Running

I liked running when I was in elementary school. About third grade we used to get prizes for running laps during recess. Me and my friend, Jacob Rieple, would run at least a mile every day, but it got old after a while so we stopped doing it. I didn't run long distances again until 7th grade track. It was a nightmare. Running two miles in the hot sun every day, and just to get trained to run 400 meters in a race. I didn't join track the next year because I hated running. But in the beginning of 9th grade, something horrible happened. For some reason I joined the hardest, and most disciplining sport known to man. I joined cross country. Why did I join, I don't know. I did feel pressure to join from some of my friends, but I usually don't get sucked into the shenanigans that they get into. I didn't think it would be that bad. A few miles to run everyday after school, how bad could it be. Well it ended up being the worst time of my life. It wasn't just the distance that hurt, it was the speed of the distance. "Ok, today you'll be running for 10 minutes at a fast pace, then 10 at an easy pace, then 10 at a fast pace again. Then finish up with a two mile cool down." That's my coach Mr. Wenthe. That was one of our workouts we would have. The worst one was a workout called a fartleck. This odd French named workout goes; run 2 minutes hard, 2 minutes easy, 3 hard, 3 easy, 4 hard, 4 easy, 5 hard, 5 easy, then the same pattern gone back down to 2 minutes. Adding a mile warm up before we do anything. It was a horrible time. But after cross country got done, spring time rolled around, and guess what comes during spring time, track season. And for some reason I felt enormous pressure to join that too. I thought to myself, "Well track races are way shorter than cross country so it won't be nearly as hard as cross country." Well that wasn't the case at all. Track was equally as hard, if not harder than cross country. A cross country race is 3.1 miles. The longest track race is 2 miles, so I thought the races would at least be easier. They were probably harder than cross country races. I ran the 800 meter run, and sometimes it was way harder than a 3.1 mile run. As much as I hated track and cross country, I still had a lot of fun too. You would think the kids that do long distance for fun are incredibly big nerds, but that's not the truth at all. Although some are big nerds, most are awesome kids who have the most fun out of anyone. When the coach wouldn't run with us, we had a lot of adventures that if the coach found out about them, we would have been in a lot of trouble. It was a hard 4 years of track and cross country, but with all the things we did, and people I met, it was well worth it, and I might have done it again if I had the chance.