By Harrison Walter
There was a college track meet at CSU-Pueblo the day after we got home from the college, and I agreed to run the 10K there. However, when I found out that no other teammates were going, I immediately thought that this was a mistake and that maybe I shouldn’t run. This led to problems getting out the door that morning of the meet.
When we arrived at CSU-Pueblo I stayed in the truck because I was still nervous. I eventually got out, calmed down and ready to race. However when the gun went off, I went out a little too fast. The race was 25 laps and I slowed down during the last few. I did the best I could but feel like I could've done better if I hadn’t wasted energy over whether to run and then started out too fast. Once again, this has been a learning process throughout my running journey. Later on, we randomly ran into Blueberry there and it turned out he was just hanging out at the meet and didn’t run. He said the school work was easier at Trinidad State but the cafeteria food was not as good as at CMC.
In the following days I learned that administration of our CMC team Instagram page, notcmcleadvillexc, had been passed on from Ana to Brooklyn. This odd name for our page was due to it not being officially approved by CMC. I was not happy because I wanted to manage the page after Ana. However, I found out that the page traditonally had been maintained by the women’s team but I still felt frustrated.
The day after that, my mom, dad, and I headed to Highlands Ranch near Denver to stay at my uncle Steve and my aunt Peg’s house before our early morning flight to Florida. They had an electric piano in the basement in which I played a part of “Some Things Never Change” from Frozen 2. The next morning, we got up before light and got in Steve’s car to go to the airport. On the drive there, I watched the sun rise over the horizon.
When we boarded the plane, I immediately got my phone out to film the takeoff. Then I watched Frozen during the first flight to Dallas. Because this was not a direct flight, we had to stay on the plane before takeoff again to Pensacola. When the plane was in the air again, I watched Frozen 2. When we landed in Pensacola, my aunt Shelby met us in the airport. This was the same airport we flew into for cross country nationals the previous fall. She drove us to Navarre Beach.
When we arrived at the beach, the first thing that struck me was that it was hot and humid, even during overcast weather, unlike Colorado. And when the sun would come out, it would just make it really hot. We stayed in a high-rise condo building next to the beach. The first day, we mostly just hung out at the beach and went for a run, which was really hard because of the sand. That night, we went to a restaurant not too far away. We choose to sit outside. Even after the sun went down and it started to get dark, it was still really warm and humid.
For the next couple days we enjoyed the beach, running on a bike path, and eating at restaurants. We walked the pier a couple times and watched people fish. I noticed the different types of birds on the beach and out on the pier, and there were also turtles and sharks visible in the clear sea water.
Later that day, we went to a different restaurant. We did outdoor seating just like the other one. I noticed a stage there that nobody was using and decided to sing karaoke songs there. When we left the restaurant, my dad, mom, and my aunt Shelby were chatting for a while. Meanwhile, I did some parkour on the walls at the end of the parking lot. I was extremely careful while doing those, so everyone around me didn’t have to worry about me getting seriously hurt and having to go to the hospital, especially during a vacation. Anyways, we went back to the room and settled in for the night.
The next day, we left early in the morning to fly back to Denver. We had to switch planes in Dallas. We decided to eat in the airport, but could not find a table. We eventually got a table next to this complete stranger. I felt kind of weird about this because it wasn’t like sitting with my friends, for example.
When our plane took off for Denver I once again filmed it and then watched a movie during the flight. This entire trip had been good until we landed in Denver. I was trying to get to my mom who was at the exit door of the plane. In the process, I ended up accidentally bumping into a guy who was also exiting the plane.
When we got onto the airport concourse, this guy marched up to me in front of my parents and said, “You were rude! Next time I might just give you a whooping!” Then he walked off. After that, I went into full panic mode then started to run off toward a nearby store. Just before I got away, my dad told me, “You wait right here.” Then he ran off wearing his backpack chasing this guy.
When my dad got back he told me what happened. He caught up with the guy and got in his face, “Congratulations, you just chewed out an autistic kid!”
This guy just kept walking and said, “Well, he was rude!”
Then my dad said, “Next time someone might just give you a whooping!” Apparently this guy shut up then and walked away.
I was still upset after this and we had to get our luggage and find where Steve and Peg were. We eventually found them and went to their house where our car was. I played their piano in the basement for a little bit and then we headed for home.
The trip to Florida served as a good break after my first year of college. Now I had to get back on track with the training program for my fall cross-country season.
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Huzzah, Hal!