No Holding Back for Fletcher James

Eric Stevenson, Junior
September 13, 2009
Filed under Sports

DON’T focus on the pain.  It’s 20 degrees and  freezing cold.  It’s the day after Halloween at seven am and Westminster’s track is a ‘killer’.  No pain.  Just keep running and singing.

“Just because I’m hurting, Doesn’t mean I’m hurt…Doesn’t mean I’ll stop” Coldplay …keep on running.

The last four hundred.

Now its time for sprinting. No holding back.

‘It’s crazy those last 300-400 hundred meters. You’re just sprinting and your body goes numb and adrenaline kicks in; you got to experience it. It’s crazy,” said Fletcher James, a junior who has been running cross country since seventh grade.  As he sprints he really gains on the ‘dead,’ exhausted people and crosses the finish line.

The first thought in his head: What was my time?

That’s cross country.  The cross country team is led by the experienced, long-time cross country and track coach at GAC, Coach Kinser.

Fletcher James: “What is my favorite part? Definitely ice baths. You get out and your legs are numb and cold.”  Practices vary from hill runs to dead-out sprints of 800 meters.

“It’s a lot of work , but I have never worked with a team before that cares about each other like this,” said James. “If anyone wonders about joining cross country they should definitely do it.  It’s the most fun I have had on a team.”

The Spartans cross country team has its focus on winning region.

Yes cross country runners are singing Coldplay in the cold for motivation and running long distances at that, but they admit that part of it is crazy and there is nothing else like numb legs.

Tags: county, cross, James, pain, running

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