First Meet

I am very nervous for my very first high school track meet, Tuesday April 13. Stevenson is facing Salem, and I do not know how well they run. I am running one of my least favorite events, the 2 mile, and one of my favorite events, the mile. I despise the 2 mile because it lasts way too long. Imagine running 8 laps around a never ending oval; this is something I wouldn’t call super fun. When I run the 2 mile, I tend to zone out and notice the most random things. Such as, the rhythm that my feet make hitting the ground, or the color of someone’s shoes, but these random notices actually help me runs better, because I don’t notice the pain as much. Heart pounding, lungs panting, I finish the race with a sense of accomplishment, but then realize that I have another meet where I will have to go through the same torture. On the other hand, the mile gives me a sense of control. I know that race inside and out. How to pace myself, what times to hit, how to control my breathing, in this race I control everything. At the beginning of the mile, I can feel the tingle of adrenaline rushing through my veins, and once that gun, loud and frightening, goes off, I am running like a rabbit. The mile is definitely my favorite race, and that is one thing that I can look forward to on Tuesday.
People probably do not realize how important cheering on the runners is, but let me say that when someone is running, and feels like they’re about to fall over from fatigue, when someone hears their name be called, it gets the adrenaline pumping and the runner gets this whole new burst of fresh energy. It is a feeling that is very hard to explain, but it feels so amazing. Another awesome feeling is when someone gets a kick at the end of a race. When the end of the race is near, the body just wants to fly through it and finish. When the body goes into a “kick” everything freezes, noises drown out, sometimes the control of the bladder is lost, but you don’t care. The speed you gain is such a crazy feeling that it almost feels like the world has stopped, and it’s just your mind and your body competing against each other. If the mind conquers over the body, you will run at impossible speeds that you never thought possible.