This track season with Summit Middle School was a pretty unique experience, with me running for a school I don’t go to, nor know anyone at all there. The first day… Was a pretty nerve-wracking day. I had no idea where to go, what to do, where to be…. Being one of like 4 homeschoolers there. Everyone was looking at me, and the coaches, taking names, just paused at me and said something like “I’ve never seen you before! Are you new?”, to which I replied that I was homeschooled. And of course, my last name was written incorrectly (Dalrynple, instead of Dalrymple) on like, everything until the end of the season (When they gave me my first place award for High Jump, it was misspelled….), when I asked them to correct it.
The first few days, we just basically tried out everything, to see what we were good at. I figured most people were good at at least one field event, none of which I’d considered doing, ever. I did okay in Long Jump, but wasn’t the best at discus. I knew I had a little talent in High Jump, based on my first 3 jumps, and so I decided I’d try and get good at it. I asked a lot of questions, and slowly perfected my form.
When I got tested for the 100 and 400, I got one of the fastest times in the 100, and like the second or third fastest time in the 400. The hurdles were interesting to me, I asked a lot of questions about that, trying to figure out how to jump them with decent form. I think somehow they noticed me trying to figure it out… Which turned out bad for me…. So, I get put in the 100m hurdles in my first meet, and when I first saw my name on the list, my first thought was “Oh no…”
After my first meet, when I won the High Jump, I knew that was my field event. I also knew I could probably learn another field event, but I wanted to keep my other 2/3 events for the 100, 200, and relays. The next few days, I learned like, every 7th grade boy’s name, and got to know some of them pretty well. I never really sat with them often when we were in our circles, cause most all of them got in trouble at least once with their groups of about 4 kids, and I wanted to have a good reputation to start the season off with. That’s how I wanted it to be: Friends with everyone, but not sitting and talking with them every time we sat down.
The next few meets, I figured out what events I wanted to do for the rest of the season, which were the 100, High Jump, 4×100, and, if I had a meet with 4 events, I usually did the 200 or Medley. The relay meet we had was when I really learned we could have a good Medley team. My friend Jacob had the best start out of all the teams, and Aaron, who ran the second hundred, had a good run. I had a really good 200, but it was just a good 400 runner we needed. And we found one in Max, who is an amazing mile runner. He joined us in the League Championships Medley, and just like that, we had an awesome team, winning the Medley and taking the school record with the win.
With the season ending, I knew basically everyone in the seventh grade, and they knew me. I had a good record with only 1 race under fourth place, and all the rest firsts, seconds, thirds and fourths. I rode a school bus for the first time, which is surprising for a 7th grader. This season was awesome, even with all the pushups we did for other peoples punishments, and all the angry coach moments… There were a lot of those. I’ll probably run again next year. My goal next year is to get the 8th grade High Jump record, and under 12 seconds for the hundred, and maybe run a few more 800’s, and maybe some 400’s too (I thought I was going to run at least one 400 this season. Well, I was wrong.).
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