Bowie Cross Country has only just kicked off their season, but can already claim many accomplishments, including their meet at the Woodlands, August 26th, and AISD Invitational, September 2nd. Training every morning at seven A.M., runners are physically well prepared for the races, but the one thing they can’t train themselves for is the race against their mentality.

46 teams competed at the woodlands and Bowie boys came in 12th overall, with girls coming in third overall. Sophomore, Joey Killeen, competed on varsity and explains the highs and the lows of the race.

“You pretty much only remember the start and the finish, because the rest is so painful your mind kinda detaches from you. The start and the finish are the best because those are the two fastest and the most interesting,” Killeen said.

The Woodlands took a troublesome turn when it started to rain, which called for interesting race tactics and multiple injuries. Killeen explains how the rain affected the race and their results.

“It was raining very very hard, so people were falling and slipping all throughout the race so that made the race harder since you had to like hurdle over people’s bodies and it just slowed our over-all times a lot and we probably could have done a lot better if there had been better weather conditions,” Killeen said.

Not only did they have great success at the Woodlands, but as well at the AISD Invitational. Twenty two schools were present and Bowie had four runners finish in the top-ten, with Carolyn Evans finishing first with her 5k time of 18:55.

“Physically it didn’t feel that good because it felt like I was about to pass out, but emotionally it felt good because it was nice to see where I was and how I improved from last year,” Evans said.

Cross country runners have practice every morning at 7 am to do intensive training and condition their bodies for the races.

“I really just think about the previous workouts I’ve done and how they will allow me to get through this race. In reality the race is short compared to workouts I’ve done,” Evans said.