Running has always been really hard for me. It’s definatly not my forte. When I was in elementary school we would do the dreaded mile run in gym class. It was during these gym classes that I discovered I had a benine heart murmur that hurt when I ran. It was bad enough that I could barely complete the mile, now I had a heart murmur that prevented me from doing so. Sitting out while other kids do the work is not fun. The heart murmur soon went away but my fear of running didn’t.

This year, seeing as I wasn’t doing anything in the fall I decided to join cross country to conquer my fear. It’s been really tough, and I’m the worse one there. I promised myself I wouldn’t give up, and I’m not. Just like I didn’t give up for softball (which I had never played before until last year). The thing is, at the rate I’m hurting myself, I won’t be able to improve! Two weeks ago, I ran into a tree. That’s right. A tree. It was a dead tree on the ground and I ran into it getting an enormous bruise on my thigh. This didn’t deter me, it just looked really nasty. Now, as I type this, I sit here with my ankle elevated and swelling by the sentence. Who knows what I’ll do next.

I will not give up. But I hope I won’t hurt myself in the process.

Update: I proceeded to get a stress fracture in my femur and sat out almost the whole rest of the season. After recovering from that, a year later, I’m doing good.