The morning of August 23rd was like any other August Morning. It was warm, humid and smelled like freshly cut grass mixed with morning dew. The only thing that separated this morning from the others is that this morning was the morning of the Run. The Run is a three mile run or twelve laps around an oval. I learned several lessons of this experience, which still apply to daily life. The Run is also appropriately called “the beginning of the end” because if you pass this you go to the Training cycle .The training Cycle is sixteen weeks of hell. But, it’s only bad if you’re negative.

I remember it fondly, August 23rd, the day of the run. I woke as my alarm played a song called “Till I collapse”. It’s a good song to run to because the beat is at the speed I run plus it’s BA. As I roll out of bed it is still night. The sun has just started to rise over the tall trees out my window. I indulged on a breakfast of high protein that my mom made. I stick to my normal morning routine My Mom drives me to the track and I arrive at 6:50. My leg muscles are stretched in numerous ways before I start the run.

Around 7:15 we are running fifteen minutes late. This wasn’t helpful because as the sun rises the heat rises as well. By the time we start it is a humid 75 degrees. When I start, the first two laps are a breeze and completed in less than two minutes each. The next mile was excruciating. I got a cramp which felt like someone had trusted a rusty machete into my side. I stopped to breathe and the searing pain seized. I pulled through until the last mile where suddenly I had the urge to pee. It felt like my bladder was going to explode. Plus the full bladder sparked another cramp. I stuck it out and ran the next two laps. I was jubilant I had eight minutes to spare and two more laps. The last laps were completed in five minutes because I slowed to a jog, but I sprinted to the finished. I didn’t stop though, I kept on running into the bushes and the rest was history. From that experience I learned valuable Lessons.

There were three main lessons I learned from the experience. One: never give up. Two: don’t procrastinate. I waited until the last four months to start training. Plus I never ran when I said I would. Three: believe in yourself because if you don’t you’re not going to be motivated to do anything. Even though these lessons are basic they still help in real life.

In the end the run was hard but, it was worth it. It was twelve laps of pain and a full bladder but as I look back it wasn’t that bad. I learned valuable life lessons. After the run I went through the Training Cycle which was worse than I remembered (this was my second time around) and got my second degree Black Belt. After all that work it was worth it