By Ella Harvey
Earlier in the day, junior Jane Balsley and I were studying in our free period in the first-floor alcove. She was locked in on AP European History, and I on AP U.S. History. We started discussing what our afternoons looked like when she told me she was excited about her cross-country practice. After I took a moment to wonder how someone could be excited to run long distances, I decided to take a break from learning about William Penn and the Quakers for APUSH, and ask her about her season so far.
Jane started off by saying that this season, she has been thoroughly enjoying cross country, especially because “the team feels so bonded in practice, and the coaches are amazing.”
She also mentioned that being an upperclassman on the team “is a lot of fun, and we know the lay of the land. The majority of the team is juniors, which makes it a good time.”
During practice every day, they run a max of 5 miles with at most one day off on the weekend. The other day of the weekend? A short seven-mile run! “We get a lot of mileage during the week,” Jane stated.
When it was especially hot at the start of the season, they would run in the mornings before school as their practice for the day. Jane felt that it was a bit of a struggle “because running in the heat is very hard and morning practices aren’t the most fun, but we made the best of it.”
Despite the long practices, she explained that the bonded team helps offset some of the difficulties they experience. “We always have music playing and the team is always very hype,” she said. “Sometimes we get a little bit stressed before the meets, but we always encourage each other.”
One example of this was the girls’ second cross-country meet of the season. “I was able to run with Annabel (11th) the whole race, and we pushed each other to the finish. It was a great race,” she said.
It is especially fun because most of these girls have been running together since seventh grade, when the sport became available to them.
And clearly the strong bonds are paying off. The team has already won first place at its first meet of the season. Even though the girls are running their own race, they win based on how fast their combined times are as a team.
Additionally, Jane has some pretty big goals for the season. “My goal is definitely to have fun, have a good team, but I also would love to get a new PR (personal record), so I need to break 19:52,” she said.
Along with these big goals, Jane is trying to figure out whether she might want to run at the college level. She is “definitely thinking about it. I have not quite made the decision yet, but I’m talking to colleges.”
For now, she’ll keep on running, and long after the season ends, which, according to Jane, it never really does. She stated that running track and cross country are a consistent, yearlong cycle. “It’s never-ending,” she said. “We have summer training throughout the entire summer, but it’s not necessarily in person.”
Jane and the rest of the XC team run on their own and report to the coaches. Once one finally completes summer training for cross country, “you have the cross country season.” And then you do “winter training for track and then it’s a whole cycle, so you just never stop running.”
