Honestly, when I showed up to the cross country prelims Nov. 15, I wasn’t too worried. Our coach, JD Krawczyk, had researched the other teams in our race, and I had done a lot of my own research and found that there should be no reason we couldn’t make finals. I knew we couldn’t take the race super easy, but I went in thinking we would be pretty comfortable the whole 3 miles and qualify for finals the following week. 

However, what we thought would be a comfortable qualification took a wrong turn…literally.

A little bit over a mile into the race, our top four runners, sophomore Tyler Der, junior Dexter Meza, junior Bo Sanderson, and I were feeling confident running together towards the front of the pack.

However, the races overlapped so we were catching up to some of the runners who were still finishing the previous race. Those runners were being directed to make a turn that would take them to the track and their round’s finish line. Unfortunately, the course marshals who were directing traffic thought that the Fullerton runners were part of the previous race and directed us to the wrong finish line. I knew it couldn’t be the right way, but I was at the back of our little group of four. I saw Tyler make the wrong turn first, followed by Dexter, then Bo.

When I saw it happening, I knew I shouldn’t follow them. I had watched the course being run on YouTube many times. Everything inside of me was saying, “Don’t go that way,” but during a race, you have to make split-second decisions. I ended up following my teammates—the wrong way.

When we realized our mistake, we had to come to a complete stop, turn around, and start running again. Once we got back on track, we saw that an entire group of runners had gone past us and our other teammates had almost caught up to us. Our so-called chill race was suddenly a big challenge.

When Coach K saw that we had dropped back 20 places, he was not happy. I heard him yell, “You need to start moving up! It’s really close!” His screams lit a fuse in me, firing me up to push past my comfort zone the second half of the race. I passed six runners in the last 200 meters to finish with a time 8 seconds slower than my personal record.

Despite this almost season-ending mistake, the four of us kept calm, got back on track, and finished the race strong. Led by Meza, we ended the race with a score of 117 just beating out Canyon High School and earning a spot in finals the following weekend.

Later, when I had to play my journalist role, we interviewed Coach K who said this mistake could have led to a protest for a spot in the finals. “Our top guys lost anywhere from five to eight seconds per guy, so they lost 20 to 40 seconds off of team time,” Krawczyk said. “We only qualified by 11 points, so that could have been a protest. But luckily even with that wrong turn, we still qualified.”

I love running, and I’m pretty good at it. But I’m honestly not as good as I should be.

Last year, when I was a freshman, I ran my 3 Mile personal best in 19:07 early in the season.

Track last year was good, too. I set a personal record by 16 seconds in the 1600m, 5 seconds in the 800m, and almost half a minute in the 3200m.

But most of  this year has been a disappointment. Illness, injuries and a loss of motivation dampened my confidence going into the Nov. 15 CIF Southern Section Division 2 Prelims at Mt. Sac.

Running often is seen as an individual sport, but Fullerton cross country is different. We celebrate each other’s wins and lean on each other after losses. Throughout this season, we have helped each other get through hard workouts, long hilly runs, and mental obstacles.

Last year my coaches and teammates could count on me to perform well; this season, I questioned if I could count on myself. Every race I prayed that I would have a breakthrough.

My teammates would exclaim, “She’s back!” But that race never came, and with every failed attempt I grew impatient. As the season went on, a shot at a personal record felt impossible as the number of scheduled flat courses continued to dwindle.

And although I was proud of my teammates for achieving better and faster times, I’ll admit that it was tough watching everyone improve while I fell behind.

Then I caught a break. 

CIF announced that the CIF Prelims would take place on the rain course version at Mt. Sac. With a parking lot and track as part of the 3-mile course, it’s a perfect flat course for running personal best times. Yet, the rain course also meant that I was scheduled to run in the cold rain leading to tighter muscles and soaked shoes.

However, with my teammates by my side, I remembered that I wasn’t just running for myself. I was running for the benefit of the team. 

So when the race started I shifted away from my own goals and focused on doing everything I could to help my team qualify for CIF finals.

At prelims, only the top four teams qualify for CIF Finals. We were in third place at the first mile, but dropped to fourth by the second mile. It was going to be close.

Freshman Reagan Duncan was Fullerton’s first runner across the line in 16th place with a time of 18:38. Then, junior Sofia Botimer crossed the line in 22nd place at 18:55. With 200 meters remaining, I was Fullerton’s third runner. I remember thinking that every time I passed another runner, I was helping my team.

With only a few meters left, my eyes caught the finish line clock, 18:47…18:48… At this point I knew I would break 19, but by how much? As I crossed the line at 18:55.6, I barely registered a Woodbridge runner finishing next to me.