The Woodberry Harrier 2018: Volume 5

Facing it Together

Cross country is a sport that only runners can understand.  The love we have for this sport isn’t about trophies or publicity.  We don’t run for the spectators or for the praise.  We do it because of who it makes us.  It becomes a lifestyle, dictating what we eat, how we sleep, what we do in our free time, and even how we think.  It keeps us honest.

Being a runner is about being what no one else wants to be.  No one wants to put himself through three reps of Moormont, say no to every dessert, or run himself literally into the dirt with no acclaim.  Running makes a person strong.  It has made me love the throb in my temples after a race.  It has taught me to lean in when the pain comes.  Most of all, it has shown me that I could do an extra rep when my body told me I couldn’t.  It’s made me see that I can always be stronger and better tomorrow if I push harder today.

It’s easy to say these things when all goes well.  But this year was a really hard one.  Every person on the team had some injury during the season, and we were thin from the beginning. I thought my season was over when I sprained my ankle just five days out from the State Meet.  Had this been any other sport, we may have thrown our hands up.  We might have said it’s no use going to Fork Union on a cold, sloppy day with no chance to win. But this is cross country.

When every setback came this season, we knew we had to “face the challenge in front of us,” as Coach likes to say.  When Riley’s season ended with a stress fracture, he got on a bike and rode beside us. When Henry’s hip surgery refused to heal on schedule, he just kept doing his PT and running a mile at a time. Henry C. trained and raced with knee pain; Lawrence refused to give into a year-old foot injury; Thomas put on his knee straps and rallied for Moormont and the championship meets; Neil and Ryan ran the State Meet with shin splints, and Cylus ran it with a pulled Achilles, and I taped sprained ankle and hoped it would hold.  We faced these challenges with--and for--each other.

Throughout this tough season, we stayed a team.  We went up the hill each day better friends than when we came down.  I hope that we never forget all that we worked through together.  Let’s remember Albemarle, when we all got PR’s. Let’s remember Moormont, with half of us running and the other half cheering at the top. Let’s remember the mud and rain at the State Meet when we ran as if we were ranked first. Let’s remember the hill repeats and the long runs and the ice baths and the laughs and even the disappointments.  Let’s stick together as a team, even as we split up this winter. 

When we go into the conference room for our banquet, look around at all the teams and all the generations of Woodberry harriers over the years.  I’m so glad am a part of the Cross Country family with you guys, and I am proud I was a part of the past three teams.  I encourage you underformers coming back for next season to remember getting through this year as a family and what it meant.  I hope you will carry this team on to even greater things next year, and I hope you will be as proud of this tradition as I am.

Thank you all for this memorable season.

--Parker Watt '19

VISAA State Championships
Fork Union, VA
9 November 2018
12th out of 19 Teams
	Place out of 198	Time
Watt	8th	17:36	All State
Garza	31st	18:27
Singleton	80th	19:36
Mills	99th	20:04	a 26-sec. improvement from the Prep League
Coppa	130th	20:47	10-sec. season PR
Boney	146th	21:07
Daniels	170th	22:08	a 1:16 season PR; a 3:31 improvement from the FUMA Invitational!!