2012 New Balance Indoor and Outdoor Nationals All-American two miler Hannah Christen of Lake Braddock High School recalls her very first high school race:
"My first high school cross country race was the PR Kick Off Relays at Bull Run. It was only a 2 mile, but I was still really nervous. Coach put me in the freshman race, which was comforting because I knew it was everybody else's first time doing this thing as well.
The seniors on the team (Casey Lardner, Tara Landy, Anna Markowitz, and Jessi Bourneuf) were great calming me and the other freshman down as we were warming up and getting ready to stand on the line. I remember Coach telling me before the race just to run my best and have fun, which also helped calm the nerves down since there wasn't any pressure. However, standing on the starting line was still terrifying. My stomach was doing flip flops and I didn't want to race at that point, but as soon as the gun went off the flip flops stopped and I relaxed because...
