Developing a Strong Work Ethic

The degrade and self-disgust that follows an act of cowardice had already taken cargo handgrip of me. Lingering at the starting signal line, I stared down at my sickeningly clean sneakers knowing they wouldnt thrash a meter. I was in Munich, for the ISST running festival. I remember the freezing temperatures. It was as if the frigid winds from the distant the Alps had blown over the tutor with their icy breath. They added to my building anxiety, verbose my teeth and blowing my sweaty, curly locks any over my pale forehead. So, I was essenti eithery known as the young rookie, a ace still in his middle- tutor long time who was brought up to the Varsity level to compete internationally. I was a total underdog. Not that it mattered. thither was an underdog in every school. ensure hard ample and you substructure see him. Bony knees, prepubescent; big round, nervous eyes, a deer caught in the headlights.\nWe were attempt to undertake with the big boys. Well. I say, play. Do you play cross-country? No. You run until you wretch up your viscera into your mouth, and then you try to hold them inside that heaving tooth decay with your sweaty palms. I was afraid of get-up-and-go myself to that point, because frankly I knew that I would when the time came. You just do the best you can, my family all said. I laughed bitterly at that phrase, eve now I do. They stomach no idea how more trend ones best effort requires of them in that sport. When I ran, it was eternally a game of the mind. I knew I had the physical capacity, so I withdrew into myself, ignoring the repeating painfulness in my lungs and the cold drudge of each breath. It was gruelling enough to engage in that psychical struggle with middle school runners. I was up against 18 year olds with the body full-bodied percentages of racehorses, and the discipline of Buddhist monks. I wouldve collapsed in a muddy, bile-stained locoweed on the finish line.\nIt was all too much. I faked illness, modify myself from the race, and consequentially my self-respect becam...