Track Escapades

As I recently informed you in my "Day in The Life" post, I took up track this year. It's been a thrilling ride, both mentally and physically but overall I'm very glad I decided to join. And as the season is coming to a close, I thought I would share my thoughts and experiences with you all. Enjoy!

One of our early morning meets

The initial reason I joined track was because I was not doing any other extracurricular, physical activities at the time. I had just recently quit dance (ballet) after 7 years last spring and my parents were giving me grief about not doing anything active. Which leads me to another reason I joined the track team, to please my parents. But don't think that I didn't do this for myself, I did, I wanted to have fun and do something physical to stay in-shape. One more reason I wanted to join track is because I had heard the track community was very accepting and friendly and after 7 years of bratty dancers, I wanted a change of scenery.

My friends and I before practice one day

I am a pretty cautious person, so I would never let myself do anything completely new without someone I know to share the gut-wrenching experience with me. So I recruited an old friend with a background in swimming and a new friend who I knew would be at the same level of novice as me. The whole school day leading up to the first practice my inside felt twisted and I could practically hear my heart beating, ready to leap out of my cheast (did I mention a have a bit of anxiety?). Words cannot explain the first day of practice let alone the first two weeks! I probably told myself as well as my friends, that I was going to quit. But I made it through the hardest part, my theory was that the coaches were trying to weed out the people who didn't have it in them to keep going, which in the very beginning, was me.

Bathroom stops on the way to meets

Throughout the whole season, my anxiety never went away. Meets were the worst, but at the end of them I always had a good time, it was just leading up to it. It's kind of unfortunate that I stopped being so nervous about practice up until, well, this past Monday. Now for some strange reason, I am so excited for practice, I don't know it it's because its starting to be sunny and warm, or that I have no more meets. Officially, my track season is over, I'm not going to any of the big meets. I never really expected to, I'm definitely not one of the best on the team or even close. But that never bothered me, I did this for me, to have fun and to stay fit, I was never trying to be the best or beat anyone but myself.

Currently I am still going to practice to get a chance to train with the really fast people who will push me and make me better. Plus, my dedication to the team will be recognized and maybe next year I'll be in more meets and the coaches might actually remember my name! Oh, I completely forgot to mention the friends I've made through track, some girls my age who I've known for a while but never really been close to, and some sophomores too. I look forward to returning to track for the next three springs until I graduate, it's been great. I hope you found this post interesting and maybe even a bit encouraging, let me know if you liked this post and I'll be sure to write more about my experiences in high school. Until next time!

xoxo,

Stella