The blood, sweat, and tears have connected us all.
Through the hill workouts, tempo runs, mile repeats, and speed workouts, it is safe to say that cross country runners are some of the toughest athletes around. However, it is important to note that there is more to cross country running than meets the eye.
Anyone who has undergone the blood, sweat, and tears that is cross country can relate to these 58 irrefutable claims:
1. Constantly questioning why you chose to willingly put yourself through the pain and torture that is cross country.
2. Getting home from a tough workout and devouring your entire fridge.
3. Bragging to your non-running friends about how lit last nights’ pasta party was.
4. Casually feeling like a boss when you tell your non-running friends that you went on a 5-mile run.
5. That secret urge to beat your running buddy who you’ve been neck-and-neck with all season.
6. And that feeling of respect that arises even when that person does, indeed, beat you.
7. But promising yourself that you WILL beat this person at the next race.
8. Planning out how you and your cross country friends are going to be fit milfs/dilfs who will run marathons ’til you’re old and pruned.
9. When non-runners automatically assume you’re fast, even if you’re not.
10. That inevitable need to poop that arises during mile 1 of a meet.
11. Achieving a PR and thinking, even if only for a second, that you could have been an Olympic athlete if you really wanted to.
12. When non-runners ask you what “PR” means and you just shake your head and laugh.
13. That moment when a non-runner asks you what “tempo runs” are and you officially feel like a badass athlete.
14. Trying to look cute in the middle of a workout when someone attractive runs by.
15. Overusing the phrase “We’re XC and we know it.”
16. Having life epiphanies during long runs.
17. Secretly doing the “For Narnia!” voice inside your head every time the gun goes off and the stampede emerges.
18. Getting caught in the middle of the stampede and being pissed about it.
19. When you see a picture of yourself running on social media and are sincerely humbled.
20. You may have peed yourself at least once during a race and are no longer ashamed.
21. You also may have cried a little during at least one meet but don’t talk about it.
22. Finding out it’s a speed workout day and silently cursing yourself and everyone and everything...
22. …And maybe even thinking about “accidentally twisting your ankle” to get out of it.
23. Finishing a speed workout and lying on the ground gasping for air wondering how life can go on when you are dying.
24. Taking forever to walk up the stairs the day after a speed workout and having to tell people to go around you.
25. Doing hill workouts and experiencing your living hell.
26. And just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, you soon discover your worst nightmare: MILE. REPEATS.
27. When you twitch at the mere sight of any sort of hill on a course.
28. But you keep powering through because you want to be fit.
29. Getting the “pity clap” during a meet and hating the world.
30. When a runner you don’t know encourages you during a race and they officially become your new best friend.
31. The true joy you feel when Coach says it’s a distance day.
32. When you accidentally eat a full meal too close to practice and pay the price during your workout.
33. When ice baths become just as relaxing as warm ones.
34. When your jeans won’t fit over your calf muscles and you feel like the Hulk.
35. When you secretly pride yourself in that fact that your sport is other sports’ punishment.
36. Missing one speed workout and feeling like you’re now the slowest one in your group.
37. That one distance run where you and your teammates end up talking about life for an hour.
38. It is also during that run when you and those friends become best friends.
39. Being on JV and having equal feelings of both admiration and intimidation toward Varsity.
40. Being on Varsity and getting mad at the slackers on JV who never do the full workout.
41. Becoming way too comfortable talking about your poop life with your cross country friends.
42. When you accidentally talk about your poop life to a non-runner and things get uncomfortable.
43. When you pass someone during a race and your ego goes up a few notches.
44. When someone passes you and they have officially become your new enemy.
45. When you’re on the starting line and there’s that one person with the weird pre-race rituals.
46. When you sprint during the first 100 meters and firmly believe you’re going to win this race…
47. …but then reality catches up with you.
48. When your seasonal watch tan line is your best accessory.
49. Lest we forget about those sexy sock lines.
50. When practice is never canceled. Ever.
51. When you graduate yet still brag to people about how you did cross country in high school.
52. Doing a 5k for the first time since high school and realizing YOU’VE STILL GOT IT.
53. When you realize the long talks you had during distance runs are some of the deepest you’ve ever had.
54. And realize that the friendships you’ve formed as a result are even deeper.
55. When the last day of practice comes and you realize how much you actually love this sport and everything it has given you.
56. And the saying “Once a runner, always a runner” takes on a much more personal meaning.
57. Which leads you to conclude deep down in your heart that cross country is much more than just a sport, it’s a lifestyle.
