It was a nice day outside it was a little chilly though. As I warmed up I went around to talk to my normal friends. First I stopped to talk to the Indians. Next, I went to find the Warriors. After that, I went to the River Kings and Queens, then to the Comets and Irish. My final stop was with the Lancers. I wished everyone luck as I went around.

But now I really had to warm up I had about 90 minutes left. I went off to jog my 1.5 – 2 miles like I normally do before every other race. It felt like I was jogging in a pig pen. In the middle, I did my killers like I usually do. Once I was done jogging the middle school was starting their race so I went to cheer them on. In the meantime, the clock keeps going and I still had to stretch yet. I went to the track to do my initial stretching since it was as muddy as a pig pen in the grass. The Girls varsity race was about to begin so I knew I had about 30 minutes left. I was just getting done with my stretching when…

BANG!

…The gunshot off to signal the start of the girl’s race. I still had to get into uniform so I went to change into my uniform. I also had to put on my compression socks and my spikes yet so I hurried up and did that quickly. Then there were only about 20 minutes left at this point so we went to stretch as a team in the wet muddy field. There was nothing I could do now I had to run with my wet spikes. We were about halfway through the stretching when we heard a loud noise start to rise up. It was as deafening as a plane’s engines. It was the crowd cheering on the lead runner as she passed us on her way to the tail end of the course. She had less than 1 mile left to go and she knew it too; she was kicking it in when it counted the tail end. We cheered on the girls as they passed by some of them were flying like the wind others were just a little slower.

Once they passed by we went back to our stretching. High knees, butt kicks: to stretch the quad and hamstring muscles. RDL’s, Frankensteins: to stretch the hamstring and hip muscles. Toe walks, heel walks: to stretch the calf and shin muscles. Lunges, reverse lunges: to stretch the hip, hamstring, and quad muscles. None of these are like the high flying skips though. After all that we stride out 4 times. We go out so far then turn around and come back. But when the team goes out a third time we have a huddle about 75 foot from the start line. We get on a knee and get all hyped up. We will need the mental toughness since we will be running through a sloppy, wet pig pen during the race. Then we sprint back to the start line ready to run but wait where’s the starting official he is nowhere to be found.

Everyone is all pumped and ready to go and the official comes over to the start finally, but is it really a good thing he came over? He lets everyone do a couple more quick stretches or a team huddle. Then he calls everyone to the starting line and explains the rules. He checks the teams over and walks out about 50 – 100 feet. He says, “Runners on your mark” while lifting one hand up straight. Then he says, “set” while lifting his gun hand straight up to the sky. A couple seconds pass by while the runners stand there crouched forward.

BANG!

Wait what?