Written By: Delaney Knipp

Some days, cross country athletes practice by running sets of 1000-meter increments around the track at Davidson Field. Other days, they run anywhere from 7 to 10 miles as part of their long distance workout. These same athletes spend a weekend in Mammoth every Fall, running upwards of 60 miles at high altitude in preparation for the competitive races to come. “The training is hard,” said Junior Claire Bacon, “but it is so worth it when you go to a race and get a good time.” This preparation pays off once they meet up with other competitors to put their speed to the test.

Cross country runners travel to many different locations for their challenging races, from staying local in Laguna Hills to traveling up to Fresno as a team. Having completed 5 competitions so far this season, the runners have had many chances to push themselves to their best. Junior Sam Quattrociocchi said, “All of our races are three miles, and I run that in 17:03 minutes,” a decent time considering “Varsity runners do it in at least 16:50.” Speaking about their most recent race, Bacon summarized the team’s achievements with the simple phrase, “We did good!”

While many observers think that these runners are out of their minds for putting so much heart and effort into such a mentally and physically taxing sport, really it is quite rewarding. “It’s definitely not the running itself,” says Quattrociocchi about why he enjoys his sport, “it’s the feeling of crossing the finish line.” For most of these athletes, the difficult nature of the sport is worth the extremely rewarding feeling of finishing that race, for all of these athletes, cross country has become a key role in their life in which they know that at the end of every challenging race is a finish line.