Track!

After my friends constantly bugging me about it, I decided to run track this year. I'm glad they did, because it has been an awesome experience! At first I was a little hesitant to try it, but I'm glad I decided to. My friends have all ran the last two years, so I decided to give it a shot. I almost did last year, but for some reason, I didn't. I wish I had though, because it has been a blast!

The first few weeks of it weren't as fun. The season hadn't officially started, but there was conditioning for people who wanted to get into shape before the season. Being in horrible shape, I decided to go to the conditioning. It was pretty fun, but once the season started, it was a lot better! The first week was pretty much pure conditioning. The distance runners ran a few miles every day while the sprinters worked on, well, sprinting! I decided to go with the sprinters so I could run hurdles. I really like hurdles because they're not just about how fast you are. It takes getting the form down. Not being as fast as some of the other people on the track team, this is probably my favorite event.

However, two meets out of three into the season, I still haven't run the hurdles at a meet. You're probably thinking, "Dude, if you haven't made them yet, why keep trying?" Well, the thing is I should have been running them at at least the last meet. The first one there's no way I should have. I had strep the first couple days of the week while they took timings, and I still wasn't feeling great the day of the meet. I would have done awful. The next meet I think I should have though. My uncle who ran hurdles in college came and helped me get the form down. I improved my time quite a bit. That day I asked the coach if he would be taking timings, and he said probably not. Not wanting to tire out my legs, I took off for the day. Turns out he did take timings, so I missed out that meet. He did a couple practice runs the day before the meet, and I honestly had a better time than a few of the people who ran them. Hopefully I'll get to run them this meet!

I really have loved track though. At both the meets, all I've run is the 800. That's two times around the track, and translates to about 1/2 mile. The first meet I was still recovering from strep. I ran it in 3:08, which isn't that great. The next week, I was feeling a ton better. I ran it in 2:53, which was 15 seconds faster than the week before. I haven't ran the mile in a while, so I think I'm going to run the 800 again, the mile, and hopefully the hurdles at the next meet! I really want to make this one count, since it's the last meet!

Overall, I am so glad the I ran track this year! If I had known I would have had such a good time running track a couple years ago, I would have done it in 7th and 8th grade as well. Most of the time, I'm just talking with friends. On top of that, I've met new people and gotten in better shape. It's been a great experience!