Today was my first cross country race! I was happy to race again, except this race was different from what we normally do. It was a 1 mile loop that we had to do 2 times, and it was a relay. And you had to jump over hay ever so often, started out with 1 row across the course, then 2, then like 3 I think, and then the last one had a ton of them. I was the 2nd runner. It was hard for me because there weren't many people around me, just a few I could see who had a gap on our team in front of me, and a few in back too. But I didn't like being alone, it made it a lot harder for me to push. I found myself just sort of running it a lot, then remember it was a race and start trying to push again. My first mile I was focused, but it wasn't as fast as I wanted it, a 6:21. I passed people like I was supposed to, but then in the 2nd mile I started to just run it and noticed I wasn't passing anymore, and it was hard to start pushing again. I thought the hay was a fun idea, but honestly I didn't like it very much in the middle of a race, I thought I was gonna biff it a couple times. I feel like I didn't have the focus or competition I needed, but hopefully next race will be good. | 