Running: Blocks, spikes, arrows
Feels good to come out of retirement.
I just got back from running through Williamsburg and doing a two mile loop around the McCarren Park track. I haven’t run on a track since my last high school race. I spent 3 of 4 years - the pivotal awkward ones (as opposed to the currently awkward ones) - running circles around the track.
My stomach did a small flip when I passed over the numbers and against all possibility a rush of memories shook me hard enough that I choked up a little and slowed down to catch my already uneven breath.
I joined track team as a seriously scrawny freshman because I had an enormous crush (the first of many) on sk8ter-boy Cameron Smith (he invited me over after school to watch Christian Slater in Gleaming the Cube - I was hooked). So sans a decent set of muscles or a strong desire to run in circles I took the plunge and followed Cameron onto the track (truth be told I also ended up on the X-Country team a year later as well).
I never won a race, but as coach said, “You’re great for team morale.” (I now understand what that really means.) Track team dominated 3 of my 4 high school years, so when I cut across to the track today and passed over the numbers I could almost feel my old pair of spikes clicking under me, the tension of hovering in blocks waiting for the gun start, and the rush of adrenaline that pushed me hard against the arrows below.
It’s been years since I thought of myself as a high school athlete, in fact I’m sure I supressed it for a lot of good reasons. At the end of the day, I haven’t been in a set of blocks or spikes or on a track in years, I prefer running at Burke Lake, VA, or street-side in Manhattan, but clearly I’ve got a lot of practice running in circles.