Step by Step

On Wednesday, April 14, at approximately 5:00, Michelle Dickman ran her 3rd race in the track season so far. The sun was out and it was breezy, just another beautiful day in the new spring season. The race she ran and has been running is the 800 meter dash, which is 2 laps around the track, but involves going at a much faster pace. The track meet was against Hawthorne Christian and Bogota, and there was a regular amount of people there. Not too many people, but enough to make Michelle somewhat nervous for the challenge she was about to face.

In her past events, Michelle has not placed in the races she runs in. She states “I run for myself. Not to win, or compete, just to get myself in shape and enjoy the exercise and the sunshine.” Michelle is a decent runner; it is her first year ever running track because she is a freshman, but everyone else just seems to be faster than her. A usual time in the 800 meter dash is somewhere in the lower three minutes; Michelle says her time is in the higher three minutes. So, in the week before this race, she had heard the teams weren’t as good and they were easy to beat. Her goal was not to come in second to last place, which was the usual, and to actually beat a girl from a different town.

So when they called for the 800 meter dash to come down to the track, Michelle’s heart started racing and her stomach was in knots. Although there really was nothing to be nervous about, she just knew how tired this race made her feel and began questioning whether she would be able to complete it. Finally, the racers made their marks and the gun to start the race was shot into the air.

The race included 18 girls, and Michelle was behind a majority of them. It was hard for her to keep up with girls who went at a much faster pace. She did not stop, and did not even think about them, just about herself and the two girls behind her that she would not let get ahead of her. It was for her to run with so many girls when they were all in her way and would not let her get past them. One lap down, one lap to go, and Michelle was really feeling it. Her breathing was getting heavy, her arms felt like they weighed a ton, and her legs had absolutely no feeling. Finally, the last 100 came and the girl behind her began to speed up. Michelle was not going to allow her to get in her way, so she sprinted as fast as she could until she could barely breathe. Her legs felt numb, they had absolutely no feeling, but she beat the girl in front of her, did not let her get past for even a second. It was close, but Michelle still felt so much better about herself, it was nice not to be the very last one.

Michelle’s final time was 3 minutes and 43 seconds, which was 9 seconds better than her time from her previous meet, which was 3 minutes and 52 seconds. She had completed her goal, done what she had wanted to do: improve. Her time had gotten extremely better and for this she earned a pin, which is what anyone who has a “personal best” in a race earns. “I couldn’t be any happier”, she says, “just to know that I’m getting better. Hopefully in the next race my time will go down to the lower thirties.”