Runners take your mark. You line up to the blocks and prepare to race. At first, you’re very anxious, your muscles are shaking, your mind is racing, and your heart beats in a powerful rhythm. You look around and think about how fast all of the other athletes look and how everyone is watching you. You think about your team and how they will cheer you on the whole race. You close your eyes for a few seconds and think about how painful the race will be, but somehow it empowers you. You want to get faster, you want to improve, your eyes open with ambition.
     

Set. The race will start in just a few seconds. You think about how your heartbeat is accelerating, just like how you will when you shoot out of the blocks in just a moment.  You look up at the track and all thoughts escape your head. Your heart is jumping out of your chest. At last, the gun shoots and your increasing anticipation evaporates in an instant.

Track and field is an extremely competitive sport. It is one of the only sports in which you compete against yourself and that idea thrills me. Every time that you line up right before a race, you ignore everything else around you and think about how you can do better and improve. Being able to break your old time, jump farther than before, jump higher than before, or throw farther than before is one of the most satisfying feelings because you know that you bettered yourself.
     

The track is an oval with two straights and curves. Each of the straights and curves are 100 meters, which make up a 400 meter track in total. Common events ran are the following: 100m and 200m sprints, 400m and 800m dashes, and then the 1600m and 3200m runs. Just for reference, the 1600m is one mile. In the infield there are pits for long jumping, and areas for throwing shot puts, discus, or javelins. I’ll mostly talk about running because that is what I do, but the other events require just as much effort and dedication as any running race.
   

 Running track requires extreme amounts of both physical and mental strength. In particular, the end of the race is when this comes into effect. Towards the end of any mid to long distance race, the runner feels extremely fatigued because they have just been running at a high speed for a very long time. This is when the practice and strength counts the most. At this time when one feels like he or she can not go on, the runner must remember all the practice and coaching he or she has gone through. They must maintain their form and run even faster in order to have a successful race. The runner must always “finish strong” and give it maximum effort.
     

Another fantastic aspect of track and field, and most sports, is the bond you make with your teammates and coaches. Your teammates all go through the same thing as you from going through difficult practices or being extremely nervous before the start of a race. You also spend hours of time around them, and you slowly get to know everyone on the team. Soon enough, you’re great friends with everyone and you push each other to do even better. Without teammates, the individual would not be at his or her full potential. Similarly, the bond with the coaches is very important as well. The coaches put in time and effort in their day in order to lead practices and teach technique. They motivate you and want you to succeed. I quickly gained high levels of respect for all of my coaches because they were the reason that I was able to improve. They pushed me during practices when I thought I couldn’t run anymore and because of that I was able to get faster throughout my season.
     

People sometimes ask how I can enjoy running because of how difficult and painful it can be. For me, and I’m sure most of the other people on the team, it is for a few reasons. First of all, you get fit. At the end of the track season, you are in the best shape you’ve ever been in before because you have been working out intensely for the past few months. Another reason is that I love the competition. The right mentality to have in order to improve is that there is always someone better than you no matter how well you do. I always try my best to be humble because if you think you are the best, you will never improve.
     

With coaches, teammates, and yourself to help, running track or playing other sports are extremely beneficial both physically and mentally. While there are people who quit early in the season because they are not willing to commit to the effort it takes to be a track athlete, the people who do not quit are the ones who succeed. This is a valuable lesson not only on the field, but in life. To give up will never benefit you, but commitment and effort will always breed success.