When I was little, like 10 yro little I became interested in track because a girl told me to join. (Shallow, I know) I will never forget this, but my first ever competitive race was against a 7th grade track team. The coach apparently couldn't set us up with a race within 5th grade because there's no such thing as a 5th grade track team. School just wanted kids to start early, ig. Basically I was running a 400m which is a full lap. I had a very, very small understanding of how to pace myself. And once I saw the pace the other kids were running at, that made me run my fastest. I basically panicked. Around 100m left, I ran out of stamina and stopped running completely. Two older boys (very intimidating, looked and sounded like chads) were laughing at me and very loudly saying things like "is he even in the race?" It absolutely destroyed any shred of perseverance I had left, and I was fully ready to just run off the track. But then I heard the voice of a woman cheering me on, "You can do it baby, just keep running" I will NEVER forget her words, or her voice. It was such a little thing but it truly meant the world to me. She probably completely forgot about me the very next day but I'm never going to forget her. I only ever caught a glimpse of her face. I really wish I'd thanked her back then. Years later, she's the reason I still do track. I would've stopped before I even began otherwise.
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