Conquering the Hurdles by Michael

Conquering the Hurdles by Michael - May 2026 Scholarship Essay

When I started high school, one of the activities that I tried was track. I decided to participate in 110 hurdles because not that many runners chose it. It is a hard event to run. I was slow, afraid of jumping over the hurdles, and overall not very good. I hated it and wanted to quit. It was intimidating. When the other members of the track team laughed at me about how slow I was, I knew I had to do something different. I choose to work closely with the hurdles coach, and put in a lot of extra hours. I ran during breaks, holidays, and even over the summer. I also lifted weights in the gym in order to get more muscle strength. The faster I got, the more time I put in to get even faster. My times have improved so much that I have been invited to run at invitationals, state competitions, and even national competitions with Adidas and Nike. Because of my hard work, running the 110 hurdles has definitely become manageable. I’ve been able to also run the 200 relays, the 100 relays, the 400 relays, and the 300 meter dash. I’ve medaled in all of these events and competed in numerous competitions.