Dear MIXC (my high school cross country team),
When I was a part of you, I never made it in the record books. I wasn’t the top runner nor did I ever run at the state meet. But my afternoons and weekends in high school consisted of you. To be honest with you, I’m miles away at college and I still haven’t let you go you dang cross country team.
I never will.
You see, the day I started college, my mom told me to never let you go. “Follow your team,” she said, as I asked her if it was stalker-like to look up my high school cross country team every day while I’m cooped up in my Marquette dorm room. I take runs to the lakefront and have straight flashbacks of you guys with every step I take. So, I took her advice because let’s face it, moms always know what’s up.
MIXC, you’re more than just another small-town team; more than just another extracurricular event at Minooka Community High School in a state known for corrupt politicians and the Windy City. You’re a group of athletes with the will to succeed, backed up by a set of coaches with a mindset and game plan that will get you there.
You’re beside a coach with a pencil behind each ear, who goes on road runs with you, and calls each and every day a great day. Your coaches are absolutely nuts. Anyone can see it. They’ll push you harder than you thought you could ever work and in return, you’ll show results you didn’t even dream possible. They’re the best around because they live, eat, sleep, and breathe this sport. And because of them, you’ll claim history.
But you also succeed because you believe in things far greater than personal records and awards. You believe in being the best you can be and bringing everything you can to the table for this team. And you have the gears to get the job done each and every day because you put one foot in front of the other and fight harder than the kid racing beside you; proving that you can step up to the start line alongside the fastest kids in the state and give it all you got.
You pick each other up on hard days and influence each other to keep fighting; ignoring the pain in your sides and the aches in your legs. Your mind will continue to tell you that it hurts and you will continue to tell pain to shut up because it will subside, but the moment will live on so in the meantime; you make the most of it and run like heck.
There’s something about crossing finish lines and crushing workouts that brings you back to this sport. You don’t even know why you do it but you’re glad you do. And I’m glad you do it too.
Whether you’re the fastest kid on that team or the slowest one, you still bring forth something to the team that can never be replaced. You’re still a part of something that shows long after you store your spikes in the closest and say goodbye. Because being a part of the Minooka Indians Cross Country Team will live on in you with everything you do, and you’ll make friendships that’ll never end. You might not remember every single moment but you will remember a good percentage of them. And you’ll constantly be reminded of them everywhere you go. Trust me, it’s a good thing.
I might not be stepping to the start line anymore, but here’s to you because every time you step to the start line, you make it happen.
Winning a 3A IHSA state title this past season shows that.
Some of you will go on to run and some of you won’t. But either way, you’ll be inspired to keep doing you in a society that wants otherwise because you breed opportunity and success and the drive to work hard. That’s what this sport is all about. You’ll take from it valuable lessons and goals you never considered. You’ll dream big and live bigger.Take it from the kid who put in so many miles and realized that this was something she could never give up, no matter how slow she seemed. There was nowhere else I'd rather be than alongside you. This will all happen because you tried out a sport you thought seemed cool and you found out it is.
Congratulations on another tremendous season. Enjoy it because you deserve it. When you travel into town and see the girl's state champion sign, you'll be taken back to that fall crisp November Saturday memory. That memory will never die.
A wise man once wrote, “For that Minooka senior and the rest who are going out into the world, I hope they have gained something along the way that is more permanent than a record. Something that will help them throughout life. Something Zamperini (a famous runner) was talking about. Something that can be unbroken.”
He wasn’t kidding.
Here’s to your successful season. You’ll always be a part of me Minooka.
As you go down in the record books, keep being unbroken.
Love Always,
The girl who refreshes runminooka.com more times than you do
