Upon watching our last girl cross the line, I broke down into tears and whispered, “We did it.”
Rewind.
Sidelined by a patellar stress fracture, I took on the both physically emotionally demanding position as a spectator at our cross country conference meet. I watched our girls team start at the gun, and immediately they were off, our top athletes leading and pacing the front group while our other girls held down the back. The Stockton Ospreys tattoos on their faces and ribbons in their hair didn’t do them justice; these girls were more motivated now than they had ever been.
I saw the pain in their eyes as the lactic acid built up and made their muscles sear, but they kept pushing. I watched them conquer the open field, running off rolled ankles galore. As the front pack became visible in the open field, conquering their final 800 meters of the race, the race became a test of strength. The first 5,000 meters of a 6k are a test of mental toughness more than anything. The last 1k is dominated by the runner who feels her legs exploding beneath her and decides that, yes, she can take more. Our top two hang on to each other until the moment they cross the finish line, followed by a gap, and then our third and fourth girls. Five, gap…Six, gap…Seven. Stockton uniforms were blurred by the rainbow of other runners. Our last girl finished, and the tears started flowing.
Truthfully, I couldn’t even identify the real reason why I was crying. I had no idea what our score was, and I didn’t have the patience to add up our runners’ places myself. Regardless, I broke into a dead sprint, despite my aching knee, toward the finish line 400 meters away. I toppled onto my exhausted teammates, sharing tears and sweaty hugs with them before helping them to their overworked feet.
My mind was racing, probably faster than the girls had raced that day. Did we just win NJACS? Did we make Stockton history?
The scores were added up, and sure enough, Stockton University women won NJACS. My team and I shed tears of joy and pride, and we quite literally ran off into the sunset.