Cistercian Cross Country

As a freshman, this is my first year on the high school cross country team, but considering how much we run, it feels like it’s been 5. Some days the workout is absolutely pain-staking, and you have to push yourself to the limit. And even on other days, when coach requires less of you, one must still challenge himself to surpass what he thinks is possible.

Coach Roane has been one of the greatest coaches I’ve ever had, and it hasn’t even been a month. He really knows how to push us, and help us improve significantly. It’s also nice having a coach who’s been in the same place as you. He understands where we are and the challenges that we face, as he was himself a D1 cross country
runner. He ran for Dayton College, and supposedly, only ate pasta during his career.

Some of our days consist of running over at UD, on longer runs. Other days, we run hills at the seminary, or on our own campus. But the most challenging runs we’ve encountered so far are the ladders and interval training. These days are by far the hardest, between the amount of distance we ultimately cover, and the pace we keep. These workouts often include running many 1600’s, 800’s, 400’s and 200’s. And at the end of days like that, nothing feels better than a long stretch, some air conditioning, and cold water. I feel that the talent of our freshman this year has really ramped up our already excellent team in terms of skill. Even the people finishing towards the end in practice are very talented. Last weekend, we had our first meet. Although it was only an inter-squad meet, I felt that there was a whole lot of competition since the top 7 would run varsity for the first official meet – the Marcus Invitational on September 2. And if you have some time
to spare this Saturday morning, please come out and support the team. Overall, this season, I believe, will be very successful no matter who makes top 7 or who makes SPC; again, we have a team full of depth and talent. Cross Country is a sport that pushes you to the limit, and we expect nothing less of that from each other as teammates.