The Trials of the Course

The force of nature is something that cannot be compared to any other force on this earth. Nature is not simply a collection of things such as trees and grass, it is an entity with characteristics all of its own. In fact, nature is sometimes referred to by humans as “Mother Nature,” thereby suggesting the humanistic qualities that nature tends to have. Personifying nature becomes simple because, like people, it teaches us lessons. In my experiences of nature, I have learned many lessons. I have also experienced some of natures other humanistic qualities; I have found, for example, that nature can be unforgiving, generous, surprising, and a whole other range of things. A large portion of my hometown, South Park, as perhaps can be presumed from the name, is a park. Therefore, I have been able to experience nature quite often within my small town. As a runner, I often explore many of these places. Some of my most unique experiences in nature have been on the cross country course used by South Park High School. Running on this cross country course, I learned many lessons about both nature and myself, and I experienced the various characteristics of Mother Nature, such as its toughness and its independence.

My experiences on the cross country course showed me how small I was compared to nature, and how nature acted independently of anything I wished for. Unlike many other high schools’ cross country courses, South Park’s course is actually a part of nature. Located deep within the woods behind the South Park Fairgrounds and “The Oval,” the course might be hard to find if one was not made aware of it. At the commencement of each cross country season, the cross country team held the responsibility of cleaning up the course. Since it was located in the woods, the running path was often overgrown with weeds and blocked by recently fallen trees. The team marched into the woods, armored with weed-whackers, hedge clippers, and other such tools, and cleared the course so that it was capable to race on. This task was always sort of a pain. Why couldn’t the course just stay clear? Why, year after year, did all of our hard work just disappear, only to have to be repeated again the next year? The answers to these questions that I asked myself became more and more clear the more time I spent on the course. The answer was, simply, that nature didn’t really care. Nature also didn’t care if it decided to pour down rain on the day of a race. Nature just wanted to take care of itself and grow and prosper; it did not care about humans and where or when they wanted to run. Through experiences at the cross country course, I found that nature will act according to its own wants and needs; not according to those of anyone or anything else.

Through my experiences, I also found that nature was tough and unforgiving. In a way, this was a further extension of my discovery of the enormity of nature and its will. In regards to the course itself, it was mutually agreed upon by runners in our section that our course was one of the more difficult ones to race on. The fact that it was our home course could be looked at as advantageous to my team, since even though it was a difficult course, at least we got to practice on it. All the runners, from both my team and the teams we were running against, feared “The Hill.” Located about one mile into the course in the middle of the woods, this dirt hill seemingly rose out of nowhere. It was incredibly steep; runners often used not just their feet but their hands in order to climb up it, grabbing the roots of trees to pull them along. Almost no one actually wanted to run up it; in fact, it often was believed to be a smart strategy to walk up it instead of wasting all of your energy trying to run up it. However, the South Park coaches did not believe that walking won races. Every meet, one of our coaches would stand at the top of the hill with a video camera and film everybody running up the hill, making walking not an option. Of course, at the end of the year the team would get a good laugh when we watched these videos and saw all of our opponents walking while we were running. Running up that hill was one of the hardest things I had to do during my career as a runner, but it made me stronger. Nature was sending a clear message that it did not want to be easily conquered. Nature is tough, and so it treats those involved with it as so. No matter what kinds of aches and pains a runner had the day of the race, he or she still had to run up that hill. Nature is unforgiving. My experiences in nature at the cross country course helped make me become more aware of the tough and unforgiving temperament of nature.

While running at our cross country course, nature taught me many life lessons. Aforementioned, interacting with the forces of nature made me stronger. Whether I was up against horrible weather or just the difficulty of the course itself, I always had to battle to make it through the race. I knew that I could never give up; it was as if during a race nature and I were at war. At the same time, running on the course made me want to make peace with nature because it made me more appreciative of it. I experienced the beauty of nature and came to respect it for its historical ties and unending survival. Admittedly, I was never really a huge fan of cross country, but the many lessons I learned from my experiences in nature were incredibly valuable. I gained a lot of physical strength from cross country, but I gained even more mental strength. Nature showed me how to be tough and how to beat the odds.

During my time on the South Park cross country team, I was surrounded by nature quite often. The course, located in the middle of the woods, was indeed a force of nature of its own. From my experiences there, I learned many things. I was able to truly realize that nature was so much bigger than I was, and that nature was tough and unforgiving. But more important than what I learned about nature was what I learned about myself. I learned that I could be tough, just like nature, and that I could endure much harsher conditions than I could have ever imagined. My experiences in nature while running on the cross country course have certainly advanced my way of thinking.