Although some of us did, but none of us ran against billions of runners. Imagine that! We probably ran over some bodies by accident! Sure we did. Stepping upon them as we continued. We bumped into each other by our elbows. We fought.
Let me vividly describe my first championship race experience back then:
Before I began my Track and Field Championships race in southern section, my coach sat down with me to go through the list of runners. He told me to hang out with that crowd not the crowd in the front based on our personal time record. As an inexperience sophmore in high school, I thought I understood. I warmed up, sat on the bench waiting to be checked in, then I entered upon their call. I stood between the correct number order based on the number on our right thigh for 1600m. I heard the gun-explosion after we set our positions as a refree lifted his arm up and I ran among the runners. I cut in strongly toward the curb, elbowing in. As we ended our first lap, I realized that I was among the first crowd. Second lap ended and I was behind the first crowd, running alone. Before the third lap ended, the second crowd passed me. Then I began to kick for the last lap to beat some runners in the second crowd. I kicked hard in the last 100m to beat a runner nearby for a new personal record of 5:53. But it was three seconds off my personal goal. For any races before the championships, the newspaper will print any runners who ran under 5:50, and for this reason it was my personal goal. I was disappointed and yet proud of myself. My coach applauded, but I refused his compliment. I wanted the best.
In the same way, we had to know our crowd of runners to run with. We cannot run with the fastest runners or we will fall below our pace. Nor we can run with the slowest runners or we will not get our personal best time. Do not run alone.
Elbow in!
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