You’re breathing heavily, sprinting down a chute that’s lined with people clapping and cheering. These last few seconds of the race feel more like minutes. The smell of freshly cut grass moves up your nose as your legs pound on the soggy ground. All your hard work and practice comes down to this very moment. The world is spinning around you while you cross the finish line. Suddenly, in one step, it’s over.
Coach is handing out bibs as my team and I line up on the start line, hearts pounding. This is my first meet ever. I scan the area, and there are hundreds of people in the field because it’s an invitational meet. My stomach gets butterflies as seconds count down to the start.
A tall man with a megaphone and an air horn starts speaking: “I will say on your mark and then blow the horn. Good luck, everyone!” My legs start to shake as I put my toe up to the line and listen very carefully. There is a moment of utter silence. I hear “on your mark…” The horn blares, and I’m off.
All my nerves seem to disappear once I start running. I’m rounding a corner and hear my coach shout, “Yeah! That’s Kara Whiteside in first place!” I continue running as I count the beat of my steps.
The ground is damp, and I step through many puddles. I watch my feet hit the ground with each swift step I take. I tell myself to keep going because I know the reward is after the hard work.
In the blink of an eye, I’m pushing up a steep muddy hill where there is a crowd eagerly watching. As I get closer to the finish line the cheering gets louder and louder. I’m bolting through the chute, hearing chants of “Go Guilderland!” and “Great job!” but the only thing I can focus on is finishing the race.
I step over the line and fall into my dad’s arms, grinning from ear to ear. A vast weight is lifted off my shoulders, leaving me with a refreshing feeling. He gently says, “I’m so proud of you.” That’s when I start to feel it too. For once I finally feel like I put my hard work into something good and it paid off.
I learned a valuable lesson about doing your best even when it might be tough. Running, like other sports, can teach you about perseverance and push you to be better. When you work hard and trust that there is always room to improve, your dedication will be visible to others.
-Kara W.
I think the message is; even when you let yourself down or get scared you have to believe in yourself because in the end good things will happen.“For once I finally feel like I put my hard work into something good and it paid off.” I like this quote because it really shows how hard you can put work into something, and then have that big relief when you're done.
ReplyDeleteDoing your best even when it is hard is important. Kara says, “I learned a valuable lesson about doing your best even when it might be tough.” Even though it took hard work to get there it is important to try your best. A quote I like from Kara’s story was, “The world is spinning around you while you cross the finish line.” I liked it because it used figurative language.
ReplyDeleteI think the message from Kara’s story is when you put hard work into something and then accomplish it, it pays off. A quote I liked from Kara’s story was, “ I stepped over the line and fall into my dads arms.” I like this quote because it really satisfies you after all the build up that the story had having her finally cross the finish line, and for her to be so happy after finishing the race she had worked so hard on.
ReplyDeleteThe message of the story is to persevere even when something is hard. Kara says, “ My legs start to shake as I put my toe up to the line and listen very carefully.” I can tell that kara was nervous and ready to start the race. Kara used good detail and she was motivated, I could tell that kara tried her hardest and was happy to be in 1st place.
ReplyDeleteDoing your best even when it is hard is important. When Kara said, “ You’re breathing heavily, sprinting down a chute that’s lined with people clapping and cheering.” I can connect to this because in lacrosse when I’m running down the field after the fast break, breathing heavily from running so fast, and hearing Guilderland fans chanting, “go, Makenna go!” I could also connect by when I had my first ever lacrosse game in first grade, when I was really nervous. I liked how you usedmature vocabulary ,for example : soggy, grinning.
ReplyDeleteA personal connection I can make to this is when I did wrestling. The coach decided what we were going to do laps to push are endurance. This relates because we were all breathing heavy and tired. We only got a 30-sec break and we had to keep doing this for like 30 min. One thing i liked was how she used good punctuation and good grammar.
ReplyDelete‘ I learned a valuable lesson about doing your best even when it might be tough‘ quote from kara w