Approximately 47 hours from the time I am writing this, North Central College Cross Country will be at Montrose Beach in Chicago dominating the CCIW Conference Championships! The time is officially here, it is Championship season. This is where all of our training comes together. It is the time that we can show off our fitness and let everyone see how strong of a team we have built this season.
Just yesterday, we traveled to Green Valley, a 2.5 mile loop in a forest preserve where we do our tempo runs. Green Valley is always a challenging, exciting and amazing workout! It allows us to get into the mentality of a race, work as a pack and test our fitness. Apparently, it can also be dangerous. Two weeks ago, I decided to sprain my ankle on a stick hidden underneath the leaves. After trying to "run it off" my coach was able to force me to go back to our van. It was disappointing and prevented me from running the Oshkosh meet two weekends ago, but it has made me stronger. Thankfully, my ankle is better, and I am back running with the team!
Upon my return to hard workouts (on the grass), the team was there for me again. Multiple members of the team would yell out "careful," "stick," or "walnut" as we passed the location where I sprained my ankle. They were sure to yell everything out, even if I could see what was ahead. As I finished off that run with my teammate running right alongside of me, I thought about how lucky I am to have a team like this. To know that you have that many people that genuinely care about you is not something you can't put a price on. And that is the difference between us and them, WE strive to win conference on Saturday, WE strive to make it to nationals, and WE strive to make an impact at nationals. Not I.