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• On the Block Athletics Competition Pathways School Gurgaon
  
  October 11

Running has always been a way for me to clear my mind and focus on myself, and as someone who has always been on the track team (since at least 6th grade), it was difficult for me to join Pathways during Covid and not participate in athletics at all. This one year made me very rusty, and my skills suffered as a result, so when the opportunity to join the athletics team in DP1 presented itself, I jumped at it. I used this opportunity to compete in the Block Athletics competition with two of my peers (and close friends) in DP1. It was challenging for us during the sessions because we knew our talents weren't quite where they could be, but we gave it our all, nevertheless. Since we were the only students from DP to participate—Anuva, Mahira, and I—we felt like we were representing DP as a whole.  As a result of the work we put into it, we were able to perform admirably on September 1, 2022, the first day. We were able to finish in the top three of every event we took part in, including the 100 metres, 400 metres, 3000 metres, and 100 metres hurdles. By the end of the first day, our energy was low but our hopes were high; our success the first day had given us some confidence in our abilities.

The second day, the weather was ideal, even better than the first day. We all prepped and watched the other children from our team participate in their own age groups. But right before our own age group started, the three of us started to feel nervous, we felt this horrible pressure on us, that if we lost , all our hard work would mean nothing. Anuva- the over achiever among us - did her best to console, but nonetheless we felt nervous. when we got to the starting line, we were feeling horrible, all the other girls around us looked like they knew what they were doing and that only made us feel smaller. Situational irony decided to not show up on that day and we got off to a late start. We kept trying to catch up, and by the second runner, we were almost in second place. The third runner continued at that pace, but when we got to the final competitor, the baton slightly slipped, and this delay of about 2 seconds cost us second place. Despite finishing third, we were crestfallen to have not brought the gold home.

Aadishree Singh, DP1