Carter 1

Matthew Carter

Professor Needham

English 101

13 February 2021

The Only True Sport

It took a lot of grits, sweat, injuries, and determination to get to where I did, but

crossing that finish line was the most joyous sensation in my whole high school sports

career. It was sophomore year in 2002. I was attending Lewis Palmer High School which

was a 5A high school. This year I decided to run cross country. Yes, I know who loves

running for fun? Our team consisted of 20 runners, all ranging from freshman to senior.

Kevin was the fastest on the team and it was a goal of mine to beat him one day.

Unfortunately, that never came to fruition, instead what did happen was even sweeter

than being the fastest person on the team. Our motto was “No timeouts, no halftimes, no

substitutions the only true sport,” This motto was more than spot on and my journey in

cross country proved it.

Practice was very useful in developing yourself as a runner. You would think that

running would be a natural thing but to some it is not. There were certain days of

practice that we dreaded. This certain day happened to be hills. No one on the team

enjoyed running hills. Just envision finding a steep hill and you are told to run up it over

and over as fast as you can. Your legs would feel like Jell-O afterwards and you could

hardly stand. On this day, our coach had injured herself and she could not go out running

with us. She entrusted in us that we would be able to do a complete practice without her
 Carter 2

present. We thought that with coach not there we could get away with not doing them.

Well, our coach decided to pay us a surprise visit, in her car, on the hills we were

supposed to be practicing on. The only thing, we were not doing hills. We were just

standing around, at the bottom of the hill, visiting with each other. Coach could tell that

we had not been running because none of showed the signs we had been running. Some

of those signs include being out of breath, being sweaty or fatigue in general. We

instantly regretted our choice as we had to run hills for the remainder of the week.

Sprints were my strong point with cross country. Usually when you run for

distance you are preferred to have stamina. I was unique as I had the stamina to run the

3.1 miles but, also, I could sprint those last 100-200 yards. Everyone else would be

gassed out and I would come whizzing by them like the last 3 miles did not affect me. It

was something about seeing the finish line in front of my that gave me that boost of

energy to finish strong. I started the season on Varsity, but one unfortunate start that all

changed.

I was the second fastest runner on our team. My team depended on me to place

good in meets to give us points during the season. One meet, on the toughest course of

the season, a dozen different schools were all lined up to start the race. Ready, Set, Bang!

The gun goes off. I take a few strides and suddenly, I find myself face first on the ground

with a couple of other runners. I had gotten tripped from behind and it was incidental as

there are so many runners at the start line. I immediately look at the person who shot off

the gun. Surely, he is going to restart this race, this is always a cause for restarts. All

runners must get off the line and into the first turn without anyone falling before they call

it a good start. This, however, did not happen. As soon as I realize that a restart is not
 Carter 3

happening, I jumped to my feet. I was already trailing the field by a large margin. I tell

myself that I can make up the difference, I am the second fastest runner on this team! I

start running. Mile 2 comes, and I have made a steady pace and started catching up to the

field. All of a sudden hills appear, a lot of them. This course became my kryptonite as it

was mostly made up with hills the last half of the race. I had used all my energy trying to

catch up the field in the beginning. I, however, could not sustain it for the hills that were

ahead. I knew I was doomed and would potentially lose my spot on varsity this day. I

crossed the finish line and looked at my time. I ended up finishing slower that the fastest

JV runner so by default I was demoted to JV. Instead of getting angry over the situation

my thoughts automatically went to the next race. I was happy for my friend, Josh, who

made varsity but vowed to myself that this was only going to be a temporary thing.

My first race on JV I did not know what to expect. In most cases, JV are the

slower of the runners on any given team, but I figured I would still have some

competition. The gun goes off another runner and I get out into the lead early. I

remember saying to him, “Hey, lets torch this field.” He laughed briefly. Little did I

know I would end up torching the whole field, plus him. I finished the race in first place

and finished 36 seconds ahead of the second-place runner. It was a surreal experience

being called up for the first-place award at a meet, regardless of it being on JV. While the

award was a great highlight of that day, the best feeling was that I had made it back to

varsity.

I returned to varsity and never looked back. The rest of the season was smooth

sailing and our team had earned enough points at the end of the season and were invited

to the state meet. This was my time to shine! To this day I remember my coach saying,
 Carter 4

“Don’t let the excitement of state get to you. Pace yourself and you will place good in

state.” Unfortunately, I did not heed my coach’s advice. The gun goes off. I am feeling

good and confident. At state they have timers at every mile and as I pass the first mile

timer, I see 5:10 on there. There was a minor victory with that time. It was my fastest

mile ever. That thought slowly fades out of my mind and is replace with immense pain in

my side. I was getting a side stich. A side stich is a horrible pain, almost like a cramp that

occurs, for me, in the lower ribcage. It is debilitating to any runner and can ruin any race.

This was the worst one that I had all season. I was not able to maintain my pace

throughout the race. I slowly started to fade back. Mile 2 comes up and my side stich has

not gone away. I am doing anything to get ride of it. Finally, I put my hands straight up

over my head. I knew I had to stretch the rib cage out and take in some deep breaths. I

can only imagine what the other runners were thinking. I just knew I had to do something

to get rid of the pain. As I come up on mile three my side stich is now gone. This is the

time that I need to shine. This is the part of the race that I know I excel at, sprints. I kick

it into high gear for the last 200 yards or so. I caught up and passed 10 runners by the

time I crossed the finish line. I folded over with my hands on my knees trying to catch

my breath. I get a placement marker for the person at the finish line. I finished 75th out of

200 in State.

This moment was what I worked for all season. I was upset for not pacing myself

as my coach had said to do, but I will still take 75th as a positive and my fastest mile as a

victory as well. In the weeks after state, I did have a couple of colleges reach out to me

about scholarships. I was not ready for college yet, so I did not respond to any of them at
 Carter 5

the time. This was a season of high and lows and my state race was a key reminder of our

motto that we had adopted for the season, “No timeouts, no halftimes, no substitutions

the only true sport.”