Joys of Life

Mmmm, the surprises and joys that life bring are quite numerous. Each day I never know what's gonna happen. Whether its in my relationship with God, family or others... life is truly unexpectedly grand. I've had probably one the best weeks of my life... God is just challenging me spiritually, and bringing new challenges and joys into my life through others. I'm growing closer to my brother and sister who are still here at home.. Mary and Zac.. that has been such a blessing. We started a Bible Study last night, and it went really well. I'm so glad that we are finally starting to talk about our faith more openly now, without the reservations and precautions we'd had during times past.

I've really been giving my all in track. I didn't hold nothing back at Districts this past Thursday and gave it everything I had. I managed to win my District in the 800 meters again... running a 2:05.73, with the nearest guy at 2:08. That's a PR and a School Record by 2 seconds. We had an incredible 4x800 meter relay... It was such a great race. A 9th grader, Noah, struggles with really bad asmtha, but at times is able to run a pretty decent 800... despite recovering from Bronchitis, he went out there and ran a great opening leg of 2:26.. the baton then went to Tim, who ran a PR split of 2:11.. and started to get us in the thick of it. Next was Kyle, who ran a decent split of 2:14 and kept us in the 3rd position behind TFA and Holy Trinity.. I was the anchor leg. As soon as I got the baton I was right on the heals of Austin Joiner, one of the top distance runners in the state.. and moved with him as we passed TFA. With 150 meters to go.. I started to make my move -- at the last turn, I just jutted out in front of him, when he start to kick it. For the next 100 meters, we were neck and neck down the straighaway, vying for the first spot. After a great sprint.. he barely nudged me out by one-tenth of a second for first place. However, i knew I gave it all I had, so I wasn't too dissapointed, it was a fun race! My split was a 2:04.3.. a PR split by 3 seconds! Our guys overall team time was 8 min 55 seconds.. breaking the school record by 6 seconds! So after finishing 2nd in our District.. we're gonna be in a very competitive race in Regionals next thursday. Right now I believe we are 5th or 6th going in with our time.. so we might just have a decent shot at the State Meet.

The last race of the night, the 4x400 was incredibly amazing. Even before it began, I knew we were in for a good one. Our first leg, Jacob, who'd only run the 400 a couple of times before, went out and gave us a huge 10 yard lead, running a 57 secod split. Then after a bad-handoff.. Tim ran a 56 second split.. Kyle ran a 58 second split, putting us in 2nd place... and then.. of course it came down to me to try to take first place. TFA was in the lead, and when I got the baton we were about 7-8 yards behind them.. so already I had to make up some ground. In my mind, I knew that Holy Trinity's runner (who was right behind me), had already won the open 400 with a time of 51 seconds.. so I really had to get out and get going if we wanted to have a chance. So down the back-stretch, I pass TFA's runner and move into first place.. with about 200 meters to go. The whole time I knew someone was on my heals.. I thought it was Holy Trinity's runner, but as we began sprinting down the straightaway..its TFA who caught up with me and was challenging me for first place... aaah, how HARD i tried.. I kept my form together and gave every ounce of my being to try and keep that first place.. again!.. he ended up edging me out for first place by even less than in the 4x800 meter. I didn't put myself in a good position. I was the chased.. not the chaser. If I could have ran it again, I probably would have stuck behind TFA's runner and waited to make my move a little later on.. but I was worried about the Holy Trinity runner, so I decided to just go by him down the back-stretch.. aaanyway.. it's alright I guess.. it did really suck though. Cause we're kinda unofficial-rivals with TFA.. cause we used to train at their facility and they kicked us off cause they're a bunch of stuck-up preps.. and it really sucks when we get edged out like that. Despite that though.. I ran a 52.3 second split!! A PR by an incredible THREE SECONDS.. in the 400 that is crazy.. the competition really pushed me to my limits, so that was cool. I cannot wait till regionals to enact our revenge on TFA... lol.. no matter WHAT.. we will beat TFA or I will not go on living. Mark my words.. we will beat them. Mmm.. but we did break our school record in the 4x400 by an astounding 7 seconds.. lowering the team time to 3:45.

Wow, long post about track... obviously I've been dwelling on that in my mind quite frequently. But that's a good thing.. I'm gonna try and be Regional champion in the 800 meters this Thursday.. so I'm getting reeeaaaally AMPED.

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