Tuesday May 19^th

What a day! Sectionals for track! It was at Angola again, which I really liked, because Angola is the place where I always PR! And I've run there so many times that I know exactly on the track where I am supposed to start kicking in or where I can more “relax” (we never really relax in an 800m run!)

Anyway, we arrived there by 4.00pm, all 15 of us and it was freezing! It was in the 10-12 Celsius, but cloudy and with wind! First event was high jump. Knowing that it is probably the last time I was going to high jump, I expected to be very nervous, but instead, I just enjoyed it! I talked with other girls, with my friend form Garrett, I passed on the first trial 4'6'' and 4'8'', and I almost passed 4'10'', but I touched once again with either my butt or my elbow. 4'8'' is basically what I've jumped all this season, it is not an amazing height, but it really isn't bad either, so I am OK with it.

Right after that, I had to go run my 4x800. In my heat, there were only 2 team: us and Garrett. And yes, I was last leg. But today I was OK with it, which made me enjoy my race a lot more as I wasn't in a bad mood before starting! Another good point, the 3 other girls who ran with me did excellent, and I only was like 10 meters behind the Garrett girl when they gave me the baton. However, the Garrett girl was fast, and she finished like 70m in front of me. I ran a 2'41'' which is awesome! It is only 1 second behind my PR, but still 5 seconds faster than what I usually do. Moreover, the weather was bad, it was cold and windy, what didn't help me running faster.

After that, every short race had trials (there were so many people!) so we didn't start the actual meet until 7pm. There were 2 heats for the 800m: a fast one, and a slow one. I was in the slow one, but my coach told me that I had the best time between everyone in my heat, so I was confident. I ran it with 9 other girls I think. I knew it was going to be very probably my last 800m, and the last race I would run for track, so I decided to give everything I had. I started way faster, and I sprinted the entire first lap. At the beginning of the second lap I was in 3^rd position I think. I soon passed the 2 girls in front of me, and instead of keeping my pace in the second lap, I accelerated. I finished 1^st of my heat, a good 10m in front of the 2^nd one. My time was a 2'41''. I know it is still not my PR; but once again, it is a very good time and I was totally happy with it. Another reason to be happy was that at the end of each of my races, I always felt like I could have gone a little bit faster. At the end of this one, my throat was burning, and I knew that I gave everything I had. Oh and everyone told me that I looked fantastic when I was running! They said I looked super fast!

I was just disappointed because as I didn't break 2'40'' it meant that my coach wouldn't shave his bears, however he told me that I ran perfectly, and that if I was in the fast heat, I would have broken my time. Indeed, when you have no one in front of you to catch up with, you automatically run a little bit slower. He said that he was very proud of me and that for all I've done, he would still shave it!

We ordered pizzas to celebrate our season, and we ate all together in the bus.

It's very hard to believe that my track season is over. Tonight was a lot of “last times”: last time I rode a bus with my team, last time I used our locker rooms, last time I high jumped, last time I ran a 800m, last time I ran track, and overall, last time I was an official athlete of Eastside High School.

When I came here, I wasn't even sure that I wanted to play a sport, and I am now, 10 months later with 3 sports behind me. Every sport was a gift, and it's playing with my teammates that I got my best memories. I am proud that I was able to be a blazer this year.