I looked down at my spanking new spikes. They were light blue with the navy blue Adidas stripes down the side. On the bottom of my foot from the balls of my feet to the tips of my toes tiny spikes had been screwed in. It was my first track meet and I was really nervous. I had only worn the spikes once before and they had been pretty hard to get used to. But I reminded myself that I was good enough at hurdles to get a fairly decent time and I knew that the spikes were supposed to make it easier and help me run a tad bit faster.

I got into starting position, placing my feet on the starting blocks with the tips of my shoes on the blocks. The gun sounded and I pushed off the blocks with the tips of my spikes and sprinted to the first hurdle. Right before reaching it I pushed off the ground with my new shoes and let my legs carry me over the hurdle. I cleared the rest, only hitting one hurdle and ended up getting over all of them before anyone else. Although I had been skeptical at first about what my performance would be like I ended up pulling through and my spikes helped me out lots.

When it’s not track season my spikes sit on the top shelf of my closet. I have many track meets since that first one and the spikes on the bottom are not as sharp and pointy as they used to be, but rather dull showing all the work and running that has been put into them. But now every time I glance up there and see them, I remember the rush of adrenaline I got the second the gun sounded and the feeling of flying over the hurdles. It’s these moments when I remember how much I love track and how I can’t wait for the season to come around again so I can put those shoes back on and get out there.