Cross Country Run

Today I ran my first race in cross country in my life. I skipped the last class on the afternoon and went on a bus with the whole team. The ride there was long and hot. But at least I managed to have some nice conversations. When we arrived a nice wind came up and cooled us down. We arrived late so we didn't have time to warm up and went to the starting spot immediately. Then the race began and I started running. All the wind was gone and the sun shone down on us. My mouth dried out. Slowly the legs began to get heavy. Then I spotted the one mile mark. I had no clue how long the race was but running the first mile gave me some more energy. Then I ran further. A while after that I saw something that looked like the end, but the faster runners came back on the same road. My breathing was heavy. And then came the worst part of the race: a 180 degree turn to run back the whole distance. I was already far in behind the fast runners but I decided to go through it all. So I kept on running. Now it was hard to even get the inside of my mouth wet, but I continued. I kept on running, told myself to always look forward. At one point I closed my eyes and ran blind. Then after a long time I finally saw the end nearing. The only thing that kept me running was all the nice people who cheered on me. And then I passed through the finish line. All the annoying stability muscles hurt. I walked through, grabbed water and had to sit down in the shadow of a fence. After a while the nice feeling of having done something hard for the first time kicked in. A smile surfaced my face. It was fun. It was a five kilometer race that we ran in something above 20 minutes. It was an amazing day, but I would most likely never have the will to do something like that at home. (LH)