Usama Mohammed 1

Dr. Bradway
ENG101
Date: 9/25/2022

Six years of discipline

         Who said you must become a world champion to be a professional athlete? Six years ago, I

started my running journey, which taught me a lot, and shaped me into the person who I am today. But

before that let's go back and see how it all began. As a kid, I wasn't interested in sports at all. I just wanted

to play video games and have fun like any other kid, until I met this coach in one of our PE classes. He

visited our school in search of players for the academy where he trains. To find out who among us has the

talent, he gave us a fitness test. The test consisted of running back and forth until you get tired. I couldn't

tell if I was stressed, scared, or excited. My hands couldn't stop shaking and sweating, and I could hear

my heart pounding. So, the test began, and we began running, back and forth, back and forth for thirty

minutes. I saw all my classmates collapse to the ground like flies from exhaustion. I wanted to stop too,

but I kept telling myself Just one more minute, Usama, just run for one more minute. '' Until someone

shouted, "Congratulations," it was the coach, he stopped me after one hour of running and asked me,

``What's your name kid? I answered while hardly catching my breath. My name is Usama. Well Usama,

congratulations again. I’m coach Dave. You killed it kid. I will see you in our Academy next year, he

said. That was the kickoff of my journey, as I like to call it.

         In 2015, my life changed when I started attending the academy. I was surrounded by professional

athletes of different ages, from all around the world, participating in a variety of sports, everyone was

focused on their goal. After seeing that, I became enthralled and resolved to become a professional runner

and win Olympic medals. What a childish dream right? it was still too early for such goals, and I knew

there would be many obstacles in my way. I went to my first training session, and coach Dave was there.

When I told him about my dream, he burst out laughing and said, "Well kid it's a big dream and you have

to start working for it brick by brick. Let me tell you about coach Dave a bit. He is from Ireland, thirty

years old. He has a great body. He is very serious when it comes to training, but other than that you will
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find him smiling all the time, and he always says positive things even when you mess up. I took his

advice and began building my road brick by brick, as he suggested. I was going to the academy at 7 a.m.

and returning at 7 p.m. it was new thing for me not to be at home all that time, but I learned how to

manage my time and balance my athletic and academic careers. I was determined, no matter what, to

achieve my goal. By training twice a day, and waking up early in the morning while everyone is still

sleeping and go for a run, ignoring all the aches in my bones from working out at the gym. I even made

myself like the bad taste of the protein. It doesn't even smell good. I have been in this discipline for five

months. Even my parents were astonished by their 13 years old child who is behaving like an adult. One

day, they asked me what changed you like this? I said with a smile on my face I'm a pro athlete now. I

could see in their faces how proud they were. Finally, the hour has come. My first official race, unusually

I wasn’t feeling any of the nervousness and fear that I used to, I was calm and ready to race. I spoke to

Coach Dave before the race started and he said, this is the first step towards your dream, and I am sure

you will do well, you worked hard for this. Go get your medal now. Go put your first brick champ. And

that was what happened. I was far ahead of my fellow runners. And all I was thinking was, first place,

first place. I kept saying that in my head. I was not hearing anything, even though people were cheering. I

have never been this focused in my life. After I crossed the finish line, I suddenly started hearing

everything again, the people's cheers, and the sound of my heart racing. I crumbled from exhaustion,

looked up at the sky, and said to myself, this is what it feels like to accomplish something, this is

discipline. After the race, everyone congratulates me, including those who were with me in the race. One

of them said, wow, man! You were flying. He is my friend now. His name is Salih. He came second in

that race. At the end of the day, before going home with my first medal, Coach Dave came to me and

said, congratulations again. Remember now good recovery, good food, and don’t train tomorrow you

need rest. But unfortunately, I ignored the last part of his advice and went for a run the following

morning.

 
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         That day, while running, I suffered my first injury. At first, I thought it was just a minor ache

from not warming up properly, but as I continued to run, the pain became increasingly severe. I felt

suffocated and full of regret, and all I could think about was the coach's words, "Take a rest." I had no

idea what to do. Many questions popped into my head. What will the coach say? Should I tell him? What

about my dream? Why didn't I pay attention to him? I walked back home limping, while reflecting on my

mistake. When I came how my father noticed something was not going well with me. He asked me are

you okay? You look sad. I told him everything. He told me not to worry, just go to the coach and tell him

about it, and he'll understand.  I went to the academy the next day, and Salih saw me limping asked me

what happened, so I start telling him everything. He told me it's okay, this is a normal thing in sports,

focus now on recovering from your injury. After the school we went to the training together. while

walking someone behind me said, looks like you did it. It was coach Dave. I didn’t say anything I was

ashamed and waiting for him to give long speech, but instead of that he just said. let’s this be your last

injury kid. We all get excited sometimes and do more than we should but remember. One hard training

session won’t make you hero, but one hard training session could bring you to zero. It's been a month

since my injury, with help from both Dave and Salih I was able to recover from the injury and get back to

what I was before and better. I went back training, racing, and winning both Domestic and foreign

tournaments together with Salih. Pushing each other to become the best. It was six fun years in my life.