Hey, I’m Darnell, and I’m getting ready for state by tapering the week before. I also drink a lot of H20 and eat a lot of meat and fat cakes. I skateboard and run with my friends. I love to have fun with my friends. We do crazy things sometimes like when John and I were playing extreme leap frog. Coach Begnaud stopped me and told me to run with him. While we were running, he told me that I have to take it easy until state meet, so I said, “So, I can’t do crazy things?” Then he said, “No, wait until after state meet.” He told me to stop skating too and that I should hold the crazy in until state meet on Saturday. I said, “I can’t keep the crazy in. I will die. He laughed and told me to keep it in.
When I run, I don’t think about the time or how well I do. I run because I love it. When I run, I feel free like I can go anywhere I want to. When I get ready for a race and I’m at the starting line, I’m not nervous. I feel like a race dog waiting for the gate to let me out to run. I will dash to a good place and go from a dash to a good stride, and I look and see a field or trees and the trail, and I feel free, so I speed up. I feel bliss. Then, I see the end and look back and see a dog catcher coming to stop me from being free, so I run. I run as fast as I can go, and then I go faster.
By Darnell Collier