Why I Run.
A question i get a lot from my friends who dont run is, why do you run? Truly i don't know the answer to this question, maybe i do it because it feels amazing when i come back from a six mile run and still want to go out and do more and go harder after that run, maybe it's just to stay in shape, or maybe it's because of the community and family running has given me. I think writing about my first year of running will help me figure this out, why i run.
I started running this year, my sophomore year of high school. But, when i started ninth grade, i went to one of the first football games of my ninth grade year, i felt that i didn't know many people and i was a bit lonely and surely enough it seemed that everyone felt that way too, i started chatting around and i met a girl who ran cross country and she said such positive things about it and the people she had met, she was so excited about this sport, it was truly encouraging and looking back on it, it is so amazing to see someone get so excited and be so positive about something they truly love. As ninth grade continued on, i met a pair of twins, one of the twins ran cross country and i became close with the one that didn't run cross country, one day the twin that didn't run cross country asked me if i wanted to go with their family to support his brother and watch his cross country race. I said yes and didn't really know what i was getting into, just going to watch and support, i had to wake up at 6:30am, on a saturday to watch the race which was a shock to me, but when the race started and everyone was on the line and the gun when off and they all ran down the hill at the start of the course is when i truly fell in love with watching running and the idea of running. As we watched the race, we cheered for almost everyone that ran by, cow bells were ringing and words of encouragement were all i remember hearing, that is a positive group of people to be around. I didn't start running leisurely in ninth grade until the end of ninth grade before summer. I didn't do any sports in ninth grade and not very many clubs, i was not very involved with school. As my ninth grade year was coming to an end, on the school morning announcements they said there was a cross country interest meeting after school, due to me falling in love with watching running and talking to people that only ever said positive things about the sport, i went to the meeting signed up and got a running schedule to start doing before morning summer practices started. Once the 6 am summer practices started, that's when i again truly fell in love with the sport and could not wait to wake up at 6 am every morning of summer to run and work out with the team. My cross country season for my first year and sophomore year, was a good one and i can not wait to get back out their and do it all again this summer. I have also done winter track and am in spring track right now this year.
From writing this i have realized that it's the community the people that make running fun and that are encouraging and that make me want to get better and want to go off and run more after the long hard runs. Which i'm so ecstatic this sport brought to me.
- Anonymous
