Cross Country

The 11th of September marked the day of the Point England cross country. Cross country, is an event that is held every year for our whole school. Our school was fortunate enough to have good weather.

Every year in cross country each house coloured team will have the chance to say a chant, to earn points. Our house coloured teams are named after the seven canoes (our ancestors came in), but only four of them. Such as Mataatua  Takitimu, Tainui and Te Arawa.  Each team has a house captain, who are one of the biggest supporters for their house. They encourage others to never stop.

As I changed into my running clothes, I felt really nervous. I wasn’t ready for this. When the clock struck close to 12pm , my heart started to grow heavy, my palms were sweaty and butterflies were in my stomach. I sat on the courts nervously looking around, only to see a few people excited and highly strung at the same time.   

Luckily the Year 7 & 8 got to support and watch the younger kids finish off the race.  Fortunately I started to lose my butterflies as I saw the others trying their best. Unfortunately, the weather was growing too hot.  I felt drips of sweat streaming down my forehead.    Mrs Nua then announced that it was time for the Year 7 Girls to get ready for the race.

My butterflies grew back.  I felt really unusual. As I went to line up for the race, I started to play with my fingers, not paying attention to anything at all. Mr Burt was standing on the sideline, with his blocks, ready to start the race.  “ BANG! “ the blocks crashed together loudly., in the blink of an eye.  I sprinted at first, which wasn’t the right choice to make.

Running through the mud, I searched for my friends at the same time, hoping I’d had catched up to them. As I looked down ,  I noticed splashes of mud all over my feet, “ Uuuugggghhhh “ I thought. It felt totally disgusting.  Catching up to Ms. V , my lungs started to pump, and I started to breath heavily.

“ Keep on going! “  shouted Mr. Slade. At that, my legs started to hurt but my lungs were going fine. I felt really, really sore.  So I decided to stop. As I got to Ms Erasmus, I had started to do a little jog, to help me get to the finish. I finished my first lap and was ready to go for a second lap!  

Overall Cross Country was really exhausting, and I am really proud of myself. I look forward to coming a place next year, and moving non- stop too. Cross Country may be bad at first but as few years come you will get used to this really tiring event!  :)