My First Race
Near Merced, California is a man-made reservoir across from the new UC Merced campus called Yosemite Lake. While I was in high school, this was the location of an annual Cross Country Invitational that our school regularly attended. The event took place at the beginning of the season, before any of the dual meets had began, and this was the site of my very first race.
We got to the school in the morning, and drove around 30 minutes to get the the lake. In true form, I fell asleep on the bus. I was a sophomore, and would be running one of the earliest races. Some of these events had separate races for freshmen and sophomores, but most had JV Boys, JV Girls, Varsity Boys and Varsity Girls. The latter was probably the case for this event, as it was a smaller invitational.
As the bus pulled into the parking lot, we could hear someone on the bullhorn making last call for someone's race. Down came the windows, and we heard them make their call for my race. The bus pulled to a stop and I made my way to the starting line to warm up.
The typical modus operandi for any race is to jog the course once so that you are familiar with the lay of the land before you have to find twists and turns when it really counts. This was obviously not going to take place today. Instead, I had on my sweats and just did the best I could to get a little sweat running before my race began.
As we were called to the line, I felt a little sick to my stomach, usually a good indicator that I was going to do well. The gun went off, and I did the best I could to run a good race. I knew I wasn't going to win. Mostly I just tried to push as hard as I could through to the end.
My coach met me at the finish line, and told me I had finished ninth. This was obviously much better than either she or I had thought I would do. It was my first taste of a real race, and the start of a long road (literally and figuratively) that I am still running on today.
We got to the school in the morning, and drove around 30 minutes to get the the lake. In true form, I fell asleep on the bus. I was a sophomore, and would be running one of the earliest races. Some of these events had separate races for freshmen and sophomores, but most had JV Boys, JV Girls, Varsity Boys and Varsity Girls. The latter was probably the case for this event, as it was a smaller invitational.
As the bus pulled into the parking lot, we could hear someone on the bullhorn making last call for someone's race. Down came the windows, and we heard them make their call for my race. The bus pulled to a stop and I made my way to the starting line to warm up.
The typical modus operandi for any race is to jog the course once so that you are familiar with the lay of the land before you have to find twists and turns when it really counts. This was obviously not going to take place today. Instead, I had on my sweats and just did the best I could to get a little sweat running before my race began.
As we were called to the line, I felt a little sick to my stomach, usually a good indicator that I was going to do well. The gun went off, and I did the best I could to run a good race. I knew I wasn't going to win. Mostly I just tried to push as hard as I could through to the end.
My coach met me at the finish line, and told me I had finished ninth. This was obviously much better than either she or I had thought I would do. It was my first taste of a real race, and the start of a long road (literally and figuratively) that I am still running on today.
Labels: THS
posted by ronny at 21:33
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