I started doing cross-country after school every day this week with all the other girls who have been doing it the entire summer. First day was pretty good, I ran two miles non-stop. The second day was good too, we ran a mile in a thunderstorm, I got around 8 minutes. Then, on the 3rd day we were supposed to run 5 miles, but I cramped up real bad and wound up having to walk 3 of the miles. I almost walked home because we ran by my neighborhood twice. I kept with it though. The 4th day we sprinted up hills, it was better than the day before, but I still got stitches in my sides. I didn’t stop this time though. On Friday, I was informed that in order to run in the first meet, I would have to do time trials the next morning. We’d have to get to the school at 7:30, stretch and warm up, then run 3 miles in under 30 minutes, so we only had to run a mile and a half to our destination, rest a little and stretch, then run back.

This morning I got up at 7, got dressed, drank a little water, stretched, and headed up to Brookwood. All the guys had their time trials that morning, so we had to wait until they were done. They pretty much sprinted the entire three miles and were done in no time. The girls who were running that morning had all either gotten over 30 minutes the first time trials or were new, I think I was the only new one. We were all ready to run, I had my new black and pink Iron Woman watch all set to count down from 30, most girls had it timing themselves.

We started running and I started in third. By the first mile I was running with about 4 other girls in a line for second. Then, on the second mile, these two other girls took off and I went ahead as well, but not as fast as them so I could conserve energy. Then, my stomach began to hurt. I walked for 10 seconds, but then began to go at a slow jog. Two more girls passed me. I sped up to get ahead of them. My stomach was aching badly, but I kept going. I had no idea how much farther we had left, and I started to get worried I wouldn’t make it.

I saw a place I recognized and it was near the end. I started sprinting, ignoring the nausea. I could see the end, I began to cough and gag. there was spit running down my my chin. I wiped it off. “Keep going, just a few seconds and you’ll be there,” cheered a girl on the street. I crossed the street and my stomach started lurching up. I got down, put my hands on the ground and started gagging, and coughing, all the while looking at my watch, wondering if I should just run to the end throwing up. I decided to stay down, there were 3 minutes left. Behind me I heard three girls pass by. Finally a little water came up and out of my stomach (good thing I didn’t have anything else to eat that morning or I would have been there a lot longer). I got up, wiped my face with my hand, wiped my hand on my short, and ran as fast as I could in my condition to finish with a time of 28 minutes and 35 seconds, and in 7th, but I still qualified to race at the next meet.

The varsity coach was impressed with me. He said, “We have Kel… Kelly Cashel with 28:35, she’s new, she just started this week. Kelly? Where’s Kelly?”. It was real silent when everybody looked my way, one girl said, “Good job”. I don’t know if everybody was stunned to silence or what was going on. The coach was quiet for about 10 seconds. My dad said he was trying to remember me. I think I’ll stay with cross-country.