So, I had my first track meet on Saturday. It was pretty fun, we’ve been practicing for almost 2 months at this point because it wouldn’t stop snowing 
But on Saturday, it was nice and summery. My only event for that day was the 1600 meter; or otherwise: the mile. Let me start by saying that I’m a rather unathletic guy. Unathletic meaning the skin-and-bones, has no hope in football kind of unathletic. But hey, I’ve been training for a couple of months already. In mid-march, the distance runners (it’s shocking if you consider the kind of guy I was until signing up, it was more likely that I’d run super fast for a short distance than run rather fast for long intervals of time [40-60 minutes for workouts!]) as I was saying, the distance runners had their mile time trial. My mile was timed at 6 minutes and 24 seconds. The day before the meet, one of my captains gave me a goal of shooting for 6 minutes and 10 seconds the next day. The meet came, I sat around, waiting for my event. Warmed up by going for a 10 minute jog. I missed my first call. Coach made the 2nd call as I was removing my warm-ups (sweatsuit) and put on my flats (running shoes). I made it in time before the 3rd and final call. I had a short conversation with one of the captains from another school on how the nerves are building up, the fact that I’m just a freshman, and how it’s going to be a blast, especially if I hit or beat 6m10s. Once the race starts, I pick a guy, and chase him. He had bright, neon-green/yellow shoes. I followed him and ended up staying on the outside lanes until one of my coach’s shouted to cut in. We both did, I kept behind him. After the first lap, the first quarter, coach told me to move up, I went around the yellow-shoed runner, “Excuse me.” I said as I moved toward a group of 4, led by someone from a third school. I tried to cut from the inside but I almost stumbled into the grass, that would have gotten me disqualified if I did. I regained my footing and stood in the middle of the group. 3rd lap. Before trying to get outside to get in front of them, I noticed that others we doing the same, so I simply cut inside in front of them. Last lap. I really started booking it. Everyone did. Yellow Shoes was coming up from behind, ironic. We surged past the group of four and went into almost a full sprint in the last 100 meters. It was close. People were cheering me on as they were for the rest of the race beforehand, but even coach was cheering as opposed to directing me... well he did a little, he put me on my toes, told me to pump my arms, it was still Yellow and me. We hit the finish line and he tried to elbow me out of the way. 6: 25, I heard Coach say, one second slower than my time trial. I took the 9th place card (Yellow got 8th before me but we tied anyway) “Nice job.” I said as he apparently threw up. “I thought I had ya’.” Still didn’t notice that he had retched. But that’s normal for runners (the throwing up, not the lack. As I took a short rest before my cool down, my dad came up to me and asked for my time. “6: 25” I told him. “Yeah, more like 5:25” The tears came in themselves. A whole minute! I beat my record by a whole minute! The scoring were posted this afternoon, I took second in JV losing to my super-speedy-senpai by almost exactly 40 seconds. And Yellow Shoes? He was a apparently part of his school’s varsity... BTW, Varsity and JV run the same race, just scored separately. I feel accomplished. I’ve got my next meet tomorrow, I’m running the mile again, and the mile relay. Wish me luck at shooting for 5: 20!
But on Saturday, it was nice and summery. My only event for that day was the 1600 meter; or otherwise: the mile. Let me start by saying that I’m a rather unathletic guy. Unathletic meaning the skin-and-bones, has no hope in football kind of unathletic. But hey, I’ve been training for a couple of months already. In mid-march, the distance runners (it’s shocking if you consider the kind of guy I was until signing up, it was more likely that I’d run super fast for a short distance than run rather fast for long intervals of time [40-60 minutes for workouts!]) as I was saying, the distance runners had their mile time trial. My mile was timed at 6 minutes and 24 seconds. The day before the meet, one of my captains gave me a goal of shooting for 6 minutes and 10 seconds the next day. The meet came, I sat around, waiting for my event. Warmed up by going for a 10 minute jog. I missed my first call. Coach made the 2nd call as I was removing my warm-ups (sweatsuit) and put on my flats (running shoes). I made it in time before the 3rd and final call. I had a short conversation with one of the captains from another school on how the nerves are building up, the fact that I’m just a freshman, and how it’s going to be a blast, especially if I hit or beat 6m10s. Once the race starts, I pick a guy, and chase him. He had bright, neon-green/yellow shoes. I followed him and ended up staying on the outside lanes until one of my coach’s shouted to cut in. We both did, I kept behind him. After the first lap, the first quarter, coach told me to move up, I went around the yellow-shoed runner, “Excuse me.” I said as I moved toward a group of 4, led by someone from a third school. I tried to cut from the inside but I almost stumbled into the grass, that would have gotten me disqualified if I did. I regained my footing and stood in the middle of the group. 3rd lap. Before trying to get outside to get in front of them, I noticed that others we doing the same, so I simply cut inside in front of them. Last lap. I really started booking it. Everyone did. Yellow Shoes was coming up from behind, ironic. We surged past the group of four and went into almost a full sprint in the last 100 meters. It was close. People were cheering me on as they were for the rest of the race beforehand, but even coach was cheering as opposed to directing me... well he did a little, he put me on my toes, told me to pump my arms, it was still Yellow and me. We hit the finish line and he tried to elbow me out of the way. 6: 25, I heard Coach say, one second slower than my time trial. I took the 9th place card (Yellow got 8th before me but we tied anyway) “Nice job.” I said as he apparently threw up. “I thought I had ya’.” Still didn’t notice that he had retched. But that’s normal for runners (the throwing up, not the lack. As I took a short rest before my cool down, my dad came up to me and asked for my time. “6: 25” I told him. “Yeah, more like 5:25” The tears came in themselves. A whole minute! I beat my record by a whole minute! The scoring were posted this afternoon, I took second in JV losing to my super-speedy-senpai by almost exactly 40 seconds. And Yellow Shoes? He was a apparently part of his school’s varsity... BTW, Varsity and JV run the same race, just scored separately. I feel accomplished. I’ve got my next meet tomorrow, I’m running the mile again, and the mile relay. Wish me luck at shooting for 5: 20!- The Transcendent Key, Lady Aleister and Javelin434
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