#86. Running on Adrenaline (Wednesday, April 19, 2006)

What was your best day…of getting it done while being half-asleep?

Despite what my past instances of athletic prowess (#123) or my extracurricular activities of choice (#118, #96) might suggest, I actually did do sports in high school. Granted, it was only cross-country running and track and field – the only two you didn’t have to try out for—but all things considered, I was all right at both. Wasn’t going to win any city championships, but could at least do it semi-seriously and not totally embarrass myself.

That Wednesday was the first track meet of the season, and it was being hosted at the Ottawa Lions track stadium in the south end of the city.

For this meet, I was unusually sleep-deprived. There had been a history project, writing essays explaining a bunch of World War II photos, that I left to the last minute the night before. And when I finally finished, it was almost four, and I could hear birds singing outside (first time, definitely not the last).

So, completely out of energy, I head to my first-ever track meet. Though this is only a smaller, unofficial event before the actual regionals, the whole environment—with all these schools and their athletes gathered in one place – just feels really cool. So I spend the better part of those four hours exploring every corner of the giant facility with my two close friends, Liam Luo and Devin Pham (#93). Plus having a way-too-deep and very ironic (see below and #87) discussion with Liam on us being ahead of the curve in recognizing our future adult responsibilities.

My event is the 200-400-600-800 medley. I run the 600 meters, and all I can recall is feeling really, really good throughout that—like I was sprinting the whole way without getting tired at all. It was probably the greatest I’ve ever felt while running. And so, I post an excellent split, and we end up getting second.

There’s also this Lisgar Mile thing at the end (we were technically the hosts), where sixteen people from each school team run 100 metres each. So I take part in that too, with Liam and Devin, and we place second. Which is also damned impressive. Of note, Liam and Devin place first in both the men’s and mixed 4 x 100.

Side Note: One of the girls on the mixed team, Mariana, embraces Liam after the win; and he spends the rest of the day going on about how attractive she is. That’s the first and only time, in all six years I went to school with Liam (plus since we reconnected during his Harvard Engineering PhD), that he ever expressed an interest in girls.

So, despite the circumstances (or perhaps because of them), this was definitely my most fun track and field experience ever…at my first meet.

(NB: I would miss Top 8 for district finals by 1 millisecond in the 200-meters a month later, and that would be the peak of my track and field career.)