The runner approaches the top of the hill panting and breathing heavily. Junior Brianna Kovacs begins her descent trying to avoid running into trees or tripping and rolling down the hill. She comes to the bottom and looks up to see nothing but a steep incline in front of her.  This is the hated and dreaded “dip” that Northern Cross Country runners must endure when competing at the Bull Run Invitational hosted by Hereford High School.

The dip appears two times during the course of the race. The first arises just after the first mile, while the second comes just a mere 800 meters before the finish.  According to junior Megan Fretz, “It’s awful, horrible, and unnecessary! No person should have to run that hill, or the three miles! And you have to run the dip twice!” With “the dip” you can never win. Whichever side you come down, you know there’s another steep hill that you have to climb up just on the other side. “It’s like running up a mountain! When you’re running up it seems never ending, and running down it is like running down a blue square ski slope,” junior Brianna Kovacs said.

Hundreds of schools come to run in the Bull Run Invitational at the end of September every year. Schools are placed into different races depending on the size and skill of their team.  Northern tends to be in the medium/small school races. Bull Run has recently received recognition in several newspapers, including The Washington Post, to be “Cross Country’s Hardest Three Miles.” Elements like the hairpin turns, steep hills, and of course, the infamous dip were factors in that title. “The fact that there are hundreds of people, and you have to fit through a small opening at the very beginning of the race, is very challenging. Plus, it smells like sewage and there are barely any flat parts,” Fretz said.

This year, Northern came in fourth out of 26 in the medium schools category with Justin Cerrito leading the team with a time of 17:56. The team average score was 19:05.

Bull Run is known as the course that generates slower than average times. Most people find their time reduced from what it would be on a flat course by at least a minute.   Fretz said, “Oh my gosh! It sucked!” That’s cross country’s hardest course for you.
–Maura Schwartz, The Patriot Press