My Passion

“On your marks…” My heart danced while I waited in my starting position. “Get set…” I raised my back. Pop! The gun had shot; my race had started. I pushed myself forward, starting ahead. Easily, I

forgot about my worries. I focused on the rhythm of my feet which were light on the ground. I pushed

myself harder to keep our second-place spot at the curve. Just after the one-hundred start, I ran as fast as I could. I gained a first-place start for our second runner. “Go,” I yelled signaling our second runner to start so I could hand the baton off. We matched strides and speed. Her left hand went back. The baton, in my right hand, met her left hand and I let go. She ran as fast as she could as I slowed my pace to an eventual stop. When they called the winners, I learned that we had won that race.

As a young person, being healthy and staying in shape are always important to me. During track season, and before for a while, I condition. Conditioning not only helps me keep in shape but helps distract me from my worries and problems. Ab work-out day was probably my favorite. Most of the time we would go outside, run our warmup laps, do our warmup stretches and then start our ab work-out. My friend and I have one ab work out that is by far our favorite. One partner will stand up and the other will lay down with their head between the first partner’s legs. I, always the second partner first, would lift my legs straight up. My friend, Skyler, would grab my legs and throw them, which ever direction she pleased to, and I would lift my legs back up before they hit the ground.

I raced to get my spot on my state team. Though yes, I did not race with the team during sectionals, I did have to race to get my spot on the team. Skyler and another teammate could not

make the relays, but we still wanted our team to go. Four girls, including me, had to race each other for a spot on the team. My friend, Holley, and I won; Holley in second, I in first. We trained with our relay team; a couple weeks later, I woke on the Friday we left for state. That Friday, we walked our team’s flag around the entire track, with what felt like millions of other teams, before our first events happened. Our mile runner ran, and our sixth-grade star ran her 100-meter dash. That night, we swam, ate at Applebees, and messed around at the hotel. Then next day, our relay team ran. While we didn’t make it very far up, I think we did well considering, we ran

an eighth-grade race but only had one eighth-grader on our team. Our team had so much fun at our state experience and I would not change my experience for anything. I have already started training for my events so I can run again.

Today, I run almost every day just for fun or to lose myself. Thoughts and problems disintegrate. Music takes over my mind. My pace is the only problem in the world when I run. Well, my pace and being able to not fall on myself while running. That one-mile everyday means freedom, peace, and comfort. Running means my one safe spot in this town at least.