Every cross-country season is an opportunity to see change and personal growth. Just like the season and the weather change during cross country, so do the runners. Each week the leaves change and begin to fall and the air becomes more brisk and each week cross country runners become stronger, faster, and more focused. It is a season of transformation. I love cross country because the teams are smaller and the athletes have a great opportunity to bond and form lasting friendships. I witnessed this today. Today we had a scrimmage. We have 9 women, which is unusual. To be honest, I was nervous that having so many women would make it difficult for them to bond and get to know each other but they have already started to form friendships. This is the foundation every great team needs in order to be successful.
I was so happy to see how much all of these women like each other already and I won’t be surprised if they love each other by the end of the season. When you spend every day running through the trails with the same people you are going to become great friends by default. This is the magic of cross country!
We have lots of potential right here, but as I said before the scrimmage started the team you see here is the only team that actually matters in the end. These are the girls to focus on and when we are focusing on these girls and not the girls on the other teams these girls will have the upper hand. It is not important how fast or how slow another person is running. What is important is how hard you and your team are working and how much you and your team are willing to sacrifice to succeed.
This is not an easy sport and it takes a lot of determination, hard work, and patience to be successful. Bad races will happen but they will push you to work harder to succeed.
I encourage every cross country runner to set goals. Daily goals, goals for your training, goals for your races, goals for your life, short term goals, and long term goals. I encourage you to not only set these goals but to also make a plan for achieving them, and then run after them! Chase your goals and don’t stop until you catch them! The more you believe you can catch them the sooner you will catch them!
Happy cross country season!! 🍁🌿🍂🍃🌿🍁🌿🍃🌿🍁🌿🍁🍁
The Road Less Run 
I’m excited with how far your team is coming. It sounds like you have such a great time with them. I miss the teamwork and friendship of cross country so much.
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I loved running cross country in high school – not because I loved to run (at that point) or because I was good – but because I loved my teammates and the spirit of racing. Running (specifically cross country in my opinion) is such a tight knit community there really isn’t anything like it!
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Love XC season – I wasn’t a runner then, wish I was. But I’m a high school teacher now and I love running with the girls and going to the meets. Such a great community.
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Do you coach for a high school? My high school didn’t have XC and I wasn’t a runner anyway, but I did coach club for a few years and it was a lot of fun working with the kids. You really feel like you make a difference. The best thing about XC is that the sport is for everyone. Not everyone can win, but everyone can do their best… sometimes a win isn’t a PR or 1st place, but just running longer, stronger, and improving over the season. That’s what running is all about 🙂
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I coach at a local community college. I actually went to the school for 2 years and then transferred. It’s such an incredible feeling to be coaching there along side my former coach since I had such a strong connection to the program. It’s a feeling I can’t describe. They were wearing the old uniforms from when I was in school for the scrimmage, which are about a decade old now, and it made me so emotional I can’t even describe it.
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