A Dream Come True

Again this is another personal reflection.

Coming into today’s practice, I knew I had a unique opportunity. I was on a different schedule because of the double yesterday. The other Varsity guys had a workout, and the rest of the team had a simple AE run. Coach called me over at the beginning of practice and said I could pretty much do whatever I wanted for my run today since I was on my own. I had planned on this happening and decided what I wanted to do the night before. Coach said maybe a Spoede loop. A couple guys suggested the awesome new run they did earlier. I didn’t want any of these. Today was destined for greater things.

This greatness was the 40 Laps on the Track Day. Finally, my opportunity had come. As some people know, I have been asking for this run since the beginning of cross country. Seriously, what could be better than a long run (10 miles) on the track? I’ll answer that- Nothing! I had been waiting so long for and it was here; I was so excited.

Starting at the 300, I ran the first 4 laps with the guys doing the workout. The group atmosphere was nice, but it was gone after 7 minutes and 20 seconds. You’d think things would go done hill from here, but they only got better. Watching the workout get destroyed by everyone, I knocked out one lap at a time. After 10, I got in my first reverse. When you’re doing 40 laps on the track you have to reverse. Lap after Lap head on into traffic, and then boom- 20 laps done, half way, and time for a water stop. I was at 35:05 which was just about perfect as I was supposed to run about 70 minutes overall.

With another reverse, I was back out there. This was the big 10 laps. I was cursing. I didn’t have any idea how fast I was going so I decided to time on mile. So, I borrowed Potter’s watch and after 4 laps melted away, only 6 minutes and 29 seconds had ticked by. Just as I had thought, I was going fast. Hearing encouraging words from coach, who thought I was crazy, and other runners, I made another reverse. It was at last the home stretch. Only 10 laps to go before my dream was realized. This short gave me the added strength to press on. 38, 39, 40! I had done it. 40 Laps on the track – 10 full miles. 69:15, a big negative. And being under seventy, I even pressed on and surpassed the goal running a lap and quarter more.

After 41 laps and about 71 minutes, the workout was complete. I had finally accomplished what I had been waiting so long to do. You may ask how it was. Simply, it was awesome, so much better than I had expected. I had a blast. I ran in circles like a crazy man and enjoyed every minute of it.

Best Dressed: kabes. He wore the trainer shirt that he designed. But what made it best dressed was its perfect match with his shorts. The dominant gray of the shirt matched the accent gray on the bottom and the light-blue words matched the main color of the shorts. It was a fairly week field and this coordination was far above the rest.