First Meet of the Year

Dear Wal,

On Saturday I went and did something most people would consider incredibly stupid. I went and ran a 5K race against 50 or 60 other girls. There was lots of traffic. I thought for the longest time while I was running that I wasn't going to make it all the way, and I really wanted to make it to the end. I hate having to stop and walk when I run, because I know that once I do, I'm done. I don't have anything left after that point, and I'm never able to drag myself back from the shame of having to give up because it was too hard, too hot, too painful: whatever it happens to be. So, I just keep running. And that's exactly what I did during this meet. I just kept running, and it was awesome.
First of all, I passed a bunch of people, which I never used to be able to do. It used to be that I was always dead last in every race I ran. I really sucked. It was depressing. I didn't improve very much because it was so depressing. This year, however, I've been running all summer so I'm more than prepared to race this year. I'm feeling much better about my speed, too. I ran the 5K this weekend in 32 minutes, a modest time for most cross country runners, but an absolutely amazing time for me. It was awesome.
I had to get up at about six in order to go to the meet-it was brutal. Six in the morning on a Saturday, not my favorite thing to do. I was grouchy the whole ride over to the place where we were running. When Jonathon (another runner on my team) got on the bus he moaned: "Why is the world up this early!" I think that pretty much sums it up. I had a really long time to wait for my race because it was last, and thankfully I had the wisdom to bring my history book so I would have something to read. I got a lot of weird looks. Most kids run cross country as an escape from having to do schoolwork in the evening. I'm a book worm, and besides I can't just sit and do nothing for three hours. It drives me crazy having to sit still and do nothing for more than ten minutes.
Anyway, I had a great time, even though Watson couldn't come because of an injury. (She thinks she pulled a muscle.) I don't know that many people on the team, because they all go to the highschool and I go to the Early College, but I had fun anyway.

/endrant

P.S. No pictures again because Dad takes a while to process them. I'll have to update this with pictures soon. Oh, and I sat on a banana peel.