When I began middle school all my friends did a Track and Field. Unlike my friends, I didn’t do a sport. I used to watch track on T.V. and on my laptop. It was my favorite to watch because my friends did it and they were so great at it. I loved the techniques, the drills and the medals you would receive at the end of the races. The medals were shiny and the color of a dark bronze, a smooth gray-silver and a shiny gold.
The engraving pattern would also be different on the medals every time. Sometimes it would resemble a person running or a person jumping a hurdle. When the track runners would receive their medals their faces would light up with brightness like the sun in the early morning. They look as if they have conquered the world of racing. The sport was such an interesting experience to watch, but I could not perform in track because I had asthma. Until everything took a turn when I decided to face my fear and join the track and field community.
My parents, well most of my family used to tell me that I would never be able to run track because of my asthma. My heart would break into tiny pieces like grains of sand. I was so sad because I thought I would never be able to accomplish making a track team. I used to sit and think about why my family doesn’t believe in me. I decided to try-out anyway to find out how far my body could actually go with this evil sickness I call asthma. However, I did some research before starting my experience in track & field. I didn’t know where to start with my research.
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While staring at my laptop wondering what to search, I noticed in the corner of my laptop there were articles and advertisements about track and asthma because of my recent searches on asthma and because of my friend Michaela search for new track shoes. Then I noticed that there was an article about a woman named Jackie Joyner Kersee. I decided to click on it and read it; to my luck she was a track Olympian who had asthma. I decided to read the articles and watch because it stood out to me. I felt she was someone that could give me tips, so that I can prepare for my journey with track while having asthma.
One thing that caught my eye in one of her articles online was that she stated she would hide her asthma from her coaches because she thought she would get kicked off the team if they were to find out. I thought would I have to do this in order to run track. So, I began my next search since I believed Google had the answer to everything. Typed in can you run track with asthma? Luckily to my amazement Google told me that I could. I was so happy to read that sentence in those bold black letters. The only thing I had to do was make sure my coaches knew. After finding that out I turned back to Jackie Joyner Kersee videos to see how she prepared to run while having asthma.
I would watch her videos on YouTube so closely that I felt as if I didn’t blink. I would watch her every move. The fact that she wasn’t actually teaching the viewers how to run, however, she was teaching me because I viewed her for help. She took long strides and her legs would stretch as far as they could around the dark orange oval shaped track. I took note of that.
Although, what really stuck in my mind from the video was when I was able to use my literacy knowledge and comprehend without anyone explaining in the video that when she gets tired and starts to breathe heavily she would slow her pace and go as far as she could so that she wouldn’t have an asthma attack. I sensed that without being told because of my knowledge with asthma. I was able to read her. I watched Ms. Kersee for three days because that Thursday was the day of track try-outs. It was February 7, 2013.
