A girl who ran track at my rival high school qualified for the Olympics in the 5k. She did it in astounding fashion; personal best by over 5 seconds to beat the qualifying time standard by 0.2 seconds, and beat out fourth place by 0.02 seconds. All this with an amazing sprint to boot. Four years ago Kim was sitting on the couch watching Olympic trials, her personal best over a minute off pace, hoping that one day maybe she would be able to participate at the Olympic trials. 8+ years ago when we ran track in high school, we were both upper-mediocre runners, solid on our own teams but not impactful beyond. Not a single person would have predicted that Kim and I would be going to the Olympics. But, improbably, we both are.
It is every athlete's dream to have such an extraordinary performance on such an important day, such as Kim did. But very very few athletes actualize dreams such as hers. I find her race very inspirational; too often we limit ourselves with statistical realities when the extraordinary is imminently possible. My chances of winning a medal are low, especially gold. But in the coming months I need to relentlessly pursue the possibility of a one-in-a-million flyer to "imposibility". Here's to Kim, and to the improbable.
Here's her race:
http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/track-and-field/culley-huddle-punch-london-tickets-in-5000m.html
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