Subria and Track - Learning to Fly

I used to love running when I was in elementary school. I remember doing pretty well on field day at Wingate Park in Brooklyn when I was finishing fifth grade. I think there was some talk of me participating in the Colgate Women's Games back then. There's something in my memory about my parents having a friend who was involved with the CWG . . . a woman named Carol Rainey. But that never came to be.

That's me in the back on the right.

It's not so fun to do something when you're compelled to do it. Even worse, when you're not properly prepared to do it. I had loved running when I was in elementary school, but a few years later, everyone in my church youth group had to participate in all of the sports on the church teams. This included basketball, cheerleading (for the girls - we wore blue and white saddle shoes 😫), volleyball and track and field. I pretty much hated all of it (except volleyball). I wasn't a great player. In fact, I barely moved my feet, and never quite learned how to set or spike. I was pretty good at bumping and serving though.

I'm behind the girl with the red jacket with the Cairo face.

When I was on the track team, I was chosen to run the mile - not because I was good at it, but because I would gain more points for the team just for completing the race. I was decent at the long and triple jumps, and I did get a bronze medal for running the mile, but again, not because I was good at it. There were four people running in my age group, and one person stopped running. I got the bronze medal by default just for finishing 😐. Sadly, that wasn't the end, either. I had to run again at the finals. My mother had just had surgery, yet she came out to support me. It was blazing, and my event was just about the last one of the day. I think we were in Pennsylvania. I didn't place very well. I caught a cramp during the first 400 meters, and was happy to just finish the race. I never ran competitively again after that. 

Dishon was a track star. A record breaking athlete. I never got to see him run or high jump. If I had a time machine, it's one of the first things I'd go back to do. I'd be in the front, his biggest fan, feeling the wind against me as he flew by. He was that fast. I'd be trying to keep the sun out of my eyes as I watched him soar above the high jump bar. He could jump that high. One of the ways I tried to connect to this part of him was to have Subria be a track star, too. He was my mentor as I wrote this scene:

 

September, 1994

Brooklyn Technical High School was an impressive building.  When Subria had come to the school to register during the summer, she only got to see the main office, and a large classroom.  Even then, she was amazed that the school was as wide and long as a whole city block.  On her first day of school, a team of seniors took Subria and a group of nine other freshmen on a tour of the school.  The center lobby had a fireplace, and the school's auditorium was the second largest in New York City, after Radio City Music Hall.  She had definitely never seen any school auditorium with two balconies before.  There was a massive library, and gyms on both the first and eighth floors, with an indoor track in the mezzanine of the eighth floor gym.

As she walked down the hall toward her homeroom, she marveled at the high ceilings and trophy cases.  Subria would have to check all of this out more carefully another time.  She heard that students received detention for being late, and she definitely didn't want that to happen. 

There's another part of the story that will appear here, but I want to stay focused on the track theme.

 

***

 Track try outs finally took place at the beginning of November.  Subria stayed after school to

talk with the coach about trying out for the team.  Like most junior high schools, her old school didn’t have a track team, so Subria kept up her times by preparing for and competing in the Colgate Women’s Games every year.  She regularly ran the 55 meter dash, and had taken third place at the Madison Square Garden finals in January with a time of 7.4 seconds, but she had never run 100 meters competitively before.  Subria knew she was up to the challenge.  Despite the long practices and constant pressure, she knew her father would be disappointed if she didn’t try.  It was his dream for her. 

Subria walked into the first floor gym and looked around to figure out where the head coach’s office was.  The basketball team was in the gym running sprints, so she didn’t want to interrupt them.  Subria walked underneath the bleachers to the other side of the gym.  She saw the doors to the locker rooms, and then a few doors down, there was Daniel Morgan’s office. 

Trying out for the Brooklyn Tech Engineers was more challenging than Subria thought.  She wasn’t really sure what to expect, but as soon as she approached Coach Morgan about being on the team, he wanted to see if she was really as fast as she said she was.  Thankfully, none of the other team members were there.  She changed out of her school clothes into her sweats and sneakers, and stretched in the center of the track for about ten minutes until she saw Coach Morgan walk on to the track. 

He motioned for her to go over to the starting blocks, so she walked in that direction, putting her hair up into a ponytail as she went.  Subria kissed the cross on the chain on her neck as she always did before running, and then positioned herself on the blocks.  She concentrated on slowing her breathing, and listening to the sound of her own heart beat, knowing that for every beat of her heart, her feet would need to hit the ground four times in order to run under thirteen seconds.

Watch your breathing, Subria.

She looked over at Coach Morgan, who was standing next to the track at the finish line with a timer in his right hand and his left hand in the air. 

Subria looked up at him, waiting for his signal, and as soon as she saw his arm drop, she took off.  Like most sprinters, Subria was focused on getting her right knee up as fast as possible to be quick off the blocks.  She kept her head down for the first ten steps, with only a fraction of a second separating each one of those steps.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.

Head up, goal in sight, stay in your lane.

Push, push, push. 

Subria crossed the finish line, and when she finally brought herself to a stop, she began to walk back over toward Coach Morgan to find out what her time was. 

"How did I do?" she asked, trying to catch her breath.

"How do you think you did?" he asked.

"I think I did okay.  I know I can do better, though."

"Okay.  Take a breather.  Walk back to the starting line, and do it again."

Subria walked slowly back to the blocks and thought about the look she always saw on her father’s face after her races.  She couldn’t remember him ever smiling so much at any other time.  His office at the laundromat was filled with community newspaper clippings about her performance at the Colgate Women’s Games, and he talked about her track performance whenever he had a chance.  She had to get on the team. 

She ran again, and she knew that she had run a little faster than before. 

"Not bad," Coach Morgan responded, showing her the stopwatch.  It showed 12.53.

Coach Morgan tried her out for a few other events.  It turned out to that she had some skill in the long and triple jumps.  Subria was beside herself when she made the indoor girls varsity team.  In addition to long and triple jumps, Coach Morgan told her that she would compete in the 55 meter relay and the 4 x 100 meter relay. 

***

Although she had track practices every day after school for 2-3 hours, Subria excelled in her academics.  In addition to joining the National Honor Society, she ran in the Public Schools Athletic League, the Big Apple Games, the Pilgrim Games and the Jim McKay Games at the Armory Track and Field Center in Manhattan, and easily made the outdoor track team in March.  She was even invited to participate in the 101^st Penn Relay Carnival at the end of April - the week after her birthday.  Renee wasn't able to come because she didn't want to close the store.  But the night before Steven drove Subria down to Philadelphia, he told her that she could invite Gina and Kenya to spend the night with her the night before they left. 

"Subria," Gina asked just before they fell asleep, "can you tell me why sprinters don't run full out to the end?  It's almost like they slow down at the end sometimes.  I hate when they do that!  It seems like they'd make better times if they ran as fast as they could until they reached the finish line."

"I used to hate that too before I started running track," Subria said, "but that only happens in quarter finals and stuff like that when people are just trying to qualify for the finals.  It reserves your energy and reduces your chance of injury.  It’s also psychological for everyone else, because then the other runners don’t really know how fast you can run." 

"I guess that makes sense," Gina said. "So, are you ready?"

"Ready as I'll ever be," Subria said, sighing. 

      In order to prepare for the relay, Subria and her teammates warmed up by stretching and running an easy mile.  Seeing all the other sprinters there made Subria nervous, but not enough to impact her performance.  As always, Subria was the anchor.  When she initially got on the blocks, she envisioned the race, and pictured herself running faster than her competitors.  An essential part of her pre-relay mental prep work was imagining her team winning the race.  Once she heard her teammate Vanessa yell "stick," she reached back for the baton, and pushed to the end.  At the last possible moment, she dipped her stride to get her head and chest across the finish line.  Subria and her team won the first place 8" bronze plaque, and gold medals.    

Steven was beside himself with excitement for Subria's success.  He went hoarse cheering for her, and he ran out on to the field after her team won the final race.  He embraced her so tightly that it was hard for Subria to breathe.  Although Subria appreciated her father’s support of her accomplishments, she couldn’t help but wish, sometimes, that he would pay as much attention to her off the field as he did when she was sprinting.   

***

I need to do a lot more work on this scene. My writing coach encouraged me to include much more dialogue, which I will. I want there to be a clear connection between Subria/flying in the beginning of the book on the observation deck of the World Trade Center and Subria/running on the track team. What is she running/flying away from? I'll do this even while in my mind's eye, I'm picturing my best friend flying through the air, impressing me in the timeless space our love occupies. I am, and always will be his biggest fan. I can write about love because I know him.