Path to Glory 10...9...8...7...6...5.........POW! The instant the smoke ejects from the muzzle of the pistol, we are off. Adrenaline and arms pump, breaths come in and out at a rapid pace, and the competition begins.
“You have to get out in that lead pack right away,” my mind tells me, so I achieve this. To know this course is to know the back of my hand; our team has run it once earlier this season and once last season. I know exactly when each hill comes and where I should use the downhills to my advantage.
About a quarter of a mile in, there I see the one short, steep, and definitely not sweet hill of the whole course; I know once you get up this, the rest is a run in the park. We, the leaders, approach the depths of
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We hit mile two in the same second and she sticks by my side all through the next 30 meters of woods. As I compel my body around the baseball diamond the course runs around, Maria executes a surge to take the lead. This isn’t totally a disappointing action to me because now I can draft her and save my energy. By running almost directly behind her, I run against almost no wind while she does the work of running with the wind blowing towards …show more content…
At this point in the race, the painstaking burning of my legs increases to its full potential; I know I am giving all that I have at this point in the race. A downhill, the last element of the course that will even slightly ease my pain, comes into view, and I know I need to use every last ounce of it to my benefit. Like the last race we ran here, a teammate’s mom is yelling out our times to us and advises, “USE THIS DOWNHILL; IT’S YOUR LAST ONE!” Of course I know this but the encouragement helps immensely. The moment passes in the blink of an eye and I advance toward the 400 meter to go mark. I have established my race plan; make surges at the following places: the beginning of the woods, when I exit the woods, and as many times as I can in the finishing