During the 2020 cross country season the EMS cross country team competed at many cross country meets. They do this to compete, have fun, and stay in shape!

Cross Country participants in seventh and eighth grade typically run 2 miles at their meets. When they show up to the meets, they get their chips and their bibs before they start warming up. Chips go on their shoes to track their times and bibs have their name and their running number. To warm up they first walk the course. They do this so they do not get lost while running the course. Once they have walked the course, they relax and get ready to race. About 10 minutes before the race they would run a bit then do their dynamic warm ups which consist of things like kicks, high knees, and strides. Then they line up and wait for the pop gun then they are off.

Cross Country practice for Emporia Middle School consisted of easy and hard days. Everyday was opposite of each other so if Monday was an easy day Tuesday would be a hard day. On easy days they usually did long runs. They would also typically do leg and ab workouts During COVID things were different for cross country. They had to stay six feet apart all too. On hard days they would do their dynamic workouts like they would do at a race and then they would do things like sprints or finishers. On days before a meet they would always do similar things to what they would do at a meet. They would do a half mile warm up then go do their dynamic warm-ups then they would run an easy mile and practice would end early. 

the time. They also had to wear masks if they were not running. They would also have to wear their mask if they weren’t running. Another precaution they would take was always taking temperatures before practice. One other thing that they would do to keep them safe was ask questions about how they were feeling, if they had been around anyone with COVID, where they had traveled within the last 14 days, etc. They also had to wear masks on the buses on the way to their meets. Both coaches said it was very hard not to be able to give high fives and fist bumps.

Overall, the participants said that they were very glad that they got to have cross country this year. They said they were very happy with their cross country season and they had lots of fun.