Me? A...Runner?

Gabriella Ronquillo is an eighth-grader at Manhattan Academy of Technology/Jacob Riis (PS 126) and received an honorable mention.

Standing in the freezing cold, the Cross Country team and I anxiously waited for the arrival of the other teams. The bite of the frosty wind in the East river park and my adrenaline caused me to jump from side to side in anticipation. Stop moving, I scolded myself, You’re wasting your energy. It was just a month ago that I started running (of course, with the strength of a fish out of water) and now I would be running against 20 schools. Now, all I could hope was to at least get 15th place.

At the beginning of my 8th-grade year, I was determined to join the Cross Country team. However, my thoughts said otherwise. Me? A…runner? What a travesty! Back in 6th grade, the only sport I grudgingly joined was table tennis, for the sole purpose of having a sport on my high school application. Sports weren’t as important as academics were to me. However, after the pandemic hit, the next time I’d be able to choose a sport was in 8th grade the last year of middle school. It was now or never. After being locked in my house for over a year, joining Cross Country sounded very appealing. Time spent not sitting down in an enclosed space was now valuable.

If you saw me on the first day of Cross Country, you wouldn’t be able to tell me apart from a bird with broken wings trying to fly. My legs writhed back and forth and I vyed with the surrounding area for breaths of air. The honks of city cars and splashes of the Hudson river distorted into unintelligible wails and pauses of silence. A broad grin and sigh of relief overcame me as the end of the trail was near. “Great job everyone!” the coach beamed, “If you’re interested, come to practice tomorrow.” I swayed from side to side while trying to comprehend the Coach’s words. Do I really want to put myself through this again? I wavered. The pandemic showed me that it was too costly to pass up an opportunity like this because I might never get it again. The next day I showed up, ready to take on the challenges that the next mile brought. A new go-getter mindset had taken root, and before I knew it, I’d been on the team for a month.

All the other teams and I lined up before the starting point. Despite my fierce and relentless determination to stick with the team, doubt settled in. Did I work hard enough? What if I lose stamina before I reach the midway point? Seeing my worried expression, the coach gave me her final words of encouragement. “Make sure that by the time you’ve crossed the finish line, you’ve got nothing left in you.” My resolve came back and when the announcer boomed, “START” my legs and eyes were set on 1st place.

Keeping a steady pace, I made sure not to lose a group of girls at the front of the line of racers. At times, my legs felt like giving in, but my mind would not. It was towards the

end of the race though that I was on the brink of stopping. In a few seconds, a few girls started to pass me. Keep…going. I pushed myself. I could feel that I had more left in me, and I refused to waste a drop of my energy. Triumphantly, I started to move past the girls and reclaimed my spot. Towards the finish line, I was head to head with another racer, who was slightly out of breath but would not stop. In a leap of faith (literally), I pushed my body into the finish line and flew past her.

By pushing myself to do something I never would’ve tried before, I grew as a person. Cross country has made me mentally strong, determined, and perservering. Now, I feel like I am ready to take on any challenge that life brings me.