Personal Narrative: Running In Middle School

With my relay team stretched,warmed up, and ready to go, we headed towards the stadium where we would race against the fastest girls in the nation. Intimidated but not deterred we headed out of Tent City and into the gates of Turner Stadium. Knowing this was my last race I would run with my close friends and relay team, being it 's the last race of the season and we all weren’t going to be in the same age group next year, I had a whole new mind set. I was constantly thinking, “we have to make top ten because we can make top ten.” “We have the times, we have the strength, we have the speed, we just need to have the guts to walk in there like we are going to shred the track into pieces.

To me, running is the greatest feeling I could ever feel. In my elementary days I knew I was the fastest kid on the playground. So naturally when I got to high school track was a must for me. My first track meet I was so nervous it felt like my heart was in my stomach. Then as I set myself up in my blocks, close my eyes, and wait for the gun to go off it was like everything went quiet.

I had been working hard and really felt like a part of the team. The first real challenge I faced was trying to live in the shadow of my older brothers. Who both had success in their running careers. It was the third race of the year and I was running in the varsity race against our conference rival. To me, this race was a chance to prove I was an important member of the team and could possibly lead the team as captain in the future.

I then got my height and weight measured 6ft 1in 221 lbs, which Is huge for a thirteen year old, but compared to all of the others I was underweight. I then began to wait for the coaches to call us up for warm-ups, my dad came up to me and told me this “ You have been training for this since February, you have put the work in and now you are ready”. As I was waiting I looked around and saw many very athletic looking athletes, many were bragging to each other about how they would definitely make the team. Lots of guys looked bigger, stronger, and faster. I could tell that I was the only one who was still thirteen.

Getting off the bus, I was ecstatic. It was my chance to help my team in achieving our biggest goal. For fall, the day was particularly hot and humid. I enjoy running in cool, chilly type weather, so the heat was a conflicting factor in my race. But I refused to let the heat bring me down.

On a cold, frosty, snow cover night in November at Welcome Home Stadium, was when my life changed. That night, two teams played for the chance to call themselves champions of 6th-grade football. All game, my team and I battled against the mighty Wilmington Hurricanes. We fought all game to win and finally we got the ball back with less than under a minute left and down by 4 points. The crowd was quieter than a church mouse as my coaches huddled us up during a timeout, and in that timeout, my coaches looked to me for answers.

Despite the newspapers and previews saying we would not contend for the state title that year, I kept in my head that anything could happen. Going into the year I told our team “lets focus on what we can do to improve, and not worry about anyone else”. At the beginning, other teams were too strong for our inexperienced runners to compete with, but we didn’t change the focus. Practice after practice, I made sure we were doing everything we could to be at our best for the end of the year. I didn’t care what other teams were doing because we had no control over that.

During my final year of Cross Country around Regionals at Oglethorpe, I ran my final race for my high school career. Banks County was nearly number one in the State, the furthest we had ever ranked in history, and spirit and hopes for State Championship were high. I was nervous, like nobody’s business, I had messed up during my senior night because I was upset for my parents for not showing up and escorting me. And I was scared that I was going to do horribly. But as I ran, I realized that if I let my past mistakes and failures hold me back or get in my way, so I ran, harder and better than I ever had before and apparently even beat a “skinny kid”.

The Thursday night lights beamed down on me as kickoff approached. It was the last game of the 8th grade football season and the last chance to make my mark on a personally rather ordinary season. We were playing Celina, a team known to be a powerful opponent. I was on the kickoff return team, playing on the far left side of the field and on that particular night we were set to receive the kick. The referee’s whistle pierced the warm and soundless autumn air.

Yet, there is still one issue that I’ve always wondered about. One could say that my experience in cross country has been far from normal. One year, I was running a thirty-minute 5k, and ranked eighty-sixth on the team. The

I was an eighth grade girl who was running the same workouts as the junior and senior boys. My team won the conference meet and I won all conference honors. We went on to place second at the section meet, which earned us a place at the state meet. I earned all section honors myself and missed going to state as an individual by only a few places. At the state meet,

After years of practice, I progressed in the sport and joined my high school team. Initially, running track was a way of escaping the stress from my parents’ divorce. It taught me to endure more pain than I could have ever imagined. With each grueling stride, my mind would fight my aching body to quit. However, I would always find a way to stay determined and keep pushing forward.

On a good day you 're mediocre, on a day like today, you 're horrific. That race, and the world-shattering heartbreak that followed, forever changed the way I saw running. I discovered that even hard work is not always invincible at the hands of fate.

As I ran across the finish line for the last time I could not help but smile; all the memories and lessons learned from my years on cross country and track flashed before my eyes. Salem Cross Country and Track has impacted and shaped me into a leader, friend, daughter, and student. The competition and friendship I found on the cross country and track team is amazing and has aided me in personal growth. The challenge of running is something that I have learned to cherish the most during my years as a high schooler as it taught me to always work hard.

Initially, my mind was set to join the soccer team. However, I found out there weren’t any openings available. The only team that had an opening was The Cross Country Team. I was terrified…my parents encouraged me to join as there wasn’t an option not to.