“Alright ladies, you know what you have to do,”    Coach Ben said as we got onto the bus. We all nodded and sighed. In order for all of us to go to states, all six girls had to run under 30 minutes for their 5K. Not everyone on our team had done that, so we were all pretty anxious. I’m not feeling it today. I don’t think I’ll run well. Oh no, we’re like a minute away. We got to Regionals , set up our tent, and went to inspect the course. If I had to describe that course in one sentence I would have to say this: The run was going to be HILL.  No part of that course was flat, so I became even more nervous. All throughout warm ups and stretches, I could only think about how hard the race was going to be.  I’m not a good hill runner. Hills hurt my shin splints. I’m gonna walk.  Or cry. Or both. Will I be disqualified if I cry while I’m running?   I knew I was just psyching  myself out like usual, but for some reason that day I couldn’t get out of my head.

Suddenly I heard, “First call 2A girls.” I took a deep breath and walked over with my team. They all stood talking at the start, but I was too nervous to participate in any conversation. Way too soon, I heard someone say, “Runners take your mark.” What? I’m not ready … I blindly got into position, breathing hard. “Get set.” No, no, no. I can’t do this. Boom. The gun fired, and I was forced to run.

Whenever  I run, I count. I count how far I’ve gone, and how much I have left.  It doesn’t make running any easier, but it’s something I always end up doing. I heard my coach yell, “one mile in, 7 minutes flat.” Woah. That’s really fast. That means that I have approximately 15 minutes left because chances are I’ll slow down. 15 minutes isn’t that long, right?  The next 15 minutes were the longest 15 minutes of my life. It was hill after hill, and all I wanted to do was stop. I pushed through because I knew if I didn’t I might not go to states. The last half mile FINALLY came, and I pushed myself to go faster. “Come on Emily, let’s go. You can run faster,” Coach yelled. I rolled my eyes. What does he think I’m doing? A leisurely walk in the park? I’m running my fastest, and I’m not really having much fun.    Quarter mile left. Somehow, I pushed myself harder. I came down the home stretch, and I could see the finish. The clock said 22:40 . I could break my personal record. I crossed the finish line at a sprint, and the clock read 22:50. Wow. I just broke my record by one second. Breathless, I received my place card. Sixteen. 

At first, I was ecstatic. 16th in the entire region? Me? My happiness quickly disappeared when I remembered something Coach said. “The first 15 finishers automatically go to states.” It suddenly hit me there was a good chance I wouldn’t go to states. My teammates had to push themselves so hard just to get us to qualify, and it was really possible they wouldn’t. Sure, states were on the hardest course in  Maryland, and it was going to suck, but I still wanted to run. My eyes started to fill with tears. One of my teammates ran up, asking, “How did you do? Was it a PR?”

“Yeah, I beat my record, but I got sixteenth. How annoying. One away from the automatic states thing. Of course I was that one person no one wants to be. The just barely not good enough.” They all laughed with me. I stood at the finish line, rocking back and forth on my heels in anxiety.  Where are they? Where are they? Where are they? I looked over at the finish, and a flash of purple and yellow went by. Another person had finished in 25 minutes. 5 minutes to go. At 28 minutes, I was getting more and more nervous. Then I saw another girl. She came sprinting down the hill to the finish. She had never run under 30, but today she pushed herself so hard to help her team. The last girl came in at 29:30, and we were all so proud of each other. 

It’s really hard to describe the bond between a running team because running is such an individual sport. If one person has a bad day, the whole team won’t necessarily be affected.  However, I believe that the bond between a running team is the strongest bond. Without your teammates pushing you through that last hill in a workout or the last quarter mile in a race, none of us would excel and prosper. As a team, we provide every runner with support to finish strong and grow as runners.  When I started running my freshman year, I never  knew I would grow so close with my team and I never knew how much I would need their support in an individual sport like cross country.

We never would have been able to even qualify to go to states if we hadn’t motivated each other. As we went to the awards ceremony to see if we made in the top six, the nerves resurfaced. We made it. I hope. They were doing the top 15 ribbons before team awards, so I stood back. The guy began the awards and announced, “In 15th place, from Loch Raven High School, Emily Lane.” What? This isn’t right. Someone probably got disqualified. I’m getting a ribbon. This is awesome.  I smiled as I accepted the ribbon, extremely proud of myself. The awards kept going, and when they got to the place  that another member of team received, she wasn’t announced. That’s weird. I looked at her, confused. She looked back at me with the same expression. After the picture was taken of the top 15 2A girls, our coach went up to talk to the guy handing out ribbons, and after they talked he said, “We made a mistake. We didn’t include a girl from Loch Raven, who received 8th. Everyone pass your ribbons down one.” Everyone proceeded to pass their ribbons. I was back to getting sixteenth. They took away my ribbon. I’m in the picture, but I didn’t actually win. Sweet.

I decided that instead of being upset, I would find the humor in the situation. I laughed about the unfortunate situation with my team. Sure, it sucked thinking I was just barely not good enough, then thinking I was good enough, then having that good enough taken away from me again, but it was also really funny. Next year I will get in the top 15, and no one will be able to take away my ribbon again. But if they did take it away again, it would be really , really, funny.