At the young age of 16 I embarked on a journey that would forever change how I view the world. My sophomore year in high school, a friend and I told our favorite teacher we would go out for cross country (Mr. Meyers). Due to the fact he was going to be an assistant coach next season. Summer had ended and it was time for our first Run as a team. I was never a runner and I did not know what to expect. Cross country would prove to be one of the best decisions I ever stuck with. Weeks before cross country had started my friend had decided he would not be joining. This discouraged me, but it did not prevent me from joining myself. The first day of practice I was nervous and out of shape. I walked up to the crowd of people and met my coaches Mr. Butcher, and Mr. Meyers. The team was instructed to make a circle. Before we began our warm-ups Mr. Butcher had brought me into the center of the circle of over 50 athletes. He gave me a warm introduction, and demanded that I be welcomed. As the season continued, my 5k Meter times fell further and further. I felt myself becoming more agile and significantly more positive. This was the beauty of our coach and team dynamic. Positivity was encouraged, rewarded and modeled for us. It was never about being the winning team, it was about improving …show more content…
My 5k Meter time had dropped to 20:31, which was a massive improvement over my first race at 27:49. In a few short months I cut just over 7 minutes off of a 3 mile run. At this time my mile splits were just under 7 minutes during a 5k race, and they would steadily decrease as the race went on. My first race I started off strong but lacked the endurance to keep it up, let alone improve my performance as the race went on. My first mile time was 7:31 followed by a 9 minute 2nd mile time, and 11 minutes for my 3rd mile. I relished my success and enjoyed the acknowledgement of my
I joined my school’s cross country team in the summer. At the beginning we performed pre-season workouts. The training was tough, but my proud personality and the very thought of what I had to gain kept me motivated and helped me push through the pain. Every time I felt like giving up or quitting, I would say to myself, “This pain is only temporary; remember that the reward will be permanent, and it will be worth the pain that I endure today.” I was able to push through the
I have always loved sports and the competitiveness that comes along with them. In so doing, I have decided to eventually become either a high school or college coach at some point in my life. Subsequently, I decided to interview the Vilonia High School Cross Country Coach, Coach Sisson. As I walked into her office, I instantly noticed all of the trophies and team photos from all of the past years of coaching. She is also the school nurse so her office has first aid equipment intermingled into the trophies and team pictures. While I set up my notes and questions for the interview on one of the desks in her office, she was finishing up a diagnosis of one of the high school students who felt sick. After her patient left, I quickly started the interview in order to waste no time. She began with how she got involved in coaching. The Vilonia School District expressed their interest to her as being the next cross country coach several years ago. She was widely known for her passion for running and she gratefully accepted the position and has been a coach for numerous years now.
I am now officially in my Senior year of Cross Country , and am close to the end of my season. My first race of this year though was a big accomplishment for me, because I hadn`t been able to run. When I ran that race though it made me just so happy I was able to finish it, I was`nt happy with the time, but there is always time for improvement. I was glad to be racing again and being apart of the team again. I believe that my injuries were a barrier in my way, but they did not stop my sports career.
When I crossed the line I had decided that was the hardest and most painful race I had ever ran. Never had the pain gotten that bad, but that made me a little proud because I knew that I had tried my hardest. Brandon placed 2nd and ran as amazingly fast as he always had. Austin made a huge improvement in time and placed 12th. Sean did not do as well as expected but placed 25th. I myself placed 48th, which wasn’t awful. My time was decent. Justin tanked and he placed 56th. 56th wasn’t bad, but was expected to be much faster than me. Coach was a bit disappointed when we finished because based off of what he saw it did not look like we made it out. While we were back at “camp”, Sean pulled up the results on their phone.
Another concept I have learned from my participation in running is teamwork. No matter how hard we try, we cannot live our lives without others' help or without helping others. We must work together to succeed on the road ahead. This is the essence of teamwork. I know that even my personal success in cross-country and track is not solely mine. I know that my three district titles, one in cross country and two in track, in the 800 meter and 1600 meter runs, could not have been accomplished without my team's unequivocal support and for that, I thank them.
I signed up to run track in the spring and went to summer conditioning for cross country. That’s when my coaches, teammates, and myself noticed that my running has improved significantly from when I first started. I knew that I had to work hard my senior year to achieve my goals for running. Running is a mental sport. The workouts I had to do were brutally painful and I had stay positive throughout the run because I know the training I had to do will help me during a race.
I'm Jeffery the oxe and I recently completed the Oregon trail. In the beginning we started in Saint Louis, Missouri. We were waiting on the field for my food to grow, then I would be free fed.
Sports are not for everyone. I tried a variety of sports throughout my childhood but I was never really athlete material. I am as slow as a turtle and I have little to no hand-eye coordination, but I gave each sport a try. It was truly a shock when I decided to run cross-country since I had no speed whatsoever.
As the Tiger rolled around, there arose a question of whether or not to keep the team together or break it up and give the two seniors a chance to compete in other individual events at regionals. I actually didn't know about this possibility until about five minutes before the race began on Saturday. We were all huddled together preparing for the start. Jeremy came up to Rodney and me and told us that if we didn't do well the team might be dropped. Kicking our motivational drive into high, the four of us focused on only one thing: running the time we all knew we could. Getting into the blocks I felt more ready than ever. At the sound of the gun, I shot out of the blocks. I sprinted around the track, concentrating on making a great hand-off.
stood upon, was frightening. The only was to go was down. I took a deep
After the week of tryouts, I had one more obstacle to overcome: timed trials. If i exceeded the coaches expectation, I would most definitely make the team. Therefore, At the blow of the whistle, I sprung into a dive and swam as fast as I could. Once I finished the race, I glanced around to discover that everybody else had already finished. I assured myself repeatedly that I still had the chance to make the team; however, the anticipation for the results got the better of me,
The start of the 2002 track season found me concerned with how I would perform. After a disastrous bout with mononucleosis ended my freshmen track season, the fear of failure weighed heavily on my mind. I set a goal for myself in order to maintain focus and to push myself like nothing else would. My goal for my sophomore track season was to become a state champion in the 100 meter hurdles. I worked hard everyday at practice and went the extra mile, like running every Sunday, to be just that much closer to reaching my goal. The thought of standing highest on the podium in the center of the field, surrounded by hundreds of spectators, overcame my thoughts of complaining every time we had a hard workout. When I closed my eyes, I pictured myself waiting in anticipation as other competitors names were called out, one by one, until finally, the booming voice announced over the loudspeaker, "...and in first place, your 2002 100 meter hurdle champion, from Hotchkiss, Connie Dawson." It was visions like these that drove me to work harder everyday.
After two years, of running school track, I was recruited by an woman who started an AAU track team for the summer. She broke so many records at JHS and ASU in hurdles. She was one of the best of the best in Arkansas. It was a privilege to work with her. She ran hurdles just like me. Some days we would spend seven hours a day at the track. Because of her, I won so many first place medals at the track meets we traveled too. In total we travel to twelve different cities to compete with different people. It was a fun and a different kind of
Many years ago when I was a freshman in high school, an event happened to me that changed my life for the better. My friend invited me to go hiking with him and his sister. He was going to go hiking in Yosemite. The following day I prepared myself mentally and physically in order to accomplish this hike.
The miles increased each week and before I knew it, the last long run before the marathon was only twenty miles. Then came the marathon, 26.2 miles of runners’ high, pain, agony, and unstable weather.