Charlotte Hawkins, a current freshman at Rio Americano, this summer decided to pursue cross country after being inspired by a PE unit in Middle School.

“I did country because it’s a good way to exercise,” Hawkins stated, “and I’ve been interested in running since I did a PE Unit based on running”

Although cross country may be a daunting sport to some Hawkins believes that it is extremely easy to adapt into the community and be successful.

“First I would just make sure to have some interest in running,” Hawkins said “second, try to run a little bit on your own to get used to running 3-4 miles a day and I think after that you can go ahead and start cross country because it’s a pretty beginner friendly sport. The running community is also extremely nice”

With cross country being an after school activity Hawkins understands that she’ll need to make some sacrifices in order to continue attending practices.

“It definitely impacted my schedule,” Hawkins stated. “Now I don’t have as much time for homework and honestly you have to really be willing to stay up late to do homework making it more tiring especially the first couple days.”

Despite the couple of hurdles that Hawkins has to cross she enjoys and appreciates the amount of flexibility that cross country allows for. It also includes many opportunities to improve her health and learn valuable skills.

“I like how you can just run at your own pace and nobody is really pressuring you. It’s really up to you how much you feel like running” Hawkins stated. “I also feel like it is an important skill to have when you’re older and for maybe when you can’t work out a ton, it’s just a really nice and convenient skill to know.”

Even though cross country fills up Hawkins schedule and can be exhausting at times she is willing to make that exchange in order to pursue a fun activity that can improve her overall health.