Contributing Writer DennisWright, III
wasn’t up there I would’ve been mad. So I told one of my friends to go and look for me. When he came back he told me I made it with the second fastest time. I was relieved and proud of myself. That day after school we had practice. We worked on our chemistry as a team by practicing passing the baton. I ran first since I could get a fast start. We only had a couple of days of practice until the day of the race. This was my third time running at the Penn Relays. I’ve been running since sixth grade. So remembering that, I wasn’t that nervous. There were hundreds of people there making a lot of noise. Before the race my team and I did stretches to get our legs loose. My team came in second place because one of the team members dropped the baton. Participating in this race allowed me to learn how to stay focused in the moment and not let other things distract me. I BelongMagazine.com Fall/Winter 2016–17 Page 27
Before participating in a sporting event, I watch motivational videos. I also listen to music. It helps me stay focused. For example, when I was in the eighth grade I ran in the Penn Relays for my school. To be able to run this race, I had to qualify for the school team. I also needed good grades to run or even be on the track team. It was like a competition to me. I had to try hard to get on the team because there were a lot of fast and smart kids who were also going for the spots. There were at least fifteen kids going for one of the four spots to run in the relays. First, we ran to see who had the fastest time. Then after that, we went home. The next day we got the results showing the four people that made the team. That morning I was scared to know if I made the team or not because I knew what I was going against. But I stayed focused. We got the results at lunch. The time leading up to lunch I was very nervous. The names were on a piece of paper on the wall. I didn’t even want to look because if my name
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