summing up the season

thursday, i boarded a bus headed to seguin tx.  saturday, we competed in the ASC conference championship race.  this race was one to let every team in the conference show what they really had.  we had a goal as a team, but also, everyone had an individual goal as we headed into the race.  our team goal, was to finish as best we could in the conference.  i guess you could say we were the underdogs, considering we are a team with 2 sophomores and the rest freshmen, racing against teams full of seniors and juniors, with lots of college racing under them.  my individual goal going in, was to pr, and to place decently in the field.  as soon as i finished, i realized, i had another goal...

i ran the 5 mile course in 28:14.  that was 51 seconds faster than when i ran that distance 3 weeks ago.  i ran the last half mile with the most guts than i ever have dug to find.  when i finished, i was glad to see i had a decent time... but that wasn't where i found the most glory

walking to the starting line of a race, causes a feeling tons different than anything i've ever been through.  when i walk to the starting line, i know that i am about to push my body to mental and physical exhaustion and that i will experience the closest thing to hell without actually going.  to know that feeling is coming, makes it way more difficult to run your body to death.  during the last half mile, there was an opponent about 20 meters ahead of me.  i looked at him, and thought to myself.. "i want to beat him no matter what it takes"  my mind and body took off after him, got around him and hung on.  with my heart and lungs feeling like they were about to explode, and my legs in shambles feeling like they were falling apart.... i did what i had to do, i kept running.

to know that i can push my body that far, and to know i have the mental strength to do absolutely anything is the best feeling in the world.  no matter if i win a race, or come in last, i find the most joy....not in where i finished, or the time i finished in, but in that i can make my body do absolutely anything, and have more mental strength than any other runner out there.