Sweat drips down cross country runner and freshmen Edda Pavon-Sanchez’s face; the blistering sun beating down, and her ankle throbs from twisting it halfway through the race. She could stop, slow down, or give up like many would, but she doesn’t, and she won’t, because, she’s strong enough and insane enough to keep going.
Cross country is a mental sport, meaning it is more about the runners believing they can keep going even though their muscles hurt and the sun is too hot. By setting short team goals and pushing through anyways, the season has finished up better than it started.
“We started the season in the 200’s range, but at the end we finished in the tops 30’s, out of 300 runners,” Corey Bedell, cross country coach, said.
The team has made a huge leap from close to last to close to first.
“They didn’t have a base to start out with (as in no training over the summer), but from where they came from they have done well, improving week to week,” Bedell said.
Improving the times of their runs week to week, Roosevelt has made up, to some extent, the lack of base training this year. Base training is the training most schools do over the summer to get in shape and improve times before the season starts. However for next year, base training will be better so that the team won’t have to make up for anything when the season starts.
“If you want to do cross country next year, start running now; start with running a mile then add a mile each week until you’re running 10 miles each week on your own,” Bedell said.
Ten miles may seem like a lot now. However, in the meets female athletes will only have to run two miles and male athletes will run three miles. If a runner regularly runs ten miles it will be easier to run the two or three miles.
When starting out there are several ways for runners to avoid psyching themselves out. They learn how to keep pushing themselves to the finish line.
“Cross country is challenging on your body,” Pavon-Sanchez said. “Your body tells you to stop because it hurts, but you have to keep going – that’s the only way you’re going to get any better.”
