Hi, I'm Jack Ryan. I am 12 and in the 6th grade. Today is my birthday!! I really, really love cross country and I'm a big runner. My journey of cross country started in 2024, the first year I was allowed to join the cross country team at my middle school, Whitin Intermediate school in Uxbridge, MA. My first season was really good. At every race I usually ended up around 2nd and I was really happy with that. My very last race of the season I came in first place for the first time! I was so excited because I was racing 8th graders in that race and I was only in 5th grade. They were so tall and fast and had mustaches. At the conference finals "Swcl" I got 2nd out of 120 racers from this area who were in the 5th and 6th grade.

After that I went to States. I got 5th but I was the first 5th grader to finish in the 5/6 race! After States last year, I realized that I want to go big with this sport. I started training over off season and it paid off. I would try to race in 5Ks almost every weekend in the summer and I did awesome for my age. I also learned so much about running. My favorite races were the ones that I saw some of the older Uxbridge high schoolers and they told me I ran fast.

This year during my middle school cross country season I got 1st almost every time and I really improved my times. Then came the conference finals- - I got 2nd place in the 5th/6th race. After that was States and I demolished the competition. I got first and I was really happy.

I thought that was going to be the end of cross country for the season, but then my parents found a race called New England Junior Olympics. I wanted to do it. The race was two races one was regionals there were kids from other states like new Hampshire and new york. And the other one was the qualifier for Nationals.

I did amazing the first one and came in 10th place. So I could go to the (regional) championships and maybe qualify to go to Nationals.

The championship came last weekend and I was really nervous and anxious. I have anxiety a lot but I think that running helps me deal with that sometimes. When the race came I did amazing. I improved my time by 20 seconds and most importantly I got top 30 and I qualifed for Nationals in Indiana on December 13. I know that it's really quick and my parents werent expecting to have to pay so much to send me so I talked to my Mom about trying to make some money so I can go. My Dad said maybe I can stand outside Hannafords or Dunkin and doing chores for people for people too. I will do anything to go to Nationals!

It is really important to go to Nationals. One reason why I would love to go to Nationals is the experience, meeting new friends and new people is really important. Another reason why I would love to go to Nationals is the competition, going and racing against good runners my age is really fun and it helps me get better.

My last reason why I would love to go to Nationals is to make my family and my coaches and my friends proud, I know they are already really proud of me but I would love to make them even more proud.

I know this will be the experience of a lifetime.

Thank you for reading this on my Birthday! And maybe if you have a little money you could help me achieve this dream please? Every bit counts!