Do you ever see winter track athletes studiously walking to track practice, and you’re left there absolutely bamboozled by how they haven’t turned into an ice sculpture yet? That was me last year. I quit, but here’s why you should definitely join track. 

     After school everyday instead of hopping on the bus and going to your house, you walk to whatever teacher’s room you decided to dump all your stuff in. 

     Then from there, you go to the locker room and get bombarded with body spray and the sense of imminent doom. Don’t let the anxiety slow you down though, the locker room closes at 3:15, and you will hear people yelling at you to leave the whole time you’re in there.

     Now change into your three jackets, two pairs of gloves, sweatpants, hat, grab your spikes and water, and get ready to have the best two hours of your life.

     Outside. 

     In the Winter. 

     With 100 other people from your school. 

     And Mr. Lancaster, I guess.  

     Also, I’d recommend drinking some of that water before it freezes. 

     Leaving the locker room in whatever track cult you decided to join, you walk towards door 11, letting yourself feel the frigid temperature. 

     The first step outside is awful-ly great. The sunlight you haven’t seen since 7:50 AM feels wonderful, but don’t get me wrong, that sunlight is not making it any warmer.

      Every step you take assures you that “indoor” track and field was (not) the sport for you. You check your weather app, it’s just above freezing, totally how you like it. 

     Okay–let’s be real–Track and Field is awful. 

     You grab your third pair of gloves from your backpack under all your binders and the laptop that makes your backpack feel 30 pounds heavier when all of a sudden you feel a heavy wind go by you. You look up and see some moron in shorts running when it’s 30 degrees outside. ughh

     You pull out your phone to see if the superintendent has blessed you with cancelling all outdoor activities.  Nothing. No yellow alert as soon as you open the schools website. You don’t even have a reaction anymore because you’re physically numb from the cold and mentally numb from school. 

     Track never gets cancelled, so trudge on loser. 

     “I like the environment because you can make really good friends and also you’re exercising at the same time,” Maritza Becker, 10, “There are some questionable days when it’s raining really hard and it’s freezing. But other than that, if you run hard enough, then you’ll get warm.”  

      You can make really good friends during track.

       . . . Except, it’s basically based on VO2 max because you’re only talking to the people who run at your pace. 

     But if it helps, you know they’re a really good friend if they stay with you when you’re getting frostbite,  running around in the snow, and you’re taking 150 breaths per minute. 

     If you run hard enough, then you’ll get warm . . .You know, another good way to stay warm is just staying inside (no hate).  

     “I like the environment,” Neha Ranjith, 10, “but, I really don’t like the temperature, we always have to go bundled up. I run really slow when I have a bunch of layers on, and it makes me really mad, and I’m always shivering. I really hate the temperature.”