A small break from the pandemic

As much as I enjoy running, cross country is more than just a sport to me. From my first day on the team, two juniors took my freshmen friends and I under their wings, teaching us how to race and giving us advice about high school. Our coach emphasized the importance of creating a supportive team culture and the seniors at the time put his words into action, cheering for each runner as they crossed the finish line and finding newcomers to run with. I began to understand that cross country was about community just as much as performance.

In the years that followed, as school grew more stressful and my other commitments became more time consuming, cross country remained a safe space; I could show up in need of a hard workout to take my mind off of other things, or just jog around the neighborhood, talking with my teammates. Either way, cross country was a community that supported everyone and my peers and I worked to maintain the camaraderie between grades, welcoming new runners the way the upperclassmen had welcomed us.

So this school year, as summer turned into fall and fall turned into winter, I began to accept that cross country would be yet another part of senior year that would be sacrificed to the pandemic. To my surprise, season 1 sports were cleared to begin at the end of January, meaning that cross country would begin. Our season looks quite different this year. The days of rice cakes after workouts and long runs in Hillsborough have vanished, replaced by masks and track workouts to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Initially I was hesitant to join, worrying about bringing COVID-19 home to my parents, but I chose to attend the first few practices, feeling like I had a commitment to the team to at least test the water. Stepping onto the track and running alongside my teammates for the first time in over a year, life suddenly felt normal. Practice has become this flash of normalcy in an otherwise abnormal year, a moment to break out of the confines of my bedroom and catch up with classmates I rarely see.

For the first time, I feel like a senior. My friends and I have been running together for four years, watching the seniors each year as they continue to build the team culture that I so highly value. Now it’s our turn to do the same and we must work to bring the team together in a year of separation. We’re teaching them our warm-up routine, we’ve coordinated team spirit days such as crazy sock day, and most importantly, we reach out to the younger runners, letting them know that cross country is a space where they will always be welcome.

As seniors we stand in the center of the stretching circle, forming a mini senior circle, and we talk about college acceptances, weekend plans and ice cream flavors. Standing 6 feet apart, we raise our fists to the center of the circle, “Panthers on me, Panthers on three! One, two, three, PANTHERS!” We’re back.

Amelia Harris is a senior at Burlingame High School. Student News appears in the weekend edition. You can email Student News at news@smdailyjournal.com.