Pain is an evolutionary tool that discourages the body from causing harm to itself to survive, however athletes as well as myself view it as nothing but an obstacle for improvement.
Goosebumps prickled from my skin over my whole body. Every other racers’ breath was visible in the air as they prepared for the big race. I was lacing up my Brooks Adrenalines already tattered and bruised from the long road behind them. I head out for my warmup run and stretches that would ensure my peak performance for the race ahead. It was the Alexandria Invitational on an October evening, the second to last meet of the season, and my second to last 5K that I’d run in high school cross country, this one had to count. I joined the rest of my team 100 meters
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The early evening August air was scalding, everybody was resting under whatever shade they could find getting ready for the first team practice of the season. I had been in track and field for two years now and had an idea of a distance workout, but I was sorely wrong. 60-mile weeks sweating alongside my best friends Zack and Christian, coming home exhausted to ice baths and early nights became my normal. After just two weeks my brand-new Adrenalines already lost any glimmer that they had before, I was in hell. When the time came for my very first 5K, those 3.1 miles of off road, muddy, and cluttered race-course, I was bewildered by how many people they could fit in one race. Shoulder to shoulder with 300 plus runners at the Maple Lake invite I jolted at the gunshot trying my best to scramble for an open space, weary of the trampling feet of runners, some clad with ¼ inch spikes. Twice through the track I went up and down each hill and around each bend, my favorite part being the 100-meter section flooded in a foot of water. Coming to the last stretch with the chute in sight I open my stride and obtain speed I had never found in myself prior, I ended with 23:59 as my final time. Coming home that night I experienced something that I hadn’t quite some time, genuine interest in something I had done coming from my