I was the fastest kid in school, no one could be beat. We would race before school, after school, during lunch, and recess. I loved running. More though, I loved winning.
Thinking that I was so good, I decided to run track. For the first few weeks, it was just conditioning and practice. No races. I still felt pretty good about my abilities.
Then, the first track meet came. We were given a nutritional plan at the beginning of the week and we had to start fueling our bodies on Thursday night. I was not fond of the food but the people that told me to eat it had experience. So I ate it.
Then the meet day came, I woke up early, ate breakfast, packed my bag with my warm up clothes, more food, water, Gatorade, and my track shoes. I was not nervous or excited, I was ready.
We get to the meet and I was in for a big surprise. Not only were there a ton of people, but the races I would run in did not take place until several hours later. So we had to sit around and wait. This is where boredom really sat in. Finally it was time to run the 100m Dash. Not only my favorite to watch, but also to run in.
The announcer called all the runners down to the starting line. From there they started to break everyone out into heats. The older runners went first. So, it was another hurry up and wait scenario. It took about 20 to 30 minutes to run all the other heats before they got to my age group. When they called my age group up, they again broke us down into heats. I was in the 3rd heat. For some reason, this is when the butterflies started to fly in my stomach. I do not know why I was getting nervous, perhaps it was the number of people in the stands, the other racers. I did not know. I also started to feel my legs tighten up. I know now that this is not a good sign.
When my heat was called to the starting block, I settled into postion. I could still feel my legs super tight. And the butterflies, well they turned into bats, my stomach was having a field day.
Then the starter begin: Runners! On your marks! Get set! Bang, the starting gun went off, we all lunged forward I took perhaps two maybe three steps, Bang! A second gun went off. It was a false start. I guess there were some others who were nervous. The false start did two things, it helped relax my stomach and loosened up my legs, but they were still tight.
We all got back into position. The starter when through his routine, BANG! We were off. It seemed like I came out of the gate last, I could see in my peripheral vision all the other runners, I felt as if I was last. About 50 yards in, my legs had loosened up, I started to relax, and my pace picked up. I did not win the heat, but I did come in 3rd. I was disappointed in myself. I had lost. Not a great feeling. The coaches ran over to me jumping up and down they hugged me and said what a great job I did. I was like What!? I just lost. They said perhaps, but you just ran the 100m dash in the fastest time you had ever ran it. You were about a half second faster than your best recorded time. This is huge!
I did not join in their celebration, I was sad, and disappointed. My rein as being the fastest was quickly taken a way. I continued running track for several more months, thinking that the first meet was a fluke, but the other meets, proved otherwise. I was not as fast as I thought I was.
In reality, I was fast, and I was getting faster with each week, I was just finally racing against an equal or higher caliber opponent.
At the time, and it took many years afterwards for this moment to sink in, but, I finally realized that in track, just like in life, you are not running against the other person, you are running against yourself. My main and truthfully only opponent was myself. I should have been focused on beating my previous best. Not focused on the other racers. Sure it would have been great to carry home a trophy that solidified public victory. But, I think I would of strengthen my mindset and probably would of stayed the course longer in track, if I would of focused on my true opponent. Me.
In life as you are running your life, look at yesterday’s results, don’t look at your friends, and don’t look at the guy across the street. They are all running a different race, they all started at a different time, and they may have even started at a different spot. Focus and compete with you.