My heart was racing. Everyone else around me looked so calm, so ready for what was about to happen. Not me though. I haven’t slept since April 26. Everything comes back to me when I line up on that starting line. How do I get this out of my head? Let me explain some things before I get too far in this story.

April 16,2009: 3200 finals at district. I was looking to get 3rd place to go on to regionals on May 2nd. The gun went off and I flew. I was in a pretty good spot. I started dying out, my dad told me he would be there to see me, I didn’t see him. He always got me to stop thinking about everything else besides my race. I couldn’t hear him. after the first mile, I was in about 11th place, I was about to lose it. Then I heard him, he was yelling for me, he believed in me. 400 meters left I was in 7th place. I finished in 5th. didn’t make it to regionals. It was the worst day of my life, but my dad said I’d get it next year. a couple days later, my coach told me that 2 of the runners that had qualified are going to just focus on the mile. that qualified me for the 3200 at regionals. My dad was more excited about it then I was.

April 24,2009: Regional qualifier meet at the Woodlands (practice meet). My dad said he was going, I told him not too since it was just a practice meet. I ended up doing horrible. That’s when I realized that I want my dad to be at all my meets from now on. He always got me back on focus. That night I got home at like 3 am. I had a long run in the morning.

April 25,2009: 7:30am: my dad wakes me up to go do my long run at Brushy Creek while he road his bike, same as every other day. I took it for granted. it would always be like that. 12:30pm: me and my dad went to starbucks to get some tea, since we were going to be up late that night for a wedding. 5:30pm: we left for the wedding. my dad was the happiest I had seen him since he had lost his job back in December. That night we got to see a lot of old friends that we hadn’t seen in a long time, it was a nice night.

April 26,2009: 12:30am: we finally left the wedding reception, I was kinda upset that we left so late, because I had to wake up at 5:30 in the morning to work at the kid’s triathlon. 4:30am: I hear screaming, not the usual yelling this time. it was different this time. what was going on? I walked down the hall to my parent’s room. there I found my dad laying on the floor, my sister trying to give him cpr, and my mom crying her eyes out. i had to be dreaming, right? this doesn’t happen in real life. 4:45 am: the ambulance arrives, they assure us that everything will be fine. They were up there working on him for what seemed to be hours, but it was really not that long. my brother, sister, and I were sitting down stairs. I couldn’t take this anymore, not knowing what was going on. 5:00am: they take him out of the house to the hospital. My mom and our friends, the castellos went too. my brother, sister, and I stayed home, we couldn’t take seeing him in the hospital. Mr. Castello said he’d call us to let us know what’s going on. it had been about an hour, still no call. By that time our house was filled with our friends and neighbors keeping us calm. 7:00am: Mr. Castello comes to our house. I ask whats going on, he takes me in the family room where everyone else is. “PLEASE TELL US HE’S OKAY!” he remains quiet. then he says “the doctors did everything they could….” that was all I needed, I fell to the floor begging God to keep him alive. “they weren’t able to recessitate.” My world was turned upside down, nobody could help me, it was over, he was gone.

Back to the starting line. I wanted to do this. My dad wanted to see me here. I had everything from the passed couple weeks racing through my head at that starting line. The gun went off and everything came back harder than ever. everyone was watching me, I didn’t want to disappoint them. half of one side of the bleachers were of people that were watching me. the race ended, worst time since freshman year. I didn’t care, I finished, my daddy would’ve been proud.