I've never really ever thought of myself as being the best or being the best I could be at any particular thing. It took me a while to even think of a time in my life where I've felt like the best. I think that is because I am so hard on myself most of the time and usually don't think I'm doing good enough even when people say I am.
The only sport I've ever really been good at and participated in all four years of high school was track. It made me feel pretty good that I was running varsity meets my freshman year, but that's not when I felt at my best. At the very beginning of my junior year track season at the UNI indoor track meet I wasn't really expecting to do very well because it was the Monday after our spring break, over which I didn't do any running. Since I ran the mile I thought for sure that not running that whole week would hurt me, but it apparently did not. I actually ended up running the best time of my career at that time of a 5:03 mile. I was so ecstatic because before this I had never thought there was a chance I'd ever run under a 5 minute mile. My best before that was like a 5:20 so it was a big improvement. Since I was so close to going under 5, I knew I could accomplish it that year.
I was so determined after that to run under 5 minutes that I started working harder than I ever had before. I had a few track meets where I ran about the same time which disappointed me because I wanted to get under 5 minutes so badly. During about the forth or fifth track meet of the year I finally did it, and even better than I wanted. A 4:59 would have been good enough for me. I ended up running a 4:54 which I was so excited about. I'm actually not sure if I've ever been happier about anything I'd ever done. It was actually the best time I'd ever run even after that too. I felt on top of the world that day. I think I could probabably say that was the best I had ever felt in my life. It was just an overall great day just because of that.
