around one field and the onto the next, I was reminded of many fall 5K races with the Saranac Lake cross country team.*cue flashback sound effects*

Sometime during the summer of 1994:My brother, Luke, had been running cross country for 2 years and was enjoying the sport. He also saw that while the boys team was small, the girls team was miniscule. There were only 2 girls on the team, not even close the the minimum of 5 needed to compete as a team. He knew that I am completely uncoordinated and had no chance of succeeding in most sports, but he thought I could probably run. My parents had measured out distances on our road and with Luke pushing me, I ran a mile with him. His encouragingwords convinced me that I should give cross country a try, so I joined the team as a modified runner. Another friend, whose brother ran on the varsity team, decided to join and we started training with the team in August.

Fall 1995: Perhaps word got out about the talented (and rather cute) boys team, maybe it was the beginning of a running boom, but the next year 4 more girls joined the team. Partway into the season, along with several other girls, I switched from running modified (1.5 mile races) to competing at the varsity level. Finally we had a girls team that could actually compete! There were exactly 7 of us, just barely a full team! By some miracle, we made it to the state meet that