Wooden-bridges, soccer fields, perfect gravel, and loops around a never-ending baseball field describe the 2012 Athens Bible Invitational this past Thursday. After months of constant disappointing times, I finally broke through my plateau. On the rather damp course, hundreds of runners set out to finish in fast finishes. Rain held off at Athens Bible and gave off comfortable running temperatures for each race. I was hoping to place Top 20 and receive an “Elite Runner” t-shirt. I set out for an unusual fast pace for the beginning of the race. My mind tried to trick me into slowing down, but I fought the thought and picked up my pace. I felt so free and happy to know that I didn’t settle for what my mind was trying to tell me. This was the first time in months that I felt like I was a strong competitor in a race. Every opportunity I had, I passed people and reassured myself that I could finish strong and push even harder. Soon, I was running the outside of one of the two baseball fields and couldn't believe that I had not slowed down. As I was running around the second baseball field and thought there was no way I was doing this and my legs aren’t collapsing at this point. The last 400 meters were right ahead of me as I wrapped around the batting cages. I knew I had to give it even more effort if I wanted to finish in a season personal record. As I was entering the last 100 meters, I saw the clock at 20:56 and felt overwhelmed. My season record of 22:01 this season was shattered with my new season record of 21:13! I felt confident again and believed in myself. I had been very hard on myself and always thought: “If I don’t do this workout today, I’ll never be able to get faster.” That wasn't the case. I decreased my useless workouts and focused on their individual quality. Out of the Top-20 placing I had hoped I would finish in, I ended up placing 2nd out of 1A-4A and 4th out of the whole race! This was the perfect time to increase my hopes that I am getting faster, two weeks before Sectionals. I will not be racing for the next two weeks and will focus my training. This is my first year competing at our local Section race and I am very excited. I am hoping to qualify for State this year, as well. Although I am not racing for the next few weeks, I will be at the NW Alabama Championships to cheer on local athletes. It is always odd to be a spectator rather than an athlete racing at the meet. I hope everyone has had a successful season so far and continue to progress into phenomenal athletes.