Cross country takes endurance, speed, and strength. It also takes a lot of time. At Bob Jones, these runners practice everyday after school. One great cross country runner at Bob Jones is senior Peyton Tyler.

“I’ve always enjoyed something about running,” Peyton said.

He’s loved running since he was young, and later on his mom encouraged him to pursue it as a sport. He’s been running since 2009 and this year will be Peyton’s 6^th year. “I joined the cross country team in the seventh grade and stuck [with] it ever since,” Peyton said.

Bob Jones has recently gotten a new cross country coach, Coach Baker. His goal is to make the cross country team at Bob Jones more organized. He changed the uniform, but he hasn’t changed much about the workouts. Right now, the practices consist of a 35-40 minute run or a more challenging workout, taking the form of hills and fartleks.

The vibe at practice seems more upbeat, especially as Coach Baker is trying to make the team more popular and would welcome more participants. According to Peyton, “This season there are more runners than any season I’ve run.”

Peyton runs the 5k in cross country, but when it’s track season he likes to run the 1600M. This year Peyton said he’s mostly looking forward to the Sectional and State meets as well as the Scottsborro Invitational. Sadly, these are some of the last meets for Peyton. When asked about running in college, Peyton said, “At the moment I don’t plan on running in college because I want to make sure I’m fully focused on doing well in school.”

“If you’re determined and work hard enough, you can reach any goal, whether it’s finishing a race or becoming president,” said Peyton Tyler.