It is different for everyone, some people get nervous, excited, or nothing at all. It happens because something big is about to happen and we want to do well. Some people can take the pressure and others cannot. It started an hour before the race began; the feeling of being nervous and mentally preparing for the race. The fear of how everything will go, good or bad, as time till it begins goes down it gets better and I feel better about myself and I know everything will be alright. Sometimes I may be pacing or talking to myself to focus myself. It is similar to a point in a book I read when the protagonists are mentally preparing for the biggest battle that they have ever had to fight and it will decide the future of their galaxy. The way they are preparing for their battle is just how I am preparing for my race.

When time until the race is going so fast, finally when it’s time to start everything seems to slow down and make whatever nervousness and anxiety last longer. “On your Mark” said the gunman and everything stops it is like a life time happens in the period of one single breath everything is as calm as a life age of the earth. Right their when it all stops that is when it all begins. We are racing down the stretch and down the hill like a wild herd of animals trying to escape their prey. After the first mile stretch all the racers are spread out evenly and that is when you have to start pushing yourself. You have to find your pace to keep yourself going, always focused on the runner in front of you, and try to pass him. Never look behind you because it slows you down.

The cheering of the fans and the support you get along the way keeps you going and gives you energy to keep moving and picking up speed. You listen for your times at the one, and two mile mark so you know if you are faster, slower or right on time with your best time from your previous races. Every course is different some seem longer because of the way they are and some seem shorter, but it is all the same and you do not realize this until you are running the race. The length of the race might be different to those who finish in the front as appose to those finishing later.

The turning point of the race when things start going well is when you realize you are almost done and you begin to pick up speed and you are wondering where it is all coming from. Yet at the same time at the end of the race everything seems to slow down and it feels like a long time till the end even on the hard courses.  Time is going really fast and it does not seem to slow down and when you cross the finish line the feeling of worry and nervous goes away and you feel fine afterwards.

After it is over, it is like everything turns back to normal. The feelings of anxiety and being nervous which was present before the race, is nonexistent at the end of the race. It is like when reading a book you get nervous about what will happen to the protagonists and sometimes the ending is what you expect what you do not expect. That is the way it is in life and the way when you are racing. You do not know what the ending will be like during the race, just that the ending will be surprising and inevitable.