During my life, I've had many interests as I am quite an eclectic soul. However, one of the things I was rarely interested in was sports. Not that I don't enjoy athletics, but I was never too EXTREME when it came to them -- that is until my seventh grade year of school. I found a sport that I knew from the get-go I was going to love -- track! I remember the day I signed-up -- I was the first girl (and person) to sign-up on the sheet that was taped on the wall outside Mrs. Bickles' classroom. Now that I think back on it, I'm not quite sure why I was so excited about running track, but I knew in my heart it was going to be great.

My middle school track career was pretty sweet; I got a lot of gold metals and broke a few records. I also, along with my coach, Mrs. McNealy, figured out I was definitely a distance runner. We figured this out at a track meet in El Dorado my seventh grade year, when I had missed the call for the 400 meter dash. Coach wasn't exactly happy with me for missing the race, so she told me to get my name on the list for the 800 meter. Honestly, I didn't put a lot of logic into running, I just did it without thought. I followed Coach's orders and went down to the bullpen. I was new to all this "track lingo" so I had to ask how many laps the 800 was (by the way, it's two laps for those of you who don't know a.k.a. half a mile). In the end I placed first, which was all I really cared about. That was until the coaches swarmed me and told me I had almost beat our record. WHOA! I mean. I know I was only 13, and it was ONLY a middle school meet, but I was super stoked! Who wouldn't be? From then on, I was a distance runner.

Eventually I broke the school's record, which hadn't been broke since 1986 (ironically the year of my birth haha). Eighth grade wasn't as eventful, but I still did rather well, and was even allowed to practice with the high schoolers which to me was an honor of sorts. I learned a lot more on the ethics of track, and how to use my body to my advantage. High school was a whole different story. My freshman year wasn't that great, and I only received two gold metals; I placed fourth in the 800 in my first varsity meet, which was in Fort Scott, which I thought was good since I was only a freshman.

From then on, I'm not sure what happened to me, I just kind of withered away. My mind was willing but physically it wasn't happening for me at all. I had surgery three out of the four years I was in high school (as luck would have it they were all around the time track was starting), two of them I had to have bone graphs in which they took bone from my both of my hips. Now, you don't have to have a Ph.D. to realize that your hips are a vital part for running. I was eager to get out and run again, but I had to wait for my body to heal; I think that's where I went wrong. I don't think I ever let myself heal properly, in turn that hurt my track career indefinitely. What made it worse was I couldn't run through the stabbing pain, and I felt like a loser for that. I had a few people take a look at my hips, and one woman even suggested I had bursitis and/or tendentious, but I really don't think that was it. Later I had an MRI, but nothing was found to explain why my hips hurt the way they did. I never metaled anymore my high school career. Sad times.

Anyway! Today, I went to a track meet in Nevada (Nevada Invitational to be exact) to take some pictures and possibly gather up enough info for a story. Man. I can't begin to describe the feeling I had just being there. For those of you who have read Jennifer Hancock's last column that was on the opinion page about how much she loves wrestling, that's basically how I feel about track. It was a huge adrenaline rush being surrounded by everyone and watching the young men and women of NHS track compete. It really made me miss my old track family. A few people I ran track with were there, so we talked a little and supported the team. As I watched the girls get ready for their relays I started reminiscing about when I ran relays. Ahhh... the good ol' days. I especially got excited when the girls 800 meter run was happening! I ran around so much taking pictures of the track and field (I didn't get over to the throwers in time to take pictures) I was plum wore out when I got back to the office tonight.

Unlike Jenn, I can't be as involved in the sport I love like I want to be. BUT I'm very happy that I'm working at the newspaper because I have a chance to give NHS track a little more coverage. Results are usually in the paper, but it seems like track and field is swept under the rug sometimes, probably because it's not a "team" sport. I mean, you have a track team, but besides the relays events are competed by one person (although a few different people can run the same event, still nobody has the same turnout). To me, track is the rawest form of athletics. It is what other sports are based upon -- running. In most sports, running is involved somehow -- be it working out in wrestling, or playing a game of football. Running holds a lot of sweat, blood, and tears, just like any sport. However, unlike other sports, that's all you do. You run.

Peace.

Chassedi (or as Coach Watts used to call me, "Spooky")