I FINALLY FINISHED!!!! =]

The Sixth Mile

Heavy breathing, sweat dripping, heart pounding, I felt like I was going to die. Thoughts were rushing through my head and the little voice in the back of my head said “keep going you can do it.” All I could hear was my feet hitting the pavement and my heavy breaths. My heart was beating so loud I could hear it pounding in my ears. Victory was at the sixth mile.

The summer before junior year was coming to an end. Basketball season was only a couple months away. I knew I needed to do something so I could prepare myself for the grueling practices. Cross country was the only other sport offered. So I thought to myself “hey, it’s worth a shot.” I was late to start the season so I already felt like I was at a disadvantage. I remember my first day of practice. We started our run at the school in one big group, as we got further and further down the street I started to drift farther to the back of the group. When we crossed the street to the other side of the campus, I saw all of the other runners’ way ahead of me. At that moment I felt defeated. I slowed down and started walking. The one person that turned around and came to my side was my coach, Mr.Grima. He talked me up to running again. He told me that if I gave up I would never get better. From then on I never gave up. He stayed at my side for the rest of the run. It gave me hope, and made feel much stronger. I needed that support to push through.

As the practices continued I began to get better. I found a friend who was at the same pace as I was so we became ‘running buddies.’ Holly and I would stick together through the whole practice. She was my support system; we never let each other give up. As the practices started getting long we progressed more and more. We ran longer and harder. It was nice to have someone by your side they whole time. It gave me a sense of hope, and it made me not want to give up.

We were all gathered in our group before practice one day, and as we were doing our stretches the coach was telling us the path we were going to run today. Then he said those dreaded words “it’s only about six miles.” My jaw practically dropped, I thought to myself “there is no way that I can run six straight miles.” Holly and I started the run at a good pace, not too fast and not to slow. As we started to get further and further into the run we realized that we could do it, so we didn’t stop. We reached the part where we turn around and start heading back to the school and we were ecstatic. We knew that we didn’t have that much further to go. The next thing I can remember was running by the water and seeing my school on the other side, I was almost there. As I came to the straightaway to get to my school, I pushed myself. I ran so fast and so hard that I didn’t even know what else was going on. I just knew that I had made it and I was so happy that I couldn’t control myself. I finally reached the school; even though I was out of breathe I still managed to tell everyone and anyone that ran/walked by that I did not stop once. Holly ran in right after me and I ran up to her and hugged her and I said “we did it, we did not stop once.” I ran up to Mr.Grima’s room and said “guess what?” he said “what?” I then proceeded to tell him how Holly and I did not stop once and we never gave up. He was extremely proud and he said “I knew you could do it.” Those words stuck to me, to actually hear that someone has faith in you makes you feel really good.

As the end of cross country season neared I started to go through the practices with ease. Holly and I stuck together and progressed every practice. Mr. Grima told us about the final meet that was coming up, and how all the schools we raced were going to be there. I felt excited and nervous at the same time. I felt like I could do it though. I started running on my own time to prepare for the big day.

Finally the big day arrived. The whole team was filled with excitement and nervousness. I honestly was scared; scared of how things would go and what the results would be. The boys started first, so we supported our boys as much as we could. Then it was time for the girls to start. We lined up in our order and got prepared to run. They signaled the start and we all started running. For once I didn’t drift to the back of the group I was somewhere in the middle. That right there gave me the motivation to push myself. As I ran I thought to myself “you can do it, you’re almost there.” Then I realized I was at the end, I saw the finish line approaching and I pushed myself and ran as fast and as hard as I could. As I passed the finish line they told me what place I had come in. I made 13 out of 28. I beat 15 girls, now that is an accomplishment.
I learned that if you work at something hard enough then you can accomplish it.

You can do anything you set your mind to. There is really no limit to what you can do as long as you try. It also helps having someone by your side for support. It makes you feel like you aren’t alone. Now that I know all these helpful things I won’t be scared to try new, hard things in the future. I’ll always give my best, all because I found my victory at the sixth mile.