Friday the 17th of August a normal day of boring writing, reading and maths work... NOT!. Today was the day Pt England School were participating in the annual Cross Country.
Anticipating the race I gradually walked around as if I was listening to no one then “Shawn sit down” the teacher Ms M said killing my buzz. I took a seat and observed the little kids run their race and I saw a little kid in my house Tainui come 3rd. All the house captains of Matatua, Takitimu, Te arawa and Tainui started doing their chants. It was almost like they were all going to have a massive scrap (fight) because they were all screaming at the top of their lungs. Filled with confidence and excitement I stood up and did some stretches with the boys.
Before I knew it my age group 13 got called up to compete. Our race just a heartbeat away began with “On Your Marks...Set...GO..!”. We took off some of us, I stayed behind jogging with some of my friends coming last. Then as I rounded the corner my house captain Tokorima said “hurry up Shawn” as he waited for me at the 3rd bend. We jogged together on the grass/mud and we trailed behind some people and eventually ran past them. As we went past the 6th corner I was kind of amazed because we had only been running for what seemed like 5 minutes. I was covered in mud as high as my knees.
After getting past the mud and wet stuff I thought that was the worst the dirt was going to get, but this was not to be. My jogging partner Toko kept on running as I stopped and urged him on. After leaving the grass for the gravel my pace started to pick up as I found that it was easier running on concrete than grass. I also found out that the mud and muck was nothing compared to the big puddles that lay upon the track.
Running on the footpath and walking through the puddles, trailing the leaders I managed to catch a glimpse of the watery scenery amongst the hills. Finally overcoming the stoney footpath I boosted it into the bush walk. I started running fast and I bumped into two 12 year old girls. Then as I looked back and positioned my head back to the front I hit face first into a tree ricocheting into another one. Whilst rubbing my head I continued running and found myself halfway through the bush walk by Tamaki College. Mrs Squires told me to go that way pointing to the 2nd part of the bush’s.
I ran for what seemed like my fastest until I finished the bushwalk. Mr Barks was waiting at the end of the bushwalk as a marshall directing me around the corner to do 1 final lap of the field before hitting the home straight and running past the finishing line, stopping the torture.
As I stopped and walked over to the hard courts for a drink and to wash my shoes my body felt like I didn’t run anything it just felt heavy and lazy. The school cross country for me wasn’t too bad just the tree hitting part of my adventure I didn’t like. After running 3.5km I liked my position of 7th overall.
2 comments:
Hi Shawn
You are a very talented writer. I really enjoyed reading this post, and I know that with a little extra careful proofreading and editing, it would have been perfect. I loved some of the vocab you used to describe the race e.g. 'ricocheting, whilst' and lines like: 'killing my buzz' and 'stopping the torture'. I can imagine that the cross country was quite painful for some. I also liked that way that you were focussed on completing this weeks writing task. Keep up the great work.
Mrs L
Hi Shawn I really like your writing about Cross Country I enjoyed reading your post because it was something I loved I never knew that you were that talented at writing I always wanted to know what it would be like banging into a tree by mistake. I also liked the fascinating words like 'killing your buzz' and 'stopping the torture' and even that you said that it was gonna become a scrap. Keep up the great work Shawn.
From Francis
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