My Adventures in Marathoning

Kayla Kelly

English 3

9.20.19

Introduction: My goals for this essay was one, to be more organized. Two to be very descriptive. three, refrain from typing words such as like and pretty much.

     I am proud of how descriptive I wrote it because while writing this essay I thought it would be very great if I did a very descriptive description of marathoning because then you can imagine what it would feel like running a marathon. And I am proud of the ending because it was a little hard for me to write, but also because it reflects the person in me that shows people they can do anything they put their mind to.

     One thing to improve my writing process is maybe to remember to refrain from saying a word such as like and pretty much because I did delete the words when I was polishing the draft but I still typed them. And maybe try not to overwrite on the first draft.

                    My Adventure in Marathoning

“It’s the day I die,” I said to my dad at 3:30 in the morning, getting ready for a 4 am a bus for the 7:30 am a marathon, I had my blue race day shirt over my black and white windbreaker and my grey legging and did everything else in a hurry. I got on the bus with a mixed emotion of excitement and nervousness. We went to the race went inside where the tents are, Mrs.londo put down her bag to give us some brownies and disgustingly tasting GU energy gels, and while we are waiting ms. Londo told me ” if I say to go you go”, at the time I didn’t think much of it, then waited at the porta-potties for a while , then waited at the gear check , I heard the loud noise of a fog horn being blown to signal the start as the race, and so we waited a little more put our gear in to the brown UPS truck ,we went in to our coral but I actually started at 7:30 am because all students run people go in the back corral and we wait 30 minutes, I took my throwaways off so I was shivering in the cold and tearing I had no idea whether it was because I was nervous and all or it was the wind hitting my face. Then I am very close to the starting point, then I remind my self the core values of Student-Run, courage effort and respect. Courage, effort, and respect, the core value of a great leader, I am a leader, I have the responsibility of a leader. I am a leader because I am the person that does something that almost no one else wants to do, I do the things that are very hard to do I encourage people to do the right thing, I do the thing for the people who can’t, not for the people who don’t want to do it,. I have courage, effort, and respect in a lot of places, which makes me a great leader, people might say we don’t have great people around anymore, but I think there is the leader all in specific places, great people who inspire people. I am running on to Arch, I just feel happy while running in this moment, and then ms.londo said appreciate this amazing sunset over the water by 3 miles around where spruce street harbor park. We were coming on to the bridge going over the Schuylkill we saw a person in a dinosaur costume with you are going to be dino-sore tomorrow and ms.londo said appreciate this person dressed up in a dinosaur costume and I did appreciate it. Then my favorite song, Machine by imagine dragon play as I came up to 14th mile where I saw my dad cheering for me and I high fived him, then I came around mile 17 my legs where dying. They hurt so much, the right leg like as if it is being run over by a truck otherwise called the wall, but we were not taking a long walk ms.londo said so I kept going. Then again I though courage effort and respect I thought that through my wall, I am a leader, I have to show people that since I can do it, you can do it, and I will definitely get through this with or with out pain. Then at 20th mile and my pain was dying down, but Kylie and Zack hit their wall, I just told them “ I know we can do it, What I do at a time like this is I think about the end, the hot dogs you’ll eat some food, you get to rest and sit” trying the best I can to encourage them to keep going , Because that is what leaders do, but they both stopped, and ms.londo said,” go ahead” and at that time I knew what she meant by going when she said go and so I left them at 20th mile, I felt a little sad leaving them, but I was at Manayunk and they have the best cheer station with a lot of music and cheering. And so coming on kelly drive very close to being done. then I thought yes it is amazing, I am inspiring others, but it takes a team to encourage you, and build your spirt on the 20 miles. “Almost there, almost dead, but almost there,” I encouraged my self at 26 Miles. At this point my whole body hurt and was tired and drained, I felt like I could barely move my leg to the finish line but yet I still did. With some people in the bleacher encouraging me, leading me down to the finish line,” I made it, I finished a marathon “, I told my self, then I got to my team with my plastic heat sheet wrapped around my waist, then I was staring blankly on the ground for 5 minutes, then we huddled and swayed side to side, then we took a group photo, then walked all the way to the bright yellow bus and went home. At school the next day Jeremy said I was 5th in my division, then it felt like as if I wasn’t a leader because kylie would have gotten an award for being 5th in her division, if I just stayed, every time I see the plaque I see me leaving my team behind. But then I remember ms.londo said I have to go, maybe its because I inspire others, because when I started out I hated running, ms.londo once said a marathon is 26.2, my first thought was NO, but now with finishing 26.2 miles, 5th in my division is inspiring my leaders to say I inspired them with my story, so here I am releasing all of my regret of leaving them behind.