View Workout (Meghan O'Rourke)
Bob Firman
September 26, 2009 (Morning)
Exercise Type: Run
Comments:
Well, this meet was better than last week, but it certainly wasn't good, considering last year I ran this meet in the 22:20's or 22:30's and this year I ran it in almost 24 minutes.
The first two miles went fine. I didn't get stuck at the beginning like I was afraid I would. On the first mile I ran with Kerrie and Rachael, and on the second mile, I passed them and lots of other people like I usually do. But on the last mile, I started to slow down a lot, and Rachael caught up with me. Once she passed me, I lost all hope and pretty much gave up for the first time (and last time) in my life. I started to think, "Wow, I'm a terrible runner. Why am I doing this if I suck so badly? I'm going to quit cross-country." Even at the end of the race, I just let people pass me. I had given up the fight.
After the race, I found my mom and told her, "I'm going to quit cross-country."
"No you're not," she said. I was really upset. I thought after this race I was going to be back on varsity, but no. I had come in third out of our jv team. I seriously wanted to quit cross-country for the rest of the season and start again next year, but my mom wouldn't hear it. She didn't want a quitter for a daughter.
I knew I wasn't really going to quit, but for the rest of the day, I felt like a complete loser. I went to the Jason Mraz concert that night and had tons of fun, but in the back of my mind, I kept having thoughts like, "You're such a loser. You don't have any talents. You're not good at anything."
The next day, my mom took me to downtown Boise, and we had a relaxing, fun time just walking around, visting random places in the city. It was there that I decided to use these last two weeks as a life lesson. I realized that, had I ran with the exact same time I had last year at Bob Firman, I would still be sixth on varsity. Somewhere inside of me, there has to be the runner from last year who was going to be a really successful runner this year. I decided that, this week, I will work really hard, and at Gary Ward, I will run with the anger and frustration from my last two races and use them to make me run faster. Everyone goes through hard times, and I think in the end, these past two weeks will make me a stronger person, and hopefully a better runner as well.