Memoirs of an Outstanding* Teen

Chapter 35: I'm Honored

"They're going to the cross-country world championships." That was the response I got when I asked why two of my fellow runners weren't training with us one morning. And my jaw was immediately dislocated.

The first day I turned up to the stadium, I noticed that a lot of my fellow runners wore the blue, red, and yellow Namibian police outfits. I asked where they got them, and to my astonishment, they replied, "We're part of the police." And then I find out that some of them go to world championships?! So not only am I training with the Namibian police, but some of them make it to the freaking world championships? And on top of that, they treat me like I'm just one of them? Some of them run for a living, and I was just there all amateur style and they still opened their arms for me?

And the dedication they had to their running showed in their training. I would see them doing their 30 X 200m speed runs, and for each of them, they would run like they had made it to the Olympics. I would see their faces twisted in strain, their chest heaving up and down, and their legs flying right across the 200m, leaving a cloud of dust behind. And not even giving themselves 30 seconds of rest, right after finishing, they would jog back to the starting line ready for the next lap. And when I spoke to them later, they would tell me that that was just their morning training. There was still a one-hour road run scheduled for the afternoon. They were the definition of stamina and strength, and I admired every single one of them.

Of course, I was light years away from their level of fitness, I did only about 20 percent of the amount of training they did, and could definitely not keep up with them. But I felt honored to be able to even train with them.