Skip To Content
  • win badge

28 Horrendous Struggles Everyone Who Ran Cross Country Will Remember

Never give up, unless there's a slight hill.

1. So you were on a cross-country team back in the day. You may ask yourself sometimes: Why?

2. Sure, it may have seemed like a healthy and wholesome activitiy.

3. But most of the time, it was difficult and exhausting and painful and hellish.

Me on interval day. #crosscountryproblems

4. On a race day, you may have thought to yourself, "Hey, I could be at home watching TV right now."

5. The first few seconds of any race, you felt like a majestic galloping creature, flying along with the wind in your hair and a perfect harmony between mind, body, and soul.

6. And then about a minute later you'd start to look more like this.

7. If your shoelaces ever got untied in the middle of the race there wasn't much you could do but carry on and hope not to trip and fall on your face.

8. And when you did trip (and you definitely did) you would try (and fail) to recover quickly and gracefully.

9. Matching someone else's pace always seemed like a great idea...

10. ...until you sort of...inevitably fell behind.

11. And eventually just gave up and collapsed and wanted to die.

12. Sometimes it felt like you were running really fast, but then you'd look around and realised you weren't actually getting anywhere.

13. And after a race, your runner's high caused you to do and say things you would later regret.

14. There was never enough food in the world to put an end to your post-run hunger.

15. Way too much money went to fancy lightweight shoes, which would be destroyed almost immediately.

So this happened today #CrossCountryProblems what did YOU do today?

16. Your wardrobe was filled with T-shirts and hoodies sporting light innuendo.

17. And your walls were filled with these.

18. Oh, and your dirty laundry carried the nightmarish scent of sweat, dirt, and tears.

You know you had a good practice when your clothes is really muddy #CrossCountryProblems

19. Your shower drain would actually overflow from getting blocked with mud all the time.

20. Oh, the mud. The mud was everywhere.

21. Mud and giant bruises.

When you're too busy daydreaming and you don't realize a crack in the sidewalk.. #crosscountryproblems

22. Your coach bestowed you with a dark sense of humour about your sport of choice.

23. You probably did permanent damage to your skin spending hours outside in the sun.

#crosscountryproblems #palegirlproblems

24. And there was always that one guy or girl who didn't seem to ever feel pain.

25. People would talk like cross country wasn't an actual sport, which was just absurd.

26. You got to know each of your teammates' running faces.

27. But in the end, you knew that running in a pack was the only way to do it.

28. And that cross country made you a badass for life.