The Woodberry Harrier 2017: Volume 3
Cross Country Brain
I’m not a very quick thinker. In fact, I am a remarkably methodical
one. This fact is echoed in my every endeavor. Sometimes people try
to engage me in conversation, and, while most people can respond in a sensible
string of words, my mind manufactures fragments and noises––placeholders until
I can think of what I really want to say. I used to play lacrosse, a sport
unmistakably fast-paced, requiring of its players a refined ability to be quick
on their feet, both physically and mentally. Whenever I stepped onto the field,
I felt a gnawing anxiety that I might, by some horrible miracle, find the ball
in my stick and have to figure out what to do with it. No matter how much
film I watched or how hard I practiced in drills, I could never overcome my
fear of what might happen. But then, really by chance, I started running
cross country, a sport that welcomed my slow mind with open arms. 
And since then, cross country has simultaneously become the most
difficult and yet the most therapeutic thing I do with no exceptions (athletic,
academic, social, or anything else). That same anxiety that crippled me in
lacrosse still exists until I learn the exact workout for the day, but once I
know my task, I feel at peace. Yes, that task almost always
involves burning legs and a general feeling of weakness in my whole body, but I
know I can deal with that feeling. During the workout, I’m doing just that--and
nothing else. On a daily basis, I feel
the greatest physical pain at cross country practice, yet it’s there that I am
most calm, present, and comfortable.
Cross country is inescapable, like a mental prison for which Mr. Hale is
the warden. In my mind, I never leave it—yet
in this prison I am grounded in the world, not isolated from it. It forces me to constantly keep myself
in-check and on high alert. Every second of every day, at least a
fraction of my mind on cross country. I might be sitting in Mr. Holmes’ Stats
class, when suddenly my cross country brain forces me to pick up my water
bottle and take a swig. “You’ll be glad you did that in about three hours,
when you’re running laps around the track,” it tells me. At lunch I might feel
an urge to reach for the onion rings, but my cross country brain pushes me on
to the sandwich bar. The cross country brain takes no breaks, and it won’t
let me take one either.
Maybe the anchor metaphor is a cliché, but that just means it
makes sense to a lot of people. Cross country is my anchor. I may never
be one of the top seven, but that doesn’t lessen the tremendous impact it has
on me. This team keeps me from drifting away on the current of unhealthy
habits. And just being down there every day pushing my body to the limit,
is, believe it or not, relaxing.
Spencer Dearborn ‘18
Last weekend we ran in the big and competitive Fork Union Invitational, and we acquitted ourselves well. Here are those results:
Fork
Union Invitational
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Fork
Union, VA
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23
Sept, 2017
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4th
out of 19 teams
1-5
spread: 1:25
1-7
spread: 2:36
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Place out of 137
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Time
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Fletcher
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11th
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17:05
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37 sec. season PR; 19 sec. course
PR
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Watt
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21st
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17:28
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18 sec. ALL TIME PR
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Rich
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24th
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17:33
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29 sec. season PR; course PR tie
|
Clark
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52nd
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18:17
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11 sec. season PR
|
Daniels
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61st
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18:30
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1:14 ALL TIME PR
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Singleton
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74th
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18:41
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1 sec. season PR
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Sompayrac
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108th
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19:41
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21 sec. season PR
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out
of
239
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Lindner
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62nd
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20:40
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1st race of the season
after Rocky Mtn. Spotted Fever!
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Richard
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64th
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20:41
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1 sec. season PR
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Dearborn
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73rd
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20:56
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13 sec. season PR
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Wall
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DNR
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McKay
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DNR
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