Painful and Exhausting, but Also so Exhilarating ; A Trip to the Cross Country State Meet is on the Line for Runners Who Have Learned to Embrace Pain.

Less than a kilometer remained in the 5-kilometer cross country race, and Jon Wilson was in the lead. His brain was ecstatic – never before had the junior from Falmouth High led the field this far into a varsity race. His stomach was . . . not pleased with his pace.

Gradually, Dan Crosson of rival Greely High pulled even with Wilson.

“I knew I had the leg speed to stay with him,” Wilson said, “but my stomach wasn’t cooperating.”

After a few more strides, Wilson coughed. Then again. He turned his head to one side.

Out came the contents of his stomach. Into the lead went Crosson.

As Wilson slowed – but never stopped running – two more runners passed him. With all the energy he had left, he chased them down and caught them perhaps 300 yards from the finish.

When they kicked into a higher gear, however, Wilson had nothing left. He staggered across the line in fourth place.

“I think the anxiety and nervousness got to me,” he said of the late-September race, “but it was a good experience. . . . I told myself, ‘Even though this is happening, there’s no way I’m going to stop and not finish the race.’ “

Welcome to the world of cross country running, where there are no whistles, no breaks in action, no opportunities to call a timeout or send in a substitute.

If you are tired, hurting or sick, you deal with your discomfort as best as you can.

“Running is the best metaphor for life,” said Clare Egan, a junior at Cape Elizabeth. “You only get out of running exactly what you put into running. Every single day at practice, every single run that you go on will help you or it will hurt you. . . . It has taught me to be strong, to persevere and to definitely not give up.”

“Cross country is the best sport to build character out there,” said Crosson, whose Greely squad is ranked first in the state coaches poll.

Wilson, Crosson, Egan and a few hundred of their compadres will compete Saturday in the regional cross country championships. Schools from Western Maine will gather at Twin Brook Recreation Area in Cumberland. Those from Eastern Maine will run at Troy Howard Middle School in Belfast.

The fastest 20 runners in each class advance to next Saturday’s state meet in Belfast, as do half the teams in each class.

Don’t expect to see many cheery expressions in the finish chute. Relief and exhaustion, yes. Perky smiles, no. There will be something else, too. A glint behind a grimace.

“A sense of self-satisfaction,” Wilson said, “from just knowing that you’ve endured all of this pain and gotten through it and finished the race.”

“It’s sort of like you don’t even feel the pain of running so hard,” said South Portland senior Eric Giddings, the two-time defending Class A champion. “I just think about all the hard work that has gone into the race . . . and it makes me realize there is no way I’m stopping now.”

“It’s a very mental thing that you have to overcome,” said Kim Hassett, a Falmouth senior whose team is attempting to qualify for states for the first time in her high school career. “Your mind will want to go slower, at a more comfortable pace, and you have to convince yourself you want to go faster.”

Is there another high school sport where pain is so ingrained? Egan, who spent much of last fall in the pool to maintain endurance while recovering from a stress fracture, gained a healthy respect for swimmers.

“Basically, it’s the same concept as running,” she said, “minus the availability of oxygen.”

Nolan Moon, a senior at South Portland, swam competitively in middle school and as a freshman.

“In my opinion, running is harder,” he said. “When you get out of the pool you are tired, but it doesn’t feel like anything compared to running three miles.”

All of this isn’t to say that cross country is better or more pure than other sports. All sports test the limits of those who compete. However, few break down the athletic equation into such stark terms. Few leave the athlete so completely drained.

“I don’t know of any other sport where you never get a break,” said Falmouth Coach Jorma Kurry. “I don’t want to take anything away from the struggles of other sports, because they all have their pain, but I can’t think of any other sport where you feel that way for 15 minutes straight.”

Or 20 minutes. Or 25. Slower runners can push themselves harder than front-runners, an aspect of cross country that tends to breed camaraderie among competitors.

“There is definitely an aspect of natural ability in this sport,” said Egan. “If you have a smoother stride than somebody else, you’ll probably run faster. That’s why I have a ton of respect for runners who aren’t at the front, but still do the sport. . . . In a way, we’re all in it together. We all know that we’re sort of the guts without the glory of sports.”

Equipment matters little in cross country. Nothing depends on the bounce of a ball or the judgment of an official. Who cranked out the mileage in July and August? Who put in extra work on hills? Who pushed herself through speed workouts? Who heard the protests from his body but kept running anyway?

The answers begin to emerge Saturday.

“We know our sport is really hard and we’re proud we do it,” Egan said. “That doesn’t mean we look down on other sports. But we’re proud that we do something that not necessarily everybody is capable of doing.”

– Staff Writer Glenn Jordan can be contacted at 791-6425 or at:

gjordan@pressherald.com