Girls’ cross-country team follows strict routine to success
Cross country is not a sport for the weak, physically- or mentally. “It’s all mental,” said Central York senior cross-country runner Olivia Hogue Hogue has been running for the school for five years, and plans on continuing her running career at Millersville University. Ashley Truax, a senior, has been running for eight years. She started running in the “Girls on the Run” program in elementary school, and plans on continuing her career at Shenandoah University next fall. “It takes guts, a strong mind, determination, endurance and legs,” said Hogue. Cross country is a sport that puts a lot of pressure and physical strain on a runner’s legs. In order to handle this amount of pressure, the girl’s cross-country team practices every day. The girls’ team ventures out every day after school, following a specific routine in order to prepare for the weekend ahead. Their weeks usually look like this: Mondays: The team spends all of their practice doing what they call “pre-meets,” where they warm-up their legs, and prepare themselves for Tuesday. Tuesdays: No practice. The girls have their weekly meets on this day, where they compete with other schools across the county for top place. Wednesdays: Wednesday’s practice is spent doing “hills,” said Houge. The girls take on either Hershey Hill or hills in the development across from the high school. They run up and down once for a total of one mile, and repeat four times. Thursdays: Practice is spent running long-distance only. The team takes on the rail-trail neighboring the high school, and trek until they get to Route 30, where they double back. Fridays: The team works on going at shorter distances through speed workouts. Before every practice, the girls warm-up by running a total of two miles around the school, and stretch for about 15 minutes. At the end of the week the girls can finally rest, except on the weeks of an invitational. The girls cross-country team has so far participated in three invitationals, Hershey, Big Spring and Lebanon Valley. On the day of the invitational the girls arrive at the high school at 6 a.m. take a bus to the location, and arrive around 9 a.m. The team sets up a tent, lays out blankets and pillows, and “chills” before they must begin running. “Then we run our races, which suck,” said Hogue. At every event, the girl’s cross-country team runs a 5k, or 3.1-miles. If the girls run before the boys, they will go back to certain areas of the course, and cheer them on while providing direction. The girls cross-country team is led by Coach Randy Mumford. “He really cares about our feelings,” said Hogue. Truax said of the coach, “He applies cross country to real life events.” “Running is a lot harder than what it looks.” She began to explain the hurdles of running cross-country, and summarized by saying, “Even a top runner can do really bad if they’re not mentally tough.”
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