Eric Thomas Motivation Essay

Feeling exhausted, I focus on my breathing. I breath in through my nose and then out through my mouth, breath in and out. Repeat. After passing the mile mark, my coach is shrieking for me to relax, because I am on my way to qualify for cross country states. The top twenty girls qualify, and I have been dreaming of this day since freshman year. All I have to do is hold my position, and then I am golden. Suddenly, my legs begin to feel like jello. My running partner slowly fades ahead of me, and I cannot keep up. It feels like I am running backwards as the rest of my teammates pass me one by one. Fighting fatigue, I tell myself I am finishing this race, whether or not I have to crawl like a turtle to do so. I am crossing that finish line.

“In running, it doesn’t matter whether you come in first, in the middle or last. You can say, ‘ I finished’ There is a lot of satisfaction in that” - Fred Lebow. I began cross country in eighth grade shortly after my brother joined the year before. He enjoyed it a lot, so I thought it would be fun. I’ve been on the team for two years. I would like to run for the rest of my life. Cross country changed my life positively forever. It taught me to push myself past what I thought was my limit. It revealed to me a great community of people and it taught me to leave my comfort zone.

Laying down in bed the night before the meet was always nerve wracking, wondering who was going to show up to the meet the next day. The drive over to the track was often long and silent. Often thinking of every outcome of each race could drive a runner insane. Finally arriving and seeing all the athletes, spectators, and the crowd. The roar of the announcer echoing through the stadium. I stepped on the track hoping to see a few familiar faces. The cold breeze blowing against my tracksuit. I began to warm up and tuned out

This will help me in the future to remind me to be happy, and grateful for the opportunity to run as I do in my life. This race changed my point of view of “opportunity” to try and do things right the first time, and if I don’t, then forget about it because I can’t change it. Before this race, I felt as if I failed, everything was over, and the disappointment would never leave. For example, if I ran a terrible race, with a terrible time, I couldn't stop thinking about it for WEEKS. Now, I let it go and forget it ever happened. This also keeps me humble, by not letting me think about my accomplishments for too long, because there’s always a new opportunity. Walt Disney once

My throat was parched instantly. Knowing that I had to stay with Shelby. Repetitively telling myself that I could do it, I have to. Once I arrived at the mile mark before I knew it. I was searching all over but I could not see Shelby. Second guessing that she was ahead of me, I worked even harder. The wind was strong and the air was dirty. For a minute I was thinking that I could not do it; however, I changed that thought quickly after I saw the finish line. Pushing the hardest I had ever pushed. Noticing that I had made it, I placed 81st in

I ran as fast as I could, I was tired but knew that I had to keep going. The sun shone down ferociously making it very bright and torrid. I felt sweat drip from just above my brow into my right eye. My eye began to get a burning sensation just as I turned the corner. My muscles ached, but I knew I had to shift into overdrive and pick up the pace. I started to run faster and faster. I began to get the feeling like I was about to throw up, but knew that I couldn’t stop now. I continued to sprint to the finish, and just as I crossed the finish line I looked to the clock and noticed that I set a new PR. The feeling of happiness that swelled up inside me took me back to the practice on the tuesday of the previous week: That day it was hot as fire

“Good Job keep going, you can do it, run run faster, you got this!” These were the words coming from the audience as I was finishing my last 100 meters in the cold, pouring, rain during sectionals. I was in second place in my heat and my heart was thumping and I couldn't see through the water stains on my glasses, but I heard someone someone breathing hard and their spikes hitting the track as they ran behind me and I knew I had to push even harder.I remembered the rough trading I had in practice and knew I could do it.

I am a runner. One who strives for greatness at every moment and doesn’t give in when things get tough. I have aspirations, dreams, and goals which I will stop at nothing to achieve. Unfortunately for me, the life of a runner is filled with challenges and setbacks and only the best will learn to push through the adversity. My defining moment was the summer before my Junior year, 2016. I had set the goal of becoming All-State in Cross Country, meaning placing in the top 25 of all the runners in the state meet. This is, of course, a prestigious title to have, but I had faith in myself. For the first time in my life, I finally understood that preparation is key and if I fail to prepare, I should prepare to fail

Running stayed on my mind all throughout the day, it was what I loved to do. At the Yukon state track meet my heart was racing more than ever. I’ve trained all season for this meet hoping to place top 6 in the state. It was blazing hot outside with the wind pushing a little hard against us. Me and my team was up next to run the 4x400m against many other schools that were competing that day. As we lined up in order from first leg to anchor, listening to the referee position us on where to stand, we were all scared. The referee shot the gun and the first leg runners took off. When it was my turn to go, I nervously stepped onto the red 8 lane track.

Before I knew it the Starter pointed his gun high and fired. Across the starting line from both sides I felt runners storming off, as did I. I wanted to take a smart approach as I planned I would. The first mile quickly came up and I was advancing my place further to put myself into a positive position to finish. A mile and a half into the race overall I felt relaxed  and was still moving up passing runners. Next the second mile came up and I was starting to struggle as were some runners close by. Additionally hills were to come in the next mile and a half and I wasn’t looking forward to it, but I knew If I stopped then slowed down, I wouldn’t satisfy myself. Eventually I made it through the hills along with other struggling runners. The last part of the race came and as soon as I made it to where I had about 400m left, overall I gave it all I had in the moment so that I finished in excellent standing with myself. As I gave it all I could I passed a few runners in the process and as a few passed by as well. Finally, after several minutes of trying to catch my breath I finally

The rain had been barreling down all morning. This frightened me a great deal, for I was prepared to compete in my first official Cross Country race of the season. I waited for this day I for quite a few months. Unfortunately, previous back-to-back injuries prevented me from fulfilling my dream of running on uneven surfaces. Therefore, I was restricted to only run flat track. I spent all of my summer practicing for this year’s season. Many of my friends and family thought I was irrational for practicing on my time although I knew it would be for a great reason. The transition from flat surfaces to an off road more complex terrain was extremely challenging. There were numerous days that I struggled and just wanted to give up. However, my determination factor would not let me give up. In addition, I

By the time we had run to the hospital at our practice, I felt like I was going to die. My legs were as tired as a sloth. I had never been so tired in my life. I had an awful cramps that wasn't going away, and I felt like I was going to lose my lunch. I wanted to walk so badly. To help myself keep going I kept saying the following sentence in my head, “I will not stop, I will keep running, I will push myself as far as I can go.” With my ponytail waving in the wind, I kept going. When we got back to the school. I was exhausted and glad to be finished the run. If that was how hard we were going to go at all of our practices, I didn't know if I could do it. The cross country coach Mrs. Wrigley told me I should give it to weeks and I will start to notice a difference when I run, so I decided to keep going to the practices. I had set a goal for myself to continue to go to the practises for the next two weeks. It was hard but I persevered and push through

At 6 in the morning we had to wake up we were so tired, but luckily me and my sister in law weren't part of the race only my brother. We got in line and waited to get our tickets to get in. While we were waiting we saw all the different people that are going to participate in the race. Some people where in exercise clothes, some were wearing costumes, and

It’s the day before the meet. The entire day I am thinking about the race. I keep thinking to myself how difficult it will be to beat my last time. It’s finally the end of the day. After practice I get my things ready for the meet. I go to bed and try not to think too much about the race. When I get up the next day my mother begins motivating me for the race, which pumps me up for the competition. I arrive at the school the next morning prepared to get on the bus and run a great

Then, our team stopped passing them and started falling behind. As I saw the numbers the official was holding up getting lower and lower (meaning we had less laps to go), I saw the opponents getting further and further ahead of me. My teammates and I simply could not keep up. We knew we had to give this race everything we had and we knew that we could not let them get the top three spots, but they did, even though we had given it everything we had. As I crossed the finish line, knowing that four people had finished ahead of me, I felt extremely frustrated and defeated, I had let my teammates down and I had just handed Franklin the meet. I congratulated my opponents, got my time, and went to see if we still had a chance. I was filled with relief when I heard that we still had that sliver of chance that my teammates and I were grasping onto. There were two events left, the relays. Everyone gathered around the track to cheer on their teammates as the meet was coming to an end. I was filled with immense hope and happiness as my team crossed the finish line first. It was down to the last relay, the winning team of the final event would win the meet. It seemed as if everyone was running in slow motion, just to build up the suspense and torture me. But it finally came to an end, the relay had the same outcome as the two-mile and the meet, Franklin