Guys do not plan well. The attention to detail is somewhat lacking in their personalities. So this was how my weekend in Arizona ended, with three of my coaches banging on my door at 6:49 in the morning. Yes, I remember the exact time. Things like that stick in my mind when I am oh-so rudely awakened from my peaceful sleep.
Anyway. Onto the interesting parts of my short-lived vacation...
As I have mentioned previously, I was going to attend the Nike Regional Championship cross country race in Arizona. This trip came the week before Thanksgiving break and I was stoked because I did not have to go to school on Friday and it was gonna be warm!
Unluckily enough, we had to meet at the park-and-ride at 5:50 in the morning. For reals? If I'm not going to school can I at least sleep in? Ha-ha-ha, funny one Camille.
So our journey started. As I mentioned before, men don't think about details, so the idea that the airport might be busy did not cross their minds. This left us running to the other security line so that we would make our flight.
Once we arrived in sunny Arizona, it began. Being runners, we went to a delicious buffet for lunch then off to the movie theater to see The Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Part Two. It was horrible (well, not as exciting as it could be). After we ran the course to get a feel for it, we waited in line to buy swag. This took at least forty-five minutes. It got dark and dropped TWENTY (not really) degrees while we were waiting in line. That is how long it took! The thousands of people coming to this race all wanted shirts. Every single one of them and it seemed like they were all in front of us. It is quite difficult for me to understand what takes so long to buy a single shirt. Pick it out, try it on, exchange it, pay for it. That can all take under a minute, definitely under five, but no. The freaking people were probably paying with pennies and spelling out their words. And then some people would have one girl get in line before her WHOLE team hopped right in. Hell no, get your booty to the back of the line.
 |
| Thank you, Mrs. Obama. Photo Courtesy of: Towns County Tourism |
Dear Nike, runners are small people or at the very least average sized. So in the future, it would be greatly appreciated if you brought more of the sizes you know we want. I'm not paying thirty-two dollars to look like sack.
Sorry 'bout that, just had to express my frustrations.
The next day was the race. This meant waking up early in order to get to the race in time. Our hotel was about an hour away...a very, very long hour. Our race was first. It felt like the butterflies in my stomach were throwing their majestic little bodies against my organs, that's how nervous I was. As we were on the start line I almost walked away. This meet was huge. Some of the fastest runners in the nation, not just our region, were here. I did not fit in. During the race I felt alone. I didn't feel totally awful or in a lot of pain, but something was just off. And there was this girl, Erin, who ran by me the majority of the race. She had a legit cheering squad. Every couple of minutes there was someone yelling, "Go, Erin!" "You got this!" "Pass those girls!" It was incredibly annoying. How about a "Yeah, Camille!" But no.
As I finished the race and saw my time on the clock, I was devastated. I ran a whole two minutes slower than I wanted to and the worst part was that I didn't know what went wrong. I still don't. I had a brief episode of barfing after I crossed the finish line, I grabbed a Gatorade, and walked out of the shoot. I wandered to the cars, in my spikes (which make it difficult to walk) by myself. My disappointment was all-consuming.
I eventually found the cars and dug around to find the keys. I sat in the car and cried as I unlaced my shoes and scraped the mud off of them. My teammate was there on the phone and instead of comforting me or asking me what was wrong, she looked at me and told me that she got her goal (of breaking nineteen minutes for three miles). I looked at her and smiled which made me cry harder because everyone had a great race, but me. After she got off the phone, she told me again, "18:51, I did it. I did it." Seriously? I'm crying! I don't give a poo! I just wanted to look at her and be like, "That's effing great." But I didn't because I am a nice person. Eventually she did ask me if I was okay and I balled my eyes out. As I heard by coaches coming I quickly got my stuff and left. They asked if I was okay and I told them that I was.
 | |
| The girls team after the races. L to R: Aspen, Chloe, Sydney, Madi, Me, Haley, Claire. Photo Courtesy of: Peter |
Watching the Championship race (the race with all the really fast, nationally ranked girls) was incredibly fun. We ran to the different places and cheered on everyone. The crowd was incredibly loud and the girls ran fast. Even though I was still bummed about my race and I didn't really get over it for a couple days, I was still able to have fun and support my teammates. The race was a good experience. Being around fast runners makes you want to run faster and now I have reasonable goals for the next season and the next time I go to this race.
By the way, my sister checked the official results online later that day. It turns out that there were about thirty people behind me. That makes a big difference. And my self-esteem is a little less damaged. I can tell you one thing, losing or even thinking you came close to losing does not feel good in the slightest.
Stay tuned for the actual fun parts of this trip...
Ciao
Camille
No comments:
Post a Comment