The start line at cross-country is just three hundred nervous people pretending they aren’t. You’re in good company.

Everyone in that pack feels roughly what you feel, and nearly all of them are spending energy on looking calm about it. Nerves feel private when they are close to universal. Noticing that takes the loneliness out of it, and the loneliness is most of what makes it unpleasant. You are not the one weak link in a field of unbothered people.

Before your next start, look around once on purpose. Find the jiggling leg, the person retying shoes that were already tied. Then put the spare energy into your first quarter mile.