By Clara-Zehra Rizvi, Year 12
It’s Friday, November 11th, but hey, all that matters is that it’s Friday. You get to leave school early, at 2 pm and get on a bus to Bout-du-Monde. You get off, carry some heavy food and drink containers to the meeting point and get a sense of the competitors. You put on your bib and are called to walk around the course. Here is when the questioning starts: “How am I expected to run across this mud bath without breaking my nose?” “When will this end?” What is wrong with me? Why am I here?” However, you are here so there isn’t much choice about whether or not you are on that start line.
Race time. You are on the start line, trying to clear your head, keeping your ears perked for the sound of the starting pistol and your eyes fixed on the trigger. After a couple of pop-less pulls, the gun finally goes off. You round the first corner without falling (which is quite an accomplishment) and think to yourself: “This isn’t so bad…” Two laps later your legs are sending you a different message. But hey, only three laps of 1 kilometre, so by the time the pain sets in, the finish line is within your sight. You cross and head straight for free hot chocolate. As you warm yourself up, you think to yourself that that was not too hard. Just before you could feel the excitement over your accomplishment, the thought of tomorrow’s 6-kilometre race creeps into your thoughts.
It’s the next day. You wake up, get yourself out of the door and to the bus stop. You make your way to the location, then realize you are in the wrong place but calculate that if the buses run smoothly you can still make it in time all the while trying to fight the little voice in your head telling you you’ve got a perfect excuse to not show up. Yet, you show up. You wait and then walk around the course and you think: “I really should have gone home, what was I thinking?”
You are on the start line, and again, the gun goes off and you start running. After an uneventful first lap passes, you are midway through your second lap, you have managed to maintain a steady pace and then… you fall! The three people you had just passed run right past you again as you almost fall again while picking yourself up. You continue running as you cross into your third lap and think to yourself: “Yesterday, I was done by now. If only that was today as well.” “Honestly, when is this going to end?” As you continue fighting the urge to stop, you finally see the finish line. You cross, wet, muddy, and miserable. Disregarding those factors, the most important is that you finished!
You eat a snack, go to the awards ceremony, pose for a bunch of pictures and then you go home having never before been keener to do absolutely nothing for the rest of the day.
Fun article! Good job on not giving up! I wish you a great track and field career.