Reflections of Freshmen Year #1: 4x100

So Freshman year, I decided to try out track and field.  You know, jazz things up a little.  I've always liked the idea of speeding towards the finish line, and I always beat my mom and my athletic sister at sprinting.  Obviously, I was a natural track star.

No way could I run like fifty miles a day without wimping out and/or barfing, so distance running is out.  I've always liked sprinting, because:
1) It's short
2) It's over in like 15 seconds
3) It has minimal workouts for practices
4) I still get to be lazy

So at our very first meet, I caught the attention of our coach because of my kick arse time (told you I was a natural!).  Consequently, I got to run the frosh-soph 4x100 relay.  That is, the non-varsity four person team, where each person runs 100 meters (400 meters is one lap).

I am leg #2.

So in the 4x100, the hand-offs are key.  Hand-offs is when you give the baton to the other person.

The batons always match the uniforms!  Cute, right?!

The person who hands off to the next person has to yell "STICK" (one time, the male 4x100 team decided to use a term that relates to a male bodypart instead of "Stick"..I'll leave that to your imagination), so the other person knows that he/she can stick out his/her arm to receive the baton. 

All of this is supposed to be done without the receiver person not looking back.

So anyway, back to the story.  The girls' frosh soph team already ran in one meet, so we were fairly confident in our skills for the second meet, which thankfully was a scrimmage.

The frosh soph girls' 4x100 is the VERY first meet of the event.  So after warming up, we got to our positions in the track and awaited the gunshot.

Everything looked fine; so when Gertrude* started to get close to me, I remained cool.

But then, it happened.

Gertrude stepped on the back of my track shoe.

Even after realizing this, I was determined to keep going.  So I continued to run without a shoe on one of my feet. 

 

On the inside, I freaked out. I must have looked so stupid, running without a shoe.

Pushing forward, I neared Girl #3.  I think by then,I was a teary, snotty, pathetic, and embarrassed mess.

I had to keep going though.  I told myself that I needed to redeem myself.  I told myself we still could pull this off.  I told myself we still had a chance.

Naturally, I dropped the baton.

But folks, there's a lesson to be learned here:  You'll never do worse than I did that day in the 4x100.

*Name has been changed. 

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