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
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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 find him smiling all the time, and he always say positive things even when you

missed 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 I didn’t listen to his last advice and went for a run the next
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morning. However, I ignored the last part of his advice and went for a run the following morning. And

yup, that was when it happened.

That day I had my first injury while running. At first, I thought it was just a slight pain because I

didn't warm up well, but whenever I tried to keep running the pain was getting worst and worst.