Cross Country

On Thursday the 15^th of August we did our school cross country. First we ran around our school field then out on to the streets and around the block. Once we did that we ran back into school and got to the table for our year group. The first race was the Year 7 girls then while they were racing the year 7 boys were warming up and once most of the Year 7 girls were back they sent the Year 7 boys and the same thing happened for the Year 8 girls and boys. The races were over and the next day the top 10 people from each race got a letter to say they could go to the ECCS cross country.

On Wednesday 21^st August all the top 10 racers met under the blue cover which then we got told our cars and we left school on our way to Paparimu School somewhere faraway; it was about a 45 minute drive there. When we got there, there were heaps of other schools and a lot of people. At 10 a.m. we were called up to the front and we sat down, and then they talked about how the day was going to work, all the year groups started at different points. The year 4’s had to do about ¾ of the track Year 5’s a bit longer year 6’s the whole track while the Year 7’s had to do about 1 and a quarter and the Year 8’s had to do about 1 and a half, so firstly the years 4, 5, 7 and 8’s got called to go around the track. The person taking us around the track dropped the year groups of at different points the then the Year 7’s and 8’s had to wait in the freezing cold for about 2 hours until the other races had finished.

The Year 4 races were first, we saw the boys come past us then a while later the girls then the Year 5’s left. A while later it was my race, the year 8’s were off, we had to run up and down hills in and out of mud and a lot of us fell over and got mud from head to toe. Finally the last 100 metres of the race was up a steep hill and when we got to the top we had to run down the finish shoot and get our place. I felt like I couldn’t breathe and I just felt like collapsing and dying it was such a long race. Also I think someone had to get rushed to hospital  because they stopped breathing the Westpac helicopter was just landing as I finished my race and I got a nice breeze through my hair as it got closer to the ground.

By Jarred