| Win Again Essay, Research Paper
WIN AGAINI was a senior on the track team. I had worked hard in the preseason, working on strength, mobility, quickness, and leadership skills. I needed these skills in order to become a role model for the underclassmen on the team. Track was my favorite sport because I had real potential. I decided I would put a lot of sweat and toil into my work. I would run with the team in practice at a much more intense level than most of the other guys and would go in the weight room where the smell of sweat was stifling, and the temperature was very high. With sweat just pouring out even when I just sat there, I would lift as much as I could and for as long as I could do it. I would work my legs until they felt numb, and could hardly stand on them. I would be very tired at the end of the practice. Sometimes I left at 6:30 PM. I would go home, eat supper, and take a shower. It was so refreshing. About nine I would go to bed exhausted. Track was best when you actually get to run and workout on the track. Outside running was different from inside running because the laps were longer. The wind was so strong that it would sometimes almost knock me over. In the spring I got to practice the long jump. I jumped for a year, and when I got my steps down, I tried my first jump, 18′ 3″. I couldn’t believe it. That was good for my first jump of the season. I kept pushing and made the best jump of my life at 19′ 4 1/2″. The art of jumpingis easy when I jump from the board. Just move your arms like you’re running through the air. I ran on the 4×400 relay team. Since it was early in the season, I didn’t know which leg of the relay I would run on, but I hoped for the last. I finally got my speed up. I was running 50.10 second laps. This is enough to make it to regional. It might have let me go further. I had everything going for me.
On April 3rd my dreams turned to disaster. I was on my way to school, and there were three cars stopped in front of the car in front of me. The girl, in front of me didn’t see them, and there was a chain reaction after she hit the first car. I stopped in time but got rearended by a girl doing 65 m.p.h., and she said she didn’t hit the brakes until she hit me. I had a back injury in my lower vertebrae, and my upper back was twisted. I wasn’t allowed to run or do anything. I was so upset about my life falling apart, all that work and the dreams for nothing. I was going to the physical therapist, and the therapy was effective. I hoped I would get back to running in a week, but it took four months to recover. It was the worst four months of my life. The track season was a memory along with my truck, and I barely even graduated due to the accident. The preparation for my track season was still significant because of the conditioning and self-discipline I put into it. After the accident I got to compete in sectional at the end of the season, where I finished twelfth in the long jump. I didn’t get to run because I was replaced by someone else. I will always tell my kids that because of what I went through, twelfth felt like first to me. by kglennon@bsuvc.bsu.edu
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