The day was Saturday September 9th, 2017 and it was 6:00 A.M.  I was heading to a Cross Country meet at Jones Park here in Emporia, KS. I had to be there by 6:30 a.m. so I could walk the course, do my warm-up, and run the race.

When I got to Jones Park I could not believe the number of buses I saw!  None of my other meets had that many buses. Once I got out of the car, I went to find my team. We had a red tent set up with a banner that said, “Emporia Spartans”. Once the rest of the team showed up, our coach gave us the map of the course so we could walk it. After walking the course, I stayed at the tent with the 7th-grade boys, the 8th-grade boys, and the 8th-grade girls. The-7th grade girls were out doing their half mile warm up. I talked with my friends and ate a granola bar for a light breakfast before the race.

Once the 7th-grade girls came back, they started on their forms and we (the 7th-grade boys) started our warm-ups. The 7th-grade boys were; Nathan Hollenbeck, Caden and Canyon Goeckler, Jonathan Laudie, Reece Hines, Ethan Rhudy, and me, Hayden. Nathan led the warm-up as we ran up to a pond and back down to the starting place. All we had to do was run for 5-7 minutes for our warm-up. When we finished our warm-up, we went back to the starting line and waited for the 7th-grade girls to start. A few minutes later, the gun was fired to signal the start of their race.

Once the 7th-grade girls started, We filled in our spaces at the starting line. Then we had to do our forms. We had to do each one for about 25 yards. After we finished those, we had to do our strides. Strides are where we start going slow and then we slowly build up our speed and once we get to 50 yards, we should be at our top speed. After the 50 yards we start slowing down until we reach the end. Our strides are about 100 yards long. Once we did 4 sets of strides, we got back to the starting line so that the guy who would shoot the gun could tell us about how we would know when to  start. We had about 3 minutes until the start and we gathered for our group huddle. We each told each other to do good in the race then a volunteer chose to pray for a good race.

There was about 1 minute until they start the race and a gator is at the starting line. The gator is going to lead the race so that runners take the right path. It was a green and yellow gator that was John Deere. Finally he raises his arm which signals for the runners to get ready. Five seconds later, they fire the gun starting the race.

I start running at a quick pace to get to the front so I can get a good start. After I am satisfied with where I am at, I start running at a consistent pace where I am not going too fast but I am still running at a good pace. Even if I don’t finish in the top ten, I still wanted to beat my personal record. I got passed by a couple of people but I still kept running. As I made my way through the course I could hear an occasional cheer from people scattered around the course. At last I came to the last curve and I could hear a huge crowd cheering in the distance at the finish line. As I came up to the final stretch, I started to quicken my pace until I had gotten to my fastest speed.  As I came nearer to the finish line, I started to get a really bad side ache. However I still stayed at my fastest speed and I finally crossed the finish line with a new personal record of 7 minutes and 46 seconds.  

At the end of the race it felt like everywhere on the inside was burning and I had really bad side ache. A side ache is where you are running and it starts to hurt on your left side or right side. Side aches can even hurt your shoulders if you have a really bad enough side ache. After the rest of the 7th-grade boys were done running I went to our tent to get a drink of water. We had a cooler of freezing cold water and a cooler of freezing cold Gatorade. I chose the water and it felt very refreshing after running a mile race. All of my energy was drained, so we took a second to cool down. After that the 7th-grade boys did a cool down which is where we run for 5-7 minutes to cool down. After our cool down, I found a really shady place where I could do my stretches and watch as the 8th-grade girls ran by for their two mile course.

I sat in that place watching as the 8th-grade girls came by and I cheered for them. Then, I went to the starting line to cheer, as the 8th-grade boys started their race. About twelve  minutes later, some of the 8th-grade boys were crossing the finish line. I cheered for our team as they came through and then we all hung out at the tent while the 8th grade boys did their cool down and stretches.

About twenty minutes later we went down to the awards ceremony where any runners in the top ten got a medal. We had a couple of 7th-grade girls and boys, and one  8th-grade girl. We also had a couple of 8th-grade boys make the top ten.

In the end, I did not place in the top ten. However, I am still satisfied because I beat my personal record and now I have a new time to beat. I also really enjoyed the course. Sometimes days where you don’t feel like running can be one of the best runs you have ever had.