BYU-I Intramural cross country championships

This has been my first attempt at running competitively since my mission and overall it has been a good experience. We ran the championship meet today at the golf course in Rexburg. We had been crossing our fingers for good weather all week, but it started snowing last night and kept up all night long. There was probably an inch or two of snow covering the whole course. It was cold.

I started warming up about an hour before the race and kept myself warm until the start time. About fifteen minutes before the guys race started, I ran to the bathroom for the pre-race nervous pee. Some wonderful young gentleman decided to use the port-a-potty to keep himself warm and occupied it for about twenty minutes until just before the start of the race. So after refraining myself from using choice words against him and quickly finishing my business in the bathroom, I was in a hurry to get all of my warm-up layers off. I'm sure it was an entertaining sight to watch dad grab my right pant leg, Tia with my left pant leg, and Mom holding me up while they tried frantically to rip off the running sweats I have used since seventh grade. (Thanks everyone!!!) Needless to say, after some struggle we finally got everything off that needed to come off and the race started. We ran the first mile with the wind, but the snow was pretty deep so I had a hard time getting my footing. A lot of people sprinted out fast so I had more people to run behind. It was nice to follow some guys and have a little extra motivation to keep me going.

Heading into the second mile the course turned and we started running into the wind. This provided me the opportunity to learn a very important lesson in human physiology. It is very difficult for one to run at a high speed if one cannot breath. The constant falling of the snow, combined with the sudden gust of wind created near sub-zero temperatures and took my breath completely away. I struggled to regain my stride, and eventually did with my teammates cheering me on the whole way. (Thanks ya'll for all your support). It makes a huge difference to have people cheering for you while you run. I know it was freezing, and cross country (or any long distance running event) isn't the most exciting sport to watch, but thank you to everyone who sticks it out to watch us run. Your support gives us extra energy and often, the motivation we need to finish.

Now, I'm not sure who the sicked and twisted creature that created the course was, but let's just say he is not the most popular guy among runners in rexburg today. The last three-fourths of the third mile were running into the wind in the same deep snow we started in. I felt like I was running through, not into, but through multiple semi-trucks the whole way. Towards the end, I closed my eyes and just focused on putting one foot in front of the other. My unofficial finishing time was around 21:20. The director told me that the finishing times were about 3 minutes slower than average for everyone across the board, so I that made me feel better. After waiting for what seemed like an eternity in the cold, they announced that my team won first place. It had been a pretty close battle all year long with the other teams, so it was cool to finally come out on top. Now that cross country is over it's time to start getting ready for the real long races. Bring it on!