Feeling exhausted, I focus on my breathing. I remind myself to breathe in through my nose and then out through my mouth, breathe in and out. Repeat. After passing the mile mark, my coach is shrieking for me to relax, because I am on my way to qualify for cross country states. The top twenty girls qualify, and I have been dreaming of this day since freshman year. All I have to do is hold my position, and then I am golden. Suddenly, my legs begin to feel like jello. My running partner slowly fades ahead of me, and I cannot keep up. It feels like I am running backwards as the rest of my teammates pass me one by one. Fighting fatigue, I tell myself I am finishing this race, whether or not I have to crawl like a turtle to do so. I am crossing that
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I splash water on my weary, sweat-covered face and keep moving through the finish chute. Once I pinpoint my family and coach, tears flood my eyes. My cross country season is over when it should not be.
Sometimes good things fall apart so that even bigger and better things can fall together. To my eleventh grade runner self, I had a hard time believing in this logic. If you do not put in the months of hard work of running countless miles, do not expect to be successful when it comes to running in cross country meets. I held myself accountable for logging in high mileage every single week. I paid attention to what I was putting into my body and how I was recovering from strenuous workouts. However, all my training seemed to completely vanish when I did not advance to the state meet.
Sitting next to my coach, while sobbing about how disappointed I was with my performance, she reminded me that failure provides me with new wisdom and courage to do better in the future. While success can express natural talent, failure develops true character and strength, which are essential in improving quality performance. My coach made me ponder the question as to where the fun is if you are always winning and achieving your goals the first time you endeavor
I splash water on my weary, sweat-covered face and keep moving through the finish chute. Once I pinpoint my family and coach, tears flood my eyes. My cross country season is over when it should not be.
Sometimes good things fall apart so that even bigger and better things can fall together. To my eleventh grade runner self, I had a hard time believing in this logic. If you do not put in the months of hard work of running countless miles, do not expect to be successful when it comes to running in cross country meets. I held myself accountable for logging in high mileage every single week. I paid attention to what I was putting into my body and how I was recovering from strenuous workouts. However, all my training seemed to completely vanish when I did not advance to the state meet.
Sitting next to my coach, while sobbing about how disappointed I was with my performance, she reminded me that failure provides me with new wisdom and courage to do better in the future. While success can express natural talent, failure develops true character and strength, which are essential in improving quality performance. My coach made me ponder the question as to where the fun is if you are always winning and achieving your goals the first time you endeavor