Why Track Is Important To Me

Looking back at my past high school experiences, I’ve always asked myself “why did I do track?” “Why do I like it so much?” I still ask myself these questions till this day. I could have easily stopped playing basketball and studied much harder and slept much longer. I knew I had to do something with my life and I would have been so bored without something interesting. I guess you can say that I run from the darkness. I run from the things I can’t see in my life. Who knows what I would be doing at this age without track. What other hobbies I would take up, and what school I would be attending? I can’t answer these questions because they are dark and can’t see that far. I run from the darkness because I don’t know where my life would have been without track and I’m still scared to know the answer.

I am not trying to sound cocky in these next few paragraphs, but this is the only way I can word my experiences. Other

people may have felt different, but this is the way I felt and this is the way I still feel to this day.

I’ve always been a competitive person in my life. Whether it was winning in a family board game or winning in a video game, I never liked losing. Who likes losing anyway? Whenever I would lose at something, I became down on myself and very emotional. It was good that I was this way because that is where I get my work ethic today. Since I never like losing, I always worked extremely hard and always pushed the extra mile at whatever I’ve done. The feeling after losing was never a pleasant experience in my life. I always wanted to be the best. Who doesn’t. This shaped me for who I am today. I am such a hard worker in whatever I do and I don’t settle for anything less.

Being so competitive really made me a stronger athlete and runner. After every hard work out, I knew I was better than I was yesterday. Pushing myself through all the pain and all the times I would be on the edge of throwing up after pushing my body to the limit, I still never gave up. It was the personal payoff that made everything better. Knowing the payoff that would result in working hard was really what made my drive follow through.

Track meets and racing against other competitors really is what drove me.

Track was a perfect sport to me because I never wanted to lose. It’s not like a team sport such as basketball or soccer where it takes a team to win the game. Winning a race all matters on yourself. Track is an individual sport and that is why I like it so much. You are basically competing against yourself. You’re competing against your best time since every race is a mission of getting better and beating that time. On the other hand, though, you still have a competition and you are competing against other runners. This competition of sense of victory is different than any other sport. When you win, it is an inner excitement knowing you pushed your body to full capacity. When you win a sport with a team, you had other people there to help and support you. It is comparing opposites when comparing track to any other sport. You really don’t know the difference unless you experience it yourself. I know I have many times, and that is one of the main reasons why I still do track

today.

When on that starting line on the track, I knew I had to beat the people on that line to the left and right of me. I knew that when that starting gun goes off I would have to run like my life depended on it. When the official gives us our count, “Ready, Set, go!” nothing is going through my mind and my competitive nature kicks in. Off for the races I go and nothing is stopping me to win.

My work ethic is what got me so far in track and in life also. Working hard and setting a goal to run in college is really what pushed me in that extra mile. I never wanted to settle for less. If I did I would have been so down on myself and never would have felt the end of it.

My personal payoff is really what made me continue with track. Track has shaped me into the person that I am today and I couldn’t be happier about it. I’ve met some of my befriends that I will ever know and I have made some crazy memories within the last two years.