Personal Narrative: My First American Race

Starting out at the Midland Empire Conference Championship, I remember we dropped the when we got there but still on the bus and ice went everywhere. It was stressful because only a few people helping unload the bus with all the crap that we brought because they were all visiting the bathroom after a lengthy bus drive to Chillicothe. I had heard the course wasn’t very hilly and I thought good, I might be able to hit a low 19 minute 5k, which could be a Personal Record. I never run good on week day meets because of having to go to school and then take a bus ride and run a fast time. When we finally got to walk the course, the first things we saw was this giant hill, and as soon as I saw it I was like, crap, no way for a PR, and I would have challenges on it. I didn’t

know how the rest of the course was going to go, but it was pretty smooth sailing and was not the hardest we have seen before. The Varsity boys race was second, after Varsity girls. I always feel bad for the girls always being first because I don’t want to be them. I was getting warmed up and the girls race was going on and we were close to the finish and we cheered the first few people and we realised how much of a awesome course it was when Mira beat her previous record by 40 seconds. That got everyone excited but also made us nervous. When the race started, everyone went out really fast, faster than a race I’ve been in. As I started passing people, I thought a little that I might be going out to fast. My first mile was the fasted I’ve run at a 5:50.

The course is weird, it’s a two lap which is good. This means you know exactly what the second half of the race was going to be like. Me as the 4th runner, and the 3 and 5 guys, went single file for a good ⅜ ofa mile and we were zooming around corners. during the back half of the race, I was really close to medaling. I went as fast as I could, I had no idea how fast the race had been, I thought when I saw the teens clicking by it was a 19:teens but I got closer and it was 18:17 I was astounded and straight out of breath. That race we were 4 points behind the 2nd place team, and they were in our district. That set us up for a good week and effort during practice because if we had a race at the district race, we were going to make it as a team to state,which is the goal all season long. I was not feeling great that week and I thought it was going to be like my first xc race finishing with a 16:02 time for 2.x miles and a lot of girls beating me. The morning of race day, I felt like crap, but the bus ride nap to maryville made me feel fine and ready to secure a spot to state. There was a lot of scepticism from the seniors, who were facing their last

race. I keep a good mind and gave it all. I finished 18th at the race with a time of 18:50, my second best. This is 3 places and 10 seconds behind where you needed to be to qualify for state. As soon as I figured out I finished 18th, I still felt like we had some sort of a chance like a disqualification or something but it never happened and I told myself that I will make it to state the next two years because putting 5 months of training and preparation into one race and some so close that I do everything to my power to qualify.