The Starting Line

The preface tells me that this book is mainly about students’ writing, and these students’ papers are selected from the best papers that were written by UCSB students. In other word, it is an students teaching materials. From reading starting line, I can improve my writing skill and change my writing style as I read plenty of high level papers, and this give me an brief standard of what is the standard for a good English course paper. One different that I noticed is Starting Line uses students’ writing examples as “articles,” and it makes Linguistic students more easier to understand since the language that students write are similar. Another interesting point that I notice from reading the first essay is that most of the articles in Starting…

I finally catch my breath from my panic attack as I wait for my team to be called to the starting line. I stand shaking, nervous and afraid of what is to come. I try to search for some type of assurance from my teammates, but they are just as nervous as I am. We are about to run a total of 5 kilometers, up a large hill, snaking through trees and shrubs. The mud was squelching under our tan boots, from the downpour the night prior, as we anxiously waited to begin. I take another look around and…

plan for the day. By the time we finished talking what we were going to do, our food had showed up on the table. We munched it down, left a tip, and we were on our way to the most exciting place of our lives. We pulled up to Old Settler’s park and I felt that there was a whole zoo in my stomach. I was really nervous. We all thought it would be a good idea to go walk the course to see what the challenge was. It was steaming hot outside. We walked back to our families that were chilling under some…

There are the elite runners who get interviewed as they cross the finish line. Their faces glistening with sweat and a medal hugging their neck. Then you have the people who dress up as a Tyrannosaurus Rex and chase people around tent city. You also have fans that come from bigger schools. Girls walk around wearing nothing more than running shorts, a sports bra, and face paint. Boys paint their whole body in their school colors. Some make masks of their runners faces to wear. A few even take old…

I passed one person. Then I passed another person. Eventually I had passed a good 10 or so people. I started to make the turn to break for the finish line when I noticed something odd; no one was ahead of me. I slowed down, then noticed that everyone was turning to run a second lap. I slowed down to a steady jog again. Although I was tired, I prepared myself to run another lap, and then sped up to a faster pace. In what seemed like only 30 seconds I was almost finished with the lap, and still…

dose of reality, November 12th was the day to make history. From being nervous, to filled with pride, to a sense of fearfulness, to sudden jumps of extreme happiness because all you had worked for would finally pay off. We started to warm up, yet we still remained quiet as we tried to maintain concentration. Someone breaks the inevitable tension with a classic joke, but it all slowly fades away with the occasional gusty winds. The race was announced as our coach began her typical motivational…

in finals by a mere hundredth of a second secured me a spot at Idaho’s biggest high school track and field event of the year. While waiting for the feared moment when I would hear the announcer crackle over the sound system “first call girls 100-meter prelims, report to the starting line” I anxiously considered the possibilities of how I might fail. I could visualize it then, watching myself slip off the blocks, false starting, and tripping over the finish line. Any assurance in my abilities…

had been limping before I stubbed my toe, because I still had A small bone fracture in my right foot from the last race I had. I then had pain on each foot. I didn't like this race but I knew this was my last race ever. I then took off my sweats and sweater to fully warm up. Then, put on my racing shoes. My shoes were light with thin material and had spikes twisted on the bottom for gripe to run faster on the track. They fit sort of cramped, so I almost could not feel the pain in my feet, when…

It All Started Here The subtle sweaty feeling on my back invades my uniform and sends a haunting chill down my spine as the wind picks up and I am overwhelmed with a combination of pure fear and adrenalin. The starting line coordinators instruct us to take our marks. I quickly shed my sweats off before jumping into my blocks in my lane. My numb fingers tremble from the chill of late March and nerves that never seem to calm. I lick my salty lips in preparation of taking my set position on the…

As the warm, July sun broke out of its slumber and the twilight sky vanished, I was trudging deep into the Steens Mountains along with one-hundred other runners. Months of sweat and callused feet were spent preparing for this one day: Big Day. Stories told by past campers filled my ears, giving me nightmares and excitement. The first eighteen miles whizzed by as we hiked through the dehydrated bushes with the beating sun gazing down on us. The real story layed within the last couple of miles.…