Personal Narrative: The Spartan Race

I ran back up the hill to our camp, trying to move quickly without wasting too much energy, took my inhaler, and rushed back down the hill. Soon, it was time for the race to start. The officials gave an overview of information about the race and how it would start. The official behind us blew a long whistle. We stood, motionless, just waiting for that starting gunshot. Pow! The race was off. I sprinted out of the pack. I tried to find a good pace and settle in. We ran up a few hills, and then we made it to the first entrance to the creek. Unintelligently, I didn’t slow down very much going into the creek. Because I didn’t slow down, I splashed into the creek with a belly flop, almost submerging my whole body underwater. I got up quickly, then began to climb up the mud wall. I clawed at that wall like it was my enemy. I avoided the rope, even though it actually wasn’t that busy at the moment. I was too focused to switch strategies. We continued to run on, passing many fans, their cheers a chaotic blur. We passed through the second part of the creek, which was not nearly as deep. It was only about mid-shin to knee level, so I made my way through just fine. We ran all over the vineyard. I wasn’t feeling too awful. I was just caught up in the thrill of the race! We made it to the cornfields, and there were lots of small hills. I ran through them staring at the ground, and I kept seeing the same pair of shoes. For some strange reason, I kept staring at those shoes. People do crazy things when they run, you could say! Anyways, I passed the person wearing those shoes. We ran away from the corn fields and under a bridge. I was coming closer and closer to the finish. I was struggling to continue, but I would not quit! I pushed through the pain, but by the end of the race, I was just done. I saw the final hill in front of me. It was one of the biggest hills on the course, if not the biggest, and it was definitely the most difficult after

What if you were destined to save your town, would you be heroic enough? What is a hero? Campbell’s Heroic Journey, The Hobbit, and story/ film explains. My idea of a hero is being a person who sacrifices themselves for others, and doesn't think people are less worthy than themselves. The Heroic Journey describes that anyone can be a hero, examples of that would be The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, which is a story about a group of men go on a death defying journey to save the town. The other story is How to Train Your Dragon is similar with other supernatural events. Such as dragons and bugs. Despite having similar heroes, The Hobbit had a stronger Heroic Journey because there were more obstacles.

A few years back I was sailing the open ocean with my leader, Odysseus, and the rest of the crew heading home when Odysseus informed us that we would be taking the long route home. As we grew closer to a strange island, the wind stopped and the water became quiet.

First things first: I shouldn’t be alive. I mean I shouldn’t be dead either, but, hmmm, I guess what I mean to to say is that I shouldn't have been born. But enough with that, or I’ll just sound like a whiny kid.

All the time and hard work spent had to pay off for something. I was also determined to beat my biggest rival on the team. She wouldn't hesitate to smear my face in it if she got a faster time than me. We stepped up to the 200 meter starting line and I tried to push the nervous thoughts out of my head. It felt like butterflies were bouncing off the walls of my stomach. We got into the start position and our coach began counting down from 5. It was only 5 seconds but it felt like an eternity. The four of us took off in unison and I could tell I was going to have to give this race everything I had. There was no way I was going to let the others defeat me. I heard the pounding of my feet against the track as I ran the curve. That's when I realized I was already in front of the rest and I began sprinting with every ounce of energy I had left. There were nearly 100 meters to the finish line and my legs were moving so fast it felt as if I was flying. I kept thinking about how much I had been working towards this and how I would not let myself down. Bolting through the finish line I could tell that was one of the best races I've ever run. My lungs felt heavy, legs aching from exhaustion and my eyes were watering from the frigid wind. As my coach was recording my time on his clipboard he revealed how many seconds faster I had been. Not only had I beaten my own personal best, but I had gotten the fastest sub varsity time.

It became normal. I started to believe these names. If somebody called out, Tree, I would look around. In the barn scene, Kunta was getting ready to escape, and Fiddler was helping him after he was singing that lullaby. Kunta had asked Fiddler his name, his real name, and I have to admit, that moment was really emotional. Fiddler seemed to come to an understanding of how unbreaking Kunta was. I feel Kunta wasn’t built for a slave, his roots, his mindset, and his resilience wouldn’t allow it. This leads to him escaping, or trying to escape, many times. The first time he was bought by Samson, and the other times, he was caught by dogs. A very disappointing moment for me, because my nerves had built up while he was running, so when he was caught, I was extremely disappointed. It seemed to me, when he was escaping the second time, he was doing it not only for himself, but to Fiddler, and his family. Maybe even Jinna. At the end, where he was losing contact with his parents, was absolutely heartbreaking to me, because he is giving up. He was giving into his new identity, losing his

Barley in I could hear the pummel of feet, the clicking of spikes striking rocks, heavy breathing, and the crowd encouraging me. I was working ardous to think clearly and not let the sweat dripping off me and heat disturb me. I couldn't smell anything because i was breathing heavily. After the race a man gave me water and i was to drained to raise it. But i did and it chilled my throat with satisfaction. I sprinted to inspirit my teammates when their heat begin and it felt excruciating to hoist my legs. I knew Jonah and Noah would be rounding the corner soon and heading to there shoot. I strained my throat to shout as Jonah come in second place. Soon after Noah did not show after that. I started to panic because I know he should have finished by now. As each person passed I felt my heart squeeze tight and become rigid. hearing my teammates beside me questioning each other and stating things that may have occurred. I swung around and darted toward the other direction of Finish. After talking to a friend and a couple acquaintances. I heard someone had collapsed from heat exhaustion. I started to lose it and could feel my eyes filling with water. When I saw my teammates jogging to a

Barley in I could hear the pummel of feet, the clicking of spikes striking rocks, heavy breathing, and the crowd encouraging me. I was working arduously to think clearly and not let the sweat dripping off me and heat disturb me. I couldn't smell anything because I was breathing heavily. After the race a man gave me water and i was to drained to raise it. But I did and it chilled my throat with satisfaction. I sprinted to inspirit my teammates when their heat begun and it felt excruciating to hoist my legs. I knew Jonah and Noah would be rounding the corner soon and heading to their shoot. I strained my throat to shout as Jonah came in second place. Soon after Noah did not show up. I started to panic because I knew he should have finished by now. As each person passed by I felt my heart squeeze tight and become rigid. hearing my teammates beside me questioning each other and stating things that may have occurred. I swung around and darted toward the other direction of Finish. After talking to a friend and a couple acquaintances. I heard someone had collapsed from heat exhaustion. I started to lose it and could feel my eyes filling with water. When I saw my teammates jogging to a

It was just a typical afternoon swim practice and the regional swim meet was almost here. We’ve been training and practicing all season for this event. Every afternoon after school we would go to the YMCA pool to practice. I’ve been working on long distance swimming, such as the freestyle 200 and 500. The night before the regional swim meet arrived, and I happened to get sick. I felt weak, stiff, and exhausted. There was no way I could do well in any event that was going to occur the next day. I took some medicine and had some tea to try and feel better. Nothing really helped. All there was to do was hope. The next day arrived… feeling sick and weak, I went through the day until it was time to go to the swim meet. As we warm up, I began getting a headache and feeling worse, yet felt like I still possessed the capability to carry on with endurance. When the first race came I felt nervous. The whistle blew and I was the last one to dive in from the block. Pacing myself slow and steady, I caught up only making third place. I felt like I could’ve gotten first place if I wasn’t sick, but I was glad that a team member got it instead of another school. The last race came. This was the most important race for me all season; I couldn’t screw up. We got up onto the blocks and once we heard the whistle we dove in. It was terrible. Everyone was in front of me and I was in last for at

I had gradually slowed my pace, the last girl on our team was slowly catching up to me. I had told myself I was at least going to be in front of her but my legs would not listen instead they got heavier. She was now in front of me, and telling me to catch up to her, of course I was trying to catch up to her but my legs just could not go any faster. I was insulting, bashing, making fun of myself for not going any faster, and for having a limp in my running. I wanted to walk but I didn't especially when I got to the part where everyone was cheering, they motivated me to keep going they were right before the long hill. I was telling myself I had made it this far, I just couldn't stop not I know I had to walk up the hill to be able to continue my race. I got to the top of the hill and decided to run down it. That it had become a nightmare. Limping fast, it hurt, feeling heavy going down the very steep hill. I felt the force of gravity trying to take me down. I was down. I was done going down the hill and I started to hear everyone cheering so I slowed down even more to be able to get more energy to be able to go faster infront of everyone when I turned to get out of the woods everyone was hollering and cheering us down especially the limping decorah girl. Their was a girl behind me from a different school but she was giving her fullest now to the finish line. The finish line

Many people have left legacies from when they were alive. Some are good, and some are bad. Those people may not agree with what they have left behind, and some may be perfectly okay with theirs. For me, I would like to leave behind a legacy that shows my family that I was a good person. I would want them to know that I had good intentions for my life and that I wanted to do good for myself and others. In this essay, I will explain what I would like my legacy to be like.

On March 26, 2016, a friend, an acquaintance, and I drove to Norfolk, Virginia, for a photoshoot. The three of us all had writing internships with the Odyssey Online, and we needed photos for our weekly articles. As a Chesapeake native, I was already quite familiar with the City of Norfolk; however, this trip showed me a depth to the city that I had never noticed before.

This year was my last year at The Little Middle School. Even though I’ve had a lot of speed bumps, I’ve accomplished a lot of stuff. From learning new instruments to working on my ability to focus, I’ve grown a lot.

This was only my third OCR of 2016 and first OCR on back to back days. It also was my first Spartan race of the year. I have been dealing with a boatload of injuries in 2016 that have prevented me from training at the level I have become accustom to over the previous two years and am just not in that great a shape yet, while I am also still dealing with a lower back injury and two painful shoulders. To make things even worse I have recently been struggling with a form a vertigo that comes on when I am crawling, climbing, or make sudden movements, so this was going to a challenging and interesting race for me. This was my first ever OCR two years ago so it was important to me to do it again this year.

“Go big or go home,” I confidently told my co-worker, even though deep down I had no clue what to expect. With a little over two months to prepare. I had just signed up for a sixteen-mile mud obstacle race known as a Spartan Beast. “Oh, you’re going to be going home alright. You do know that there are other Spartan races geared towards a beginner.” He had a point; maybe I was getting a little ahead of myself. I had never run any type of long distance race before. I was never in any athletics in school. In fact growing up I was overweight and lacked confidence. “If I’m going to do this, I’m going all the way with it.” All along hoping that my actions could match my mindset. Perhaps I was a little over assured in my abilities, but something