Hello, my name is Jamie Colchado, and this is my eighth-grade year at MacArthur and, sadly, my last year running with MacArthur’s Cross Country team.  I will be journaling my experience in Cross Country this year, but first, here’s how my last two years went.

During my sixth-grade year, I was interested in joining a sport, so I chose Cross Country because it seemed like an amazing option.  A few weeks in Cross Country, I started to make friends with everyone there because they were very supportive and helpful.  

The exercises we would complete at practice helped with strength and conditioning.  Each practice we would do a warm-up jog around the big bowl, then a workout, and sprinting exercises for the end of the day.  When we were timed at practice, I would become stressed because I really wanted to make the team.  At the end of the fourth week, Coach Mr. Patrick Evans announced who made the team.  

I made the team!  (obviously, since I am writing this now).

For the rest of the Cross Country season, we worked on sprinting at the very end.  We did multiple outruns to Thorton Park, so we could know the course of the Santa Ana Unified School District Intermediate School Cross Country Meet.  

At the meet, I placed 18th for the sixth-grade girls.  Afterward, everyone congratulated each other for how hard they tried and succeeded.

For my second year of running Cross Country, I was nervous because each year the course gets longer.  As my second year, I knew it was going to get harder and that I would have to run more and push myself.  For the first week of Cross Country, it was hell week, which is designed to get all runners into shape.  I would try to maintain and improve my time for each run.   

Overall, the season went about the same for practice as it did in sixth grade.  Daily practice, sprints, outruns all designed to help us and make us faster and prepared for the Cross Country race.   

At the tournament, I was the first runner on MacArthur’s seventh-grade girl’s team to finish!  But I placed third overall when compared to the entire district.

And now that you know about my sixth grade and seventh-grade year.  I will be writing about my eighth-grade season.