To my teammates.

You never really understand what a bond of a team can do to you. I was recently diagnosed with Pott's disease and it’s probably the worst thing I wanted for my running career. I was passing out after races, feeling dizzy while I ran, and never really feeling 100% even on my best days. My teammates were probably the only thing that was getting me through this part in my life. From the beginning of not knowing what was going on and the idea that I might not be able to run again. But, they were right next to me. This is for my teammates at the ends of my races who would hold me up when I was at my weakest. To my teammates who made sure I was okay before they got a chance to recover after their race. Cross country is something that you don’t really understand if you aren’t in it. Cross country is the sport where you find out what a teammate is. You cry with these people and you laugh. The people you share all bad thoughts with when you are having your hardest thoughts and you share all the good ones when you finally get that PR. It’s a sport where you could run the worst race of your life and your teammates PR’d so the day is still the greatest day ever. It’s the sport where the girls on my team make sure I am not passing out even when the ran a race and just want to sit down. It’s the sport when someone comes back to the tent crying and everyone just embraces them. It’s the laughs I have with them and the tears I share. I wouldn’t know what to do without my team. My coach always says we are a family and this is the only family some of us have. At first I was like ‘no’ this is just a team, nothing special. Then one day it hit me, this is my family. 

- @ava0lson1( Ava Olson )

- Pott's disease is a form of tuberculosis that occurs outside the lungs. (via wikipedia)