The smell of the air while I ran was surprisingly fresh, the cheering of the nonexistent crowd rang in my ears, the sense of numbness in my legs all stuck with me until I crossed that fated finish line. It was the first meet of the season, and I was sweating buckets. This was mostly due to the blazing summer heat but also due to the intense anxiety I was feeling. For that reason I came upon the starting line tense, with thoughts of doubt and worry on my mind. My worries were correct, as soon as I started the race intense dagger like pains crepy throughout my body. Thoughts of stopping raced across my mind, until I lost all sense of what was going on around me. It was as though I had become a mere spectator, watching my body and what it did, not having any control what so ever. When I finally realized it the race was over and a thought occurred to me, I really just made it through a whole 5k, something I had not even thought about attempting a month before. …show more content…
This all changed when I joined the cross country team in my junior year. My best friend had joined the year prior and in an elaborate attempt to not be the worst on the team he got me to join.
My friend started off the discussion by humorously saying “You should join the cross country team, it will give you something to do during the school year.”
“Why would I do that, I never ran a day in my life outside of school,” I replied
“You’re just scared that you won’t be able to beat me once you join, if that’s the case I think it’s better if you don’t join then.”
“Oh yeah, is that a challenge I hear, I guess I’ll just have to beat you to make you look stupid in front of