Every year, we hold a cross country race. The way its usually set up is in age groups but this year it was a bit different. Instead of age groups, we just raced in years. For example all the Year 7 girls race each other, Year 7 boys race and so on.
Something that was also a bit different was the race course. Instead of just a run around the reserve and back to our field, we ran a race course that was 3.5km ! But luckily for the Year 7's, they only had to run 3km.
As soon as the Year 7 boys were out of sight, the Year 8 girls lined up along the starting line. Miss V explained the race course to us and we waited anxiously for Miss V to clap the clapper. "On your marks" she started "get set..." CLAP ! As soon as we heard the 'clap' we shot off like lightening bolts and tried to overtake each other.
We hadn't even gotten to halfway when we saw the boys catching up to us. Most of us girls started sprinting as soon as we saw the boys, but others were calm and collected and didn't even try to keep in front of the boys. Unfortunately, I was one of those girls. Taking our time, kind of just strolling through the bush.
For a while we started to just stroll along, but then we felt quite de-hydrated so we started to power-walk. A long while later, we saw our school poking through all the ferns and trees, so we started to walk faster. We had nearly gotten to the finished line when we were told by Mrs Lagitupu that we still had 1/2km to run. Puffed out, we went back to walking and finally got to the finish line.
I had known that I wasn't going to come first because I was competing against people like Etta and April. But my goal was to not come last and guess what? I didn't !
by Sela
