Narrative Essay
It was the Tuesday night before my 14th birthday, at the Greenville Track Club summer all-comers meet, that I first felt the pain of running. Even though I hadn’t trained at all beforehand, I jumped in one of the mile heats anyways.
The first two laps went without much trouble, and I was feeling good. I have been told that the first lap of a mile race is run off of nervous energy, and the second lap is run off of the momentum of the first, but the third lap is when the race really starts. As I entered the third lap, I started hurting. I was breathing heavily, could feel my legs deadening with the buildup of lactic acid in my muscles, and was starting to get a cramp in my side. I struggled through those 400 meters, slowing down a good bit, before the final lap came, and my spirits lifted. Around the final bend I started speeding up, until I was sprinting full speed along the last 50 meters. As I ran through the finish line, I same my time: 5 minutes and 56 seconds. A new personal record!
After crossing the finish line, the excitement of a new PR soon passed, and the joy was replaced with nausea. I walked around for a minute and took a drink of water before I quickly ran to the side and threw up. For the next 30 …show more content…
In hindsight, I may have trained too much, by putting a lot of mileage on my legs. The farthest I had run before this race was 10 miles, much closer to the 12.4 miles of the actual race. While 20k may not seem like a long way to some people, it seemed almost insurmountable at the time. My Dad and I drove the race layout the day before the race, and I realized that running only on flat ground in preparation may have not been a smart idea. The first 6 miles of the race were straight over Paris Mountain, with almost ridiculous elevation change. After that, we had to run through neighborhoods, with small rolling hills designed to crush your will to continue. I was starting to get very
It was the Tuesday night before my 14th birthday, at the Greenville Track Club summer all-comers meet, that I first felt the pain of running. Even though I hadn’t trained at all beforehand, I jumped in one of the mile heats anyways.
The first two laps went without much trouble, and I was feeling good. I have been told that the first lap of a mile race is run off of nervous energy, and the second lap is run off of the momentum of the first, but the third lap is when the race really starts. As I entered the third lap, I started hurting. I was breathing heavily, could feel my legs deadening with the buildup of lactic acid in my muscles, and was starting to get a cramp in my side. I struggled through those 400 meters, slowing down a good bit, before the final lap came, and my spirits lifted. Around the final bend I started speeding up, until I was sprinting full speed along the last 50 meters. As I ran through the finish line, I same my time: 5 minutes and 56 seconds. A new personal record!
After crossing the finish line, the excitement of a new PR soon passed, and the joy was replaced with nausea. I walked around for a minute and took a drink of water before I quickly ran to the side and threw up. For the next 30 …show more content…
In hindsight, I may have trained too much, by putting a lot of mileage on my legs. The farthest I had run before this race was 10 miles, much closer to the 12.4 miles of the actual race. While 20k may not seem like a long way to some people, it seemed almost insurmountable at the time. My Dad and I drove the race layout the day before the race, and I realized that running only on flat ground in preparation may have not been a smart idea. The first 6 miles of the race were straight over Paris Mountain, with almost ridiculous elevation change. After that, we had to run through neighborhoods, with small rolling hills designed to crush your will to continue. I was starting to get very