After some comments I've decided to write about each one of my races (or the ones that I feel are most important.) This one is about my first ever track meet.

As I mentioned in "Who I am" I was a soccer player til my junior year of high school and I started running in the 8th grade, at Waluga Junior High School, to stay in shape for soccer. I wasn't able to run cross country in middle school because that was soccer season, but I was able to run track. My twin and I really wanted to do because many of our friends were doing also. So why not!

Our "Distance Coach" was a tall big basketball player who ran once and thought he was good enough to coach middle school track...

His name was Coach Johnson and we had two types of practices: Running Bryant Woods (a 1.5 mile loop) or running 800m repeats on a grass loop (supposedly 400m) 

Me, being an inexperienced runner thought that this was a good way to train. HA! 

So after weeks of Bryant Woods and 800m repeats, I was ready for my first race. Now before I start going on I feel that I must tell you that the shoes I would wear for training and for racing were a pair of hand-me-down, blue, ADIDAS Climacool with wholes in the bottom. I just thought shoes were shoes and didn't really care about them. That would soon change.

The first track meet was against Rowe Middle School, known for being on the worst teams in the league, and it was held at Milwaukie High School. The bus ride was long but we were all having fun in our large yellow track suits, a.k.a. the banana suit. We got off the bus not knowing what to do with ourselves and our stuff. So like any middle school athlete would do, we went to our coach and asked him what to do. He said to warm-up, so we did. This consisted of running around for 5-10 minutes and stretching the rest of the time before our race started. Myself and a bunch of my friends had all signed up the 1500. My friend who ran track last year said Rowe had a kid who was really good, so I was a little scared that I might get lapped. 

We all then huddled together around the start of the 1500 waiting for the started, the guy with the gun at that age, to get here. When he did, we peeled off our banana suits to our light blue singlets and our mismatched shorts. 

The gun went off: Oh shit!

No strategy what so ever going into it, I decided just to stay with my friend was better than me and see where he goes. Now at this point it had started to rain a little bit and and there were already puddles formed on the corner where the high jump are was. So every time I would run by, I would come out with soggy feet because of my shoes. The kids who I was running with all had something called, "Spikes." Which I just ignored but it obviously made a difference when they pulled away with 500 meters to go. But there was one kid who was with me when the top two made a move and I ran with him til the last 100 meters where he started sprinting. So I started sprinting. Then suddenly with about 25 meters left, I hear someone yell, "Don't fall again!" Needless to say...I was confused until I saw the kid ahead of my start stumbling and completely face plant it. The only thing I could do at this point was laugh as cross the finish line in 3rd place with a time of 5:20. 

This was a great race for me because it was my first track race, and little did I know I would soon love the sport. Now that I look back at it, I still wonder if that kid really had problems staying upright the last 25 meters. Oh welll...