The obscure life of a cross country runner

Cross Country, according to us runners, is the only sport. However, judging by its invisibility and lack of accessibility to EMU fans, some of you might not believe it’s even a sport at all.

Unfortunately, while soccer is all over the headlines and ‘Vane reporters have a field day with women’s field hockey, cross country is often forgotten in the shuffle of things. On Saturday evenings, some of my friends try to feign interest by asking how my meet went that day, but it usually comes out sounding more like an afterthought than anything else. They might listen politely for a minute or two as I ramble on about the struggles and the triumphs of the race I’d run that day, but all too quickly they lose interest and excuse themselves from the conversation. A floor hockey match to run off to or something like that.

But don’t feel sorry for us. Cross country runners are quite used to this sort of treatment. In fact, I doubt it if any of us want to be in the spotlight, because that’s not why we run. Unlike soccer, we don’t play to make goals, and, unlike intramurals, we don’t do our sport "for the fun of it." Even track and field, the other running sport, is worlds apart from CC, for it has bleachers, concession stands, and ample enough spectators. Cross country, on the other hand, is just ... cross country. "Runners. Yeah, we’re different," is a popular T-shirt quote I’ve seen at many of our meets this season.

But there’s a reason why our team is the smallest sports team on campus. You may have heard us say that "our sport is your sport’s punishment," because we do the things that no one else would even dream of.

At the beginning of the year, for example, we had four consecutive days of two-a-day practices: one at 6:15 in the morning, the other at 5:00 in the evening. Since then, Coach Zook hasn’t deemed it necessary to deprive his runners of sleep every day of the week, but that doesn’t mean cross country has gotten any easier.

On Mondays we have what Coach likes to call our "meat and potatoes" practice: our substance-run for the week, which isn’t nearly as pleasurable as eating a plateful of meat and potatoes (usually we run up to six repeats of .5-1.5 mile distances).

On Tuesdays and Thursdays we still have two-a-days, and on Wednesdays it’s like running two practices at once anyway, since our mileage can get up to 11 miles all in one go. Fridays are easy days (yes, that word is in our vocabulary), and then Saturdays we race. The popular maxims "what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger" and "pain is just weakness leaving the body" are our mottoes by the end of the week.

If you want to see a competition for the strongest man or woman in the world, don’t watch weight-lifting contests. Go to a cross country race.

This brings me to the last and most important question: how would one do that? After all, the cross country team has to travel for miles around to find races at which it can compete. Out of our last five meets, three have been so far away that we even had to book hotel rooms for those Friday nights. So far we’ve run in four states and only once in our own.

So don’t worry; I’m not about to ask you to spend your Saturdays behind the wheel just so your most-neglected sports team can finally get some spectators. However, a long drive is the last thing required of you this weekend, the date of our "home" meet. No, we won’t be running right on campus like we have other years. Actually, our home course is now located about 20-25 minutes off campus at Peakview Elementary School.

Taking the time to see us run may be a bit less convenient than, say, a home softball game, but it is so much more fun! After all, where else will you get to watch dozens of runners crawl up a hill so steep it’s been dubbed "The Wall?" In which other athletic event would you witness every single participant pouring his guts into his sport for a straight 25-40 minutes? On what other day will you have the opportunity to cheer your cross country team on to victory in the Virginia state meet?

So I guess what I’m trying to say is: come out, EMU, and finally see what your cross country friends have been up to for the past seven weeks!! Take the time to drive out to Peakview this Saturday morning at 10:30 to support us. We will love you for it! Women run at 10:30 a.m., men at 11:15 a.m. Contact the Athletic Dept. for directions.