Cross Country

An ode to a crazy sport

I’ll admit, I dreaded cross country (XC) races growing up. I used to pray for rain. Nay, not just rain, I prayed for torrential downpours so there would be no question about whether it would be safe to run. There is an old Catholic superstition about placing a Virgin Mary statue facing outdoors for good weather, so I turned it inward. I hated running races so much that I tried to invoke the intercession of the mother of Jesus. Like she didn’t have better things to do than to help a grade-schooler out with a weather request.