I quickly turned in my math test, and ran out the door. I was going to Clovis with my friends for a big race! Words couldn’t describe how excited I was for this trip.
I was in a car with my friends Davis, Miles, Revanth, Jesse, and Tom. We were off to Fresno to have the time of our lives. The drive there was uneventful, but we stopped at Los Baños for lunch.
After some paperwork, coach Jake sent us to our rooms. We had six guys including me in a small room that had three beds. So we called up coach. He told us he’d swap with us for the executive suite. So now we had three beds and a sleeping bag. We spent most of our time just chatting about the drive and relaxing until it was time for dinner.
The pasta feed was okay. For ten bucks we had a pretty decent meal of spaghetti and salad. We all enjoyed our time together as a team. Once we had full stomachs again, we returned to the hotel.
We weren’t really doing much the night before the race. To calm the freshmen’s nerves, I took them out for a small half-mile walk. After that we watched some TV before going to sleep around 9:20.
Around 5:30ish, we all got up. We packed our bags and walked out with confidence. Breakfast was a bagel, a small egg’s benedict, a banana and some milk. However, we made sure that we kept our stomachs light for the big race.
Now, the race. This is what we came for. The invitational was huge; there were maybe 5,000 people there. Our varsity girls toed the start line first. Then our senior boys. Then finally, it was our turn.
The weather was perfect, not too hot, but just warm with no wind. We lined up and did our cheer. We were pumped and ready for this race. The gun went off, and I saw my teammates tag behind me. Tom Sanders kept with me for the first mile and some. Coach told me that “no matter what, I’d be seeing a fast time on the first mile.†And he was right – the first mile came, 5:20. We headed up a small hill for the second mile. I was behind maybe twelve guys at this point.
The second mile made me feel more at home. There were hills like the ones at Crystal Springs and Toro Park. About halfway through the race, we went up what they called “Killer Hill.†For me, it didn’t feel too killer – I powered up the hills, passing more guys along the way. Finally, with a mile to go, the course took a straight cut back the way where we came from. There was a large gauntlet. I could see my fellow Lynbrook teammates cheering me on. I passed the leader with about one mile to go. The clock read 11:40.
The last mile was fairly uneventful. I could hear footsteps behind me, but I wasn’t sure how far ahead I was. With about 400m to go, I was back on the asphalt. Fellow seniors Andrew and Ian were there, screaming my name. I pushed and pushed harder. The clock at the finish line had malfunctioned, reading 15:43. My mind went blank as I crossed the white line. A volunteer handed me my medal and a champions’ backpack. I saw my coach’s beaming face and couldn’t help but grin. And to top it off, our team finished fairly well also – finishing sixth in a deep field of 25 schools.
I was pretty happy the rest of the day too, with a time of 17:11, and a surprising first place finish in a deep field of 178 runners. I guess I’ll say that sleeping early really helped. In the big picture, though, we still had half of the season left, with more of the tougher races ahead. On Monday, it would be back to the grind again at practice…
Here is a link to the results from my race.
