I was eating lunch at my table when we were all called to get up and stand against the wall with our lunches.  We all did so, unsure of why we were being asked to stand there.  The lunch aides then distributed a piece of paper to each table.  Each sheet was a sign up form for fall sports. There was soccer, volleyball, and cross country.  The aides allowed us to go and choose to sign up for whichever sport we were interested in participating in the following year.  I’d done enough soccer. I definitely wasn’t in to volleyball.  So I went over to the sheet for cross country and signed up, thinking “Well it will be something new and I like running anyway.”  I didn’t know I had just signed up for something I was completely unprepared for .

For the last two or three weeks remaining of 6th grade after signing up, I completely forgot about the whole thing.  I enjoyed my summer vacation and at the same time I couldn’t wait to go back to school.  When I did though, I got meet my team and my coach, Mrs. Horigan.   Practice was hard work, but I kept it up.  Soon enough, it came time for my first race.  It was nerve-wracking but when I saw how small the opposing team was, I knew it couldn’t be that bad.  I finished as the second girl and seventh out of boys and girls.  That was my very first race.  I thought it was pretty tough, but I would soon realize how wrong I was.

After another week of practice, it was time for the next race.  Only this one was different.  The first race had been against only one other school and the girls and boys ran at the same time. This race at Bob’s Trees was called an invitational.  The Bob’s Tree Invitational included twenty-five different schools.  Invitationals are huge so they are split in to different races.  The girls run one race and the boys run another.   When I met up with my team early that Saturday morning for the race, my coach brought me four tiny clothespins and a tag that was the perfect size for my jersey.  I pinned on the tag and followed my team outside to stretch.  We did short sprints, high knees, arm stretches and breathing exercises.  Then, the boys ran.  Before I new it, the girls and I were lined up at the start line, and when the man blew his whistle, we all put a foot forward, toe on the line.  We waited three seconds until the man fired his gun.  In those moments, I looked around.  The very first person I saw was my dad with my grandmother and grandfather standing beside him.  I felt so lightheaded, so nervous.  My legs felt like a thousand pounds.  I was worried I may faint or melt in to a puddle right before he shot.  I tightened my fists and looked straight at the man.  He had the gun in his hand and just then the piercing pop of the gun filled the damp air. I dug in to the ground and propelled myself forward.  I was so stunned that my legs started outrunning the rest of me.  The feeling in my head was gone, and my legs carried me faster than I believed they could.  I powered through the course, passing girl after girl.  I was only halfway through and my legs had lost feeling.  Since it was so early in the morning, it was very cold.  The clouds of mist had not moved out yet, so every time you took a breath, it felt as if you weren’t breathing in anything.  The air coated you with chilly water which was actually pretty nice.  Then, I entered the woodsy part of the trail and noticed that it was even more moist and dark. Huge roots stuck out of the ground, hungry for a runner’s foot.  It was a tunnel-like trail and it smelled heavily of trees and plants and dirt.  Every turn I took, I felt the sharp pains in my legs shooting down to my ankles.  I felt exhausted and hurt until I made my way to the top of a hill and I could see one more turn and then the straightaway.  I knew I had to pick it up.  I took all that was left of me and zipped around that corner.

That was it–all I had to do then was sprint down the straightaway.  As I started to spring for dear life, I saw my dad, grandma, grandpa and instead of my legs weighting a thousand pounds, I felt as if I weighed nothing.  I was halfway there when I saw my moment, the finish line with my brother.  I passed the finish line and made my way to the end of the gate where I received my medal.  I had finished 12th, second for the Galway girls.  The feeling as I passed the finish line was AMAZING–the exact opposite of how I felt at the starting line.  My team and I placed first out of 25 schools–we worked very hard too!  Other invitationals we ran in during the rest of the season had even more competitors but this one is special to me because it was my first one and I enjoyed it!