready for a 10-mile “fun-run,” not even a little public display of some flesh.
Pit stops on the side of a road were nothing new, as long as some fellow runners acted as lookouts.
And the chants some teams make up, well, let’s just say they involve some creative thinking.
For the Bonner Springs Braves, our pre-race chant — always yelled at the top of our lungs — was “South-Central Yukon Region.”
What did it mean? I have absolutely no idea. Where did it come from? Beats me.
But it was our rallying cry, and the varsity runners took it very seriously, along with the honor of wearing the varsity squads’ knee-high black socks.
There was “flo-jo,” our teams’ code word for “water,” opponents were always referred to as “goobers” and jimmy flips — laying on your back and kicking your legs up and down — always made us hurt.
With the Emporia High boys team, after the runners receive their final pre-race instructions from coach Mark Stanbrough, they huddle in a circle, pray, go through a pep talk and then spit into the middle of the circle. Does the spitting have a purpose? Not really. Is it important? Absolutely.
Reynolds has her own superstitions she deals with every race day, ranging from what she does when she first wakes up to what she eats during the day. A cross country race can consume her whole day.
Her superstitions must work, as she is the reigning 5A state champion.
But perhaps more important than the superstitions or the traditions is the bond created between the runners.
I have never been so close to a group of people as I was with my teammates when I was running in high school. The bond between runners, who have to go through the same workouts and race in the same conditions, is nearly unbreakable, which makes it a lot like any other sport in that regard.
Any time a group of people unite for a common cause or goal, the tie that binds them tends to last forever.
“The people you run with make it really enjoyable,” EHS junior Mike Robinson said. “Cross country is an opportunity to push yourself and push your teammates and make yourself better at something.”
Many outside the sport will continue to look at cross country runners and think, “Those people are just crazy.”
But while I no longer run cross country, I will always consider myself a cross country runner.
Consider it another effect of the madness the sport induces.