N A L A
"61.4, 62.5, 62.8, good job ladies." Coach Latrice said "Oh and finally Nala 67.3.""Her slow ass." Kendra said earning snickers from my other teammates
I rolled my eyes as I rested my hands on my head to catch my breath. There's no such thing as 300m Hurdles in the NCAA only 400m which I wasn't used to. I knew that race like the back of my hand. When to pace myself, when to run full out, when to open up my stride. This was only training and I was struggling, it didn't help that I was a freshman either. Or as they call it, "New Pussy"
"Yo Turtle!" Kendra called to me
I reluctantly looked up, making eye contact with her. "Turtle" was my nickname. All the freshman on the team were given a nickname and I hated mine.
"Your rest was up 10 seconds ago, get in line with the others."
Kendra was the Top Girl on this team. She was a beast at the 400m hurdles and she also was the anchor in the 4X1 relay.
Running relays are a privilege here and since my nickname is Turtle I was far from having that privilege. I joined the others in line to do the cool down stretch routine, if anyone was out of rhythm we'd have to start the routine all over again. You also couldn't talk during the stretches. Kendra led them since she was Captain. Pre- season is two months away and the actual season was 4. That may seem like a long time to some but it wasn't. I needed to get my shit together like yesterday.
"Okay team!" Kendra said as she stood up "You all did an alright job today, Pre-season is approaching us so we need to get this team in top shape." She said looking over all of us "If you aren't where you need to be before Pre-season starts then you won't be running. It is up to you to get your shit together, ain't no handouts this way." Kendra stared at me
"Curfew is at 11pm and you all need to be in that training room at 5am tomorrow." Coach Latrice said "If you know what's best for you, you'll have your ass in bed by 9pm."
"Yes coach." We all said
"Alright, y'all musty go shower." She said making some of us laugh
"You not coming?" Bre asked as I grabbed my bag