Who Doesn't Love a Four Day Weekend?

Christian Baumgarth
Economos
AP English Language
15 October 2012  

           Four day weekend going once, going twice, sold! This past weekend I went down to Jacksonville, Florida with fifty other JCHS athletes to compete in an invitational cross country meet. Outside the school on Friday morning, all you could hear were the cheers and the excitement of the coach bus pulling out of the parking lot bound for the Sunshine State. Plus who doesn't love missing a whole day of school? After a seven hour bus ride, plus a quick stop for lunch along the way, we were ready to begin our adventure.
          We arrived a little before five in the afternoon at Bartram Trail High School just outside of Jacksonville which is where the race would be held early the next morning. We had a short workout and got a good look at the course, which was one of the flattest and arguably the fastest courses we have run on. Then we went to the school's cafeteria where some of the parents made dinner for the schools coming from out of state. After we ate, we drove out towards Neptune Beach and our hotel. We got there a little after eight at night. I walked out of the bus into the cool nighttime autumn air and proceeded to my hotel room. We had to get up early the next morning so I went to bed right away.
         The beeping of my alarm woke me up at 5:15 in the morning. We all got ready and got on the bus and were at the school at 6:30. I managed to get myself off of the bus, still extremely tired, and started to warm up for my race. This race was big for me because I wanted to get my varsity letter by hitting a time below 18:50. We finished our warm ups, put on our race numbers, and made our way to the starting line. We see the starter approach the line. He blows the whistle and raises the gun in the air. Bang!
          The race starts and over 300 runners sprint down the staring field. Throughout the race I feel like I am doing very well and believe that I can hit my time. As I am coming up on the last 150 meters, I hear my coach shout. "Christian you have twenty seconds!" he says. As soon as I hear him I give everything I have into the last sprint. I see the clock hit 18:40 as I am running down the homestretch. I continue to watch the clock as I am sprinting as fast as I can. As I cross the finish line, I believe that I have hit my time but I am not sure. I get some water and walk over to the timing board to see my official time. My heart pounds inside my chest as I stand there and wait, still breathing as hard as I can. I see my name pop up on the board and I look at my time. It's 18:49.3! I fall to the ground knowing that I have finally accomplished my goal.
          Now that the hard part of the trip was over, it was time to relax. After the meet, we went back to the hotel for lunch and then spent the afternoon on the beach. The white sand felt so good between my toes and the cool ocean water was fun to swim in, especially since the waves were huge that day. We played football and Ultimate Frisbee on the beach as well. Later that afternoon, we went back to the hotel and got cleaned up for dinner. We went downtown to the Jacksonville Landing for a nice dinner and some good music. As we were crossing the bridge leaving the city, I looked back and saw all the beautiful city lights. We went back to he hotel and stayed up late just hanging out and having a good time.
          We woke up the next morning and I pulled back he curtains. I couldn't believewhat I saw. It was pouring rain.We were supposed to be going for a run on the beach this morning, however when we got outside our coach changedthe plan. So all we did was go for a short run in the rain on the boardwalk. Then we got some breakfast, packed up our bags, and loaded back up on the bus for the long trip back to Johns Creek. When we got back, I came home and went straight to bed because of my major lack of sleep the past few nights. The weekend only got better with the fact that we didn't have school Monday. So I spent most of the day doing all of my homework and writing this blog. This past weekend as a blast and I wouldn't trade it for anything else.