Unhealthy stress.

When I got more serious about running, I naturally got more nervous about meets, which lead me to become more stressed over it. A little stress is okay, and even good, but there comes a point when there is too much stress. I got to that point my senior year in high school. 
I knew that I was always one of the most nervous, if not THE most nervous person on my team. Even for small meets against two schools in our county, I was stressed out. I knew that I stressed way too much and most of the time it was for no reason, but I didn't realize it was unhealthy. I always told my teammates not to stress or be upset if they didn't run as well as they wanted to, but I couldn't take my own medicine. The amount of stress I inflicted upon myself prevented me from having fun at meets. Soon, it started impacting my friendships with my best friends. I remember crying, wondering if I had ruined friendships, because I let my stress get the best of me and was extremely rude to my coach and best friends. I knew I wasn't in a good place when I overheard my coach tell someone at practice "Running sucks. Racing is what's fun." And I found myself asking if I felt the same way. I put so much unnecessary stress on myself that I forgot to have fun with it. I forgot what made me start running. After talking about my stress with my coach and my brother, I decided to just focus on having a good time with my friends, and making the most of my last few meets in high school. When I didn't induce as much stress on myself and tried to keep the mood light and make jokes to myself and my teammates, I performed better. Maybe it was because I wasn't stressing as much, or maybe it just worked out that way. I'm still working on my stress problem, but its gotten better since I realized I should have fun and make the most of my time with my best friends. I am so thankful that I realized this sooner rather than later because too much stress is never okay and things could have turned out a lot worse. Just smile and don't stress as much, it all works out.

- Abbey Sweeney (@abbslikesteel)