I'm lazy. But it's okay because I'm American. I've always known that I was the former, but now know the latter suffices as an excuse.

According to Penn State men's cross country coach Harry Groves, America is not suited for cross country. The idea of going long distances without some sort of an engine is not something most of us enjoy.

A lot of us have joined gyms and go quite often. That makes us better than most of the country. But upon graduation, we'll probably join it. That's just how the culture works. As far as cardiovascular health goes, we're pretty bad though. Yes, some of us run religiously, but most of us -- we stick to the gym.

I'm no exception. When I was a freshman, my friends questioned the logic of the usefulness of taking a bus back to my room from the Intramural Building. I defended myself by saying "If the bus is there, why not?"

Because I lived in East Halls. That's why.

OK, granted that's not my crowning achievement in life, but it's not like I would take the bus down to Wendy's afterwa--well ... yeah, I did. But I did get a diet sod--oh, wait, no I didn't.

Would I like cheese with that? Heck yeah. How else am I going to get my dairy?

If extra beef were an option, I'd get it. For crying out loud, I'm an American.

Groves got me thinking, "Why are we like this?"

Two months later I had to ask.

"The problem is our country doesn't demand much physical effort he says," Groves said. It's true. We hop on loops and links and bum rides off of friends. We order stuff online rather than walk to the store. Anything can be done at a computer from the comfort of your room.

Talking about societies not as technologically advanced as ours, Groves said, "These people have to be physically in shape to stay alive and build their cardiovascular health."

We'd rather lift weights to build our muscles. Not like we need to for practical purposes. We just like how it looks. Face it, chicks don't dig big calves. I don't picture "You must run a lot don't you?" coming up too much.

We like our beach muscles. If you were caught flexing your hamstring (can it be flexed?), people would think you were having a Charlie horse.

"It's just not 'cool' to do that," Groves said about running versus driving places. "If you want to be an idiot, be cool."

He explained that if you don't take care of your body, your life expectancy decreases; running just a little can add years to your life. Now if running isn't "cool," that would make cross country runners "uncool," right? No, cross country is its own counter culture. There's the work they put in -- running upward of 100-miles a week. There's the attitude.

If somebody told me I was running a 10-kilometer race for the last time, I would be far from nostaglic but that was not the case for senior Joel Moceri who hugged and thanked friends, family, and teammates following his last race on Penn State soil.

There's also their skill. Try running about five miles at just over five-minutes a mile...and then just getting a cup of water at the end of it. I can't fathom it and I've seen them do it all semester.

I've tried to do it on a scale I'm more familiar with. I ran 5k, just over three miles at seven minutes per mile. I wanted to do two things:

To die because everything hurt so badly.

To go down to the local convenience store and drink every bottle of Gatorade they sold.

If anything this experience of tracking the Nittany Lions has been a mind opening one. Made aware of my own laziness while gaining respect for their admirable ethic, these athletes deserve more credit than they get. They do their own thing while everybody else does the norm.