My team's and my travels through the Episcopal Round Table Run this weekend:
I woke up Saturday morning knowing that the race was going to be full of great competition. I usually eat a good breakfast, but I couldn’t for this particular race because my nerves were on edge and I felt nauseous; I had never been to Highland before, let alone run there. I began to feel intimidated and scared, but I soon realized I had to get over it. The drive up consisted of dancing and singing, of course, which helped calm me down (I’m one of those runners who cannot focus on the race until I step on the line). My team greeted me as I walked up to the tent, and I could tell that I wasn’t the only nervous one. We started our warm up, which again consisted some singing and dancing.
As we started to walk over to the line, my teammates and I shared some encouraging words and said that we were there for each other. We got onto the line, said our prayers, and screamed “DHS” proudly, knowing that it was time to represent our school, our team, and ourselves. The gun went off, and we formed our pack of 4 which included Ellen Barkemeyer, Lisa Sakamoto Grace Williams, and myself, with Peyton Palermo closely behind us. Throughout the entire race, we stuck together. I knew they were feeling good, because we were going a great pace and keeping at it. I got a cramp in the middle of the race and started to slowly drop. With 800 meters left, my teammate, Grace, realized this. She yelled at me to surge, and we both sprinted to catch our other two teammates in front of us. Then the straight away came and we all sprinted to the finish with everything we had left in us. We finished as the same pack we began with; making it one of the best races we've run as a team so far.
I have never been so close to a group of individuals in my life. We all share the same passion, the same goals, and all push each other to our limits. We’re serious when we need to be serious,
but we all love to joke around whenever we can.
It’s more important for me to represent the name on the front of my jersey then to represent the name that would be on the back of it. This weekend’s race was a lot of fun, and I can’t wait to race next weekend.
<p> If you would be interested in keeping a travel journal, please write to <a href="mailto:pat@louisianarunning.com">pat@louisianarunning.com</a>. </p>
