How A Teen Sprinter Uses Faith, Nutrition, And Precision To Run Faster

Ten seconds can hold a season’s worth of pressure. Nick, a senior 100, 200, and 4x100 sprinter, walks us through how he turns that pressure into speed by starting months early, lifting with purpose, and translating gym gains into cleaner mechanics on the track. We dig into the shift from “just showing up” to training with intention, and how simple choices—sleep, warmups, and daily core finishers—unlock relaxed form and faster top-end velocity.

Fuel becomes a competitive edge. Nick explains why he ditched energy drinks and constant sugar, timed his carbs, and treated hydration like equipment. The payoff shows up in recovery, muscle growth, and repeatable speed. He breaks down the art of the start: block patience, no chasing the gun, and a mental reset when false starts rattle the field. Music cues, breath, and focus on the finish line keep him present when it matters most.

Faith is his anchor. With 1 Corinthians 9:24 inked on his spikes, he races with gratitude and clarity, turning nerves into calm energy. We highlight the mentors who shaped him—from pros like Noah Lyles to a D1-bound teammate whose discipline raises the standard—and why track, despite its lanes, is a true team sport. Nick shares how to process the hard moments, from dropped batons to off days, without losing humor or heart, and how identity beyond sport protects performance across a long season.

If you’re a coach, parent, or athlete chasing a better sprint season, you’ll leave with practical tactics for nutrition, recovery, mechanics, and mindset—and a fresh view of leadership and faith on the track. Enjoyed the conversation? Follow, share with a teammate, and leave a rating to help more athletes find the show.

The only podcast that is all about Athletes Supporting Athletes!

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:43

Guys, welcome back to the Plan B podcast. Today we get to meet Nick, a high school senior and 100, 200 and 4x100 meter sprinter, and he's going to share with us his ideas and tips on how you can have your best track season.

Meet Nick, Senior Sprinter

SPEAKER_01 1:12

If you're not familiar with track and field, out of all the events on track and field, the sprinters are the most dramatic. So this is really like in line with having Nicholas with us tonight and that dramatic, you know, last season of your life is really appropriate for 100 and 200 meter runners because really they do bring a lot of drama. What is that, Nick? Can you like share us a little bit? Is that manufactured or is that just the distance that brings that kind of vibe?

SPEAKER_00 1:39

Yeah, I think it's definitely the distance. Like I love the pressure on me. I like all the eyes on me. Going back to like me playing tag, like my favorite feelings was being the last person around, everyone else is trying to get you, and you're just like running, keeping the game going on. I love that feeling. I love the pressure. I love how everything is just like on you. It's win or die.

SPEAKER_01 1:56

You know what? And I love that you say that because I am sitting here and I just had a flash of like extreme envy because being an ultra-distance Iron Man former, I'm saying former now because I'm old, but former Iron Man triathlete, I have zero speed. So I am so jealous of people who are fast. And I know that everybody looks at the 100 meters as the main event. So going into your fourth season, Nick, can you tell us a little bit about your preparation for your last high school season and when did this start?

SPEAKER_00 2:25

Yeah. So my preparation really started around October.

The Drama Of Sprinting

SPEAKER_00 2:28

You know, it really began with like a strong emphasis on strength training. My coach Susan has been like such an amazing supporter, like not just in curating the workouts, but also like helping me understand the proper form mechanics, how that actually like applies to like my sprinting. Um, in addition to that, amazing coach Tracy has also had me out on the track every single day, you know, doing hills, heavy emphasis on conditioning and just building a base that I can really work towards in like the later end of my season.

SPEAKER_01 2:49

So we're just gonna pause for a second because um one of Nicholas's coaches is Susan Jackson. Now, if you are just new to the Plan B podcast, hey, welcome. Thank you. We love that you've joined our community. But if you don't know about Susan Jackson, please go back to season one and you will see an episode on Susan. Now, not only was Susan an amazing athlete, but she's also a strength and conditioning coach and she's been preparing Nicholas for his upcoming track season. So, over the last three years of track, do you think going into this final year, are there any things that you're going to be doing differently?

SPEAKER_00 3:19

Yeah, I feel like I'm way more intentional now. Like freshman year and beginning of sophomore year, I kind of just like ran and just like showed up. But like now I actually understand like why I'm doing certain workouts, like how recovery matters, how details like sleep and like warm-ups actually will affect my performance. I'm not just smarter, but I'm also faster. And I feel like I can really apply that all in its full force this last season.

SPEAKER_01 3:39

Would you say, um, Nicholas, that going into this season and knowing that, you know, it you don't want to put a lot of pressure on yourself. And I've never honestly been a big fan of goals. When New Year's rolls around and everyone goes, oh, Liz, what are your goals? Blah, blah, blah. I hate that. And I prefer to talk about intentions. Have you set yourself like any intentions for this season?

SPEAKER_00 3:59

Yeah, definitely. I really want to be like, I don't want to just come with the perception of just giving it all. I've been doing that for the past four years. Like, I wouldn't say that's like me if I haven't been giving it for my last four years, but I just want to keep it consistent as I have. I don't want to try, you know, super large new things. Obviously, I'm giving some new things, like a new mindset, but I don't want to like switch up the training, switch up the running, like change many things that are gonna like drastically possibly decline my performance.

Training Starts In October

SPEAKER_01 4:23

And I guess there's also gonna be, even though it's there's a little touch of sadness that this is your last track season as a senior, I guess also you're pretty excited because you are at the top of the pile now. You're one of the leaders of the pack. Pretty sure you'll probably be gunning for one of those captain positions. Does that carry some weight, knowing that you are now a role model to the rest of your track team?

SPEAKER_00 4:43

Yeah, 100%. Like I remember my freshman year. There were people like Samantha Carey, Hunter Bledsoe, all these older people, Katie Spiegel, that I definitely looked up to. And I see how well they're performing, how well they carry themselves. And I feel like it's my time to give back, trying to reciprocate that same feeling because the effect they had on me is just like so big. If I wouldn't be here without them, definitely Hunter Bledsoe. He gave me the mechanics, he gave me the sprinting tips when I didn't know anything. I wasn't the super fast kid freshman year. Obviously, I had some speed, it was natural, but he gave me that base I was able to work off of.

SPEAKER_01 5:14

Oh, that's super cool to hear because you know, one of the whole uh like the whole premise behind this show is that we're bringing in athletes to inspire, support, and help other athletes. And it's not just high school seniors, guys. You can be an athlete at any level, you can be active, uh former athlete, retired, current athlete. We still want to hear from you. So, Nicholas, I follow you on your Instagram page. And for those who want to follow Nicholas, you can find the link on the main page of our Plan B by Coach B insta page. And I've been pretty impressed by one, your dedication to training. But I've got to say, man, I mean, all sprinters do, and I guess this isn't this is another envy thing for me. All sprinters look pretty like amazing and cut. I just want to know how much of nutrition plays a role in your performance. Because I can see you in the gym, I can see the program Susan's given you and Tracy's leadership, but I just want to get an idea. What else are you having to do outside of the track in regards to things like nutrition to get you in your current shape? Because, guys, if you if you I know that you know we don't have a video for our podcast, but if you want to jump on and have a look, Nick is looking pretty fast right now. So, Nick, share us a little bit about that.

SPEAKER_00 6:23

Yeah, so it took me a lot longer than I'd like to admit for me to like really hone in my nutrition, especially like this season. I've taken a lot of extra steps to get rid of like, you know, highly caffeinated drinks. Not a lot of fast food, very rare, just on the occasion when it's convenient, constant sugar as well. I've seen tons and tons of like noticed improvements in my strength, muscle growth, just overall recovery during this offseason. I know like Coach Susan is definitely emphasized like not only are you lifting, but if you're not eating correctly, then the lifting, what you're doing, it's not really going to apply to your sprinting if you're not connecting it with that nutrition. Because sprinting is such of like you need the like right foods, the right energy sources. And if you don't have that, then there's no connection or bridge between the two.

SPEAKER_01 7:00

And you're 100% accurate because I even know maybe it's just because of the old age brain that I've got. But after my recent knee surgery, which was in September, I reached out to Coach Susan and I said, Hey, my swelling is not going down in my knee. And she was like, Well, Belinda, are you hydrating with like some, what'd she say, with like electrolytes before bed? And I was thinking, dude, one, I'm not an active athlete. And she was like, Because

Intentions Over Goals

SPEAKER_01 7:24

if you're not doing your electrolytes before bed, you're gonna get a lot of swelling in your muscles. And I was like, dang, you know, just mentally forgot that one. And so she is on it. Out of percentage-wise, Nicholas, would what percent would you weigh nutrition into performance? Just curious.

SPEAKER_00 7:40

I definitely want to say 70, maybe 80%, maybe even higher than that. Like it's definitely something that's all I'm always thinking about every single meal, especially for my school's food. Like, I don't always have the convenience to just bring food from home a lot of times. And so I'm thinking like, what days are gonna have that pasta? What days do I might not gonna eat the school cafeteria pizza?

SPEAKER_01 7:57

Excellent. So you would probably really h highly recommend meal prepping for high school athletes that are really serious or even higher, you know, colleagues beyond, if you're really taking your nutrition seriously, you probably should be meal prepping everywhere you go.

SPEAKER_00 8:10

Yeah, without a doubt.

SPEAKER_01 8:11

Sitting here and then some AirPods connected on the screen. I'm thinking, is my dog putting his AirPods on? Because there's no one else in the room and all of a sudden AirPods were connecting. I'm thinking, hang on. All right, so guys, we are real athletes here, we're not real podcasters. That is the um beauty about this fantastic program we've got going on. Okay, so years of prepping for track. Tell me, because I always like to learn about this, and and learning from your mistakes is huge. What training fails have you learned from?

SPEAKER_00 8:40

Yeah, I've definitely learned from the consequences, just definitely ignoring nutrition, like you're saying, but also ignoring rest, not making recovery a top priority. I think the biggest thing is trying to learn like the right way to run, definitely. For the longest time, I would just get out the blocks, I'd have my face all tight, I would have my fists all tight, and I'd be trying, you think you generate force like that, but you in reality, you're just wasting energy. And that's not how like the most like no allow the top sprinters, they're very relaxed, they're very calm. And that's like the biggest thing that leads to their success. And I've definitely had to just take from my own form of running and trying to incorporate incorporate that to like an actual efficient run.

SPEAKER_01 9:14

Yeah, the technical component about running is huge, and it probably even more so with sprinting. And whenever I used to speak with athletes, I used to ask them, have you ever seen a sprinter with like a pot belly? Okay, it it doesn't happen. And that is probably because the core is the nucleus of a sprinter's performance. Would you agree with that?

SPEAKER_00 9:33

100%, without a doubt.

SPEAKER_01 9:35

And how how would you do abs every day as or part of your core routine, or is it something that you, you know, don't do every day? What's the deal with that?

SPEAKER_00 9:42

Yeah, I definitely try to emphasize after each workout like a core routine. If it doesn't have to be something super long, it can be short. It's just get that in because like the consistency is the most important part. It's like become a point where I don't have to really think about it at this point. And but I keep doing it, and I've definitely seen a noticeable increase in my speed.

SPEAKER_01 9:57

Oh, absolutely. It's when you look at an athlete, and this is just for people who are observers of track and field, guys, it when you have a really strong core, that is your engine. The rest of your body then is allowed to be relaxed, and the core muscle can actually generate power. And for sprinters who have shut such a short time frame to get it right, you know, their core has to be even more locked in than, say, uh, you know, a distance runner. But still, the distance runners technique will fall apart over time if their core is not locked in. So, one of the things that always freaks me out about sprinting

Becoming A Team Leader

SPEAKER_01 10:28

is the start. How do you I know you practice starts, but how do you prepare, Nick Nicholas, when you're on the start line, you've just done a false start.

unknown 10:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:39

What do you think sorry, you go? I've never actually had a false start, but I've been in plenty of races where false starts have actually happened. And the biggest thing for me is just resetting as quickly as possible. Like I think a lot of athletes underestimate the importance of genuinely locking in. Like before races, you'll see me like listening to music, trying to clear my head, praying, and then just focusing on the finish line. And then from the moment that false start is called, I just try to get back into that zone. And then once the gun goes off, everything else just disappears and I'm fully focused on the raceman again.

SPEAKER_01 11:05

And I guess you're really having to get almost in a meditative state to be able to be in that space where you're blocking out the noise of the crowd and you're just being reactive. Are there any tips that you can give to our athletes listening, you know, that might be helpful for them in regards to starting a hundred meters? Because, guys, every like hundredth of a second counts between doing a PR and not doing a PR in the hundred meters.

SPEAKER_00 11:29

Yeah, it really starts with your preparation, I would say. It begins even before you're in the blocks. Have that right mindset. Listen to whatever music you listen to that like gets you logged in. I recently found like on Spotify, like the HBCU marching bands. That's my like go-to music right there. I love that like feel of energy around you, and that fully gets me into the zone. But the biggest thing definitely with starts is just being patient. You know, don't definitely don't anticipate the gun because then you can get called for a false start and you won't even have you know a start if you're out of the race.

SPEAKER_01 11:54

Right. And you know, I I guess it's also like trusting your training, trusting your coach, and trusting your ability to know that you have it in you to be able to have that kind of reactive mechanism to just fly. So um I noticed last season, okay, and I, you know, I'm always looking at my athlete's biomechanics. So I guess I spend a lot of time looking at feet, looking at shoes, landing. And I noticed that you had a Bible passage written on one of your, or maybe it was on both of your track shoes. Can you share with us, one, what is that Bible passage? And two, how does faith play a role in your performance?

SPEAKER_00 12:32

Yeah, so the Bible verse is actually 1 Corinthians 9, 24. Do you not know in a race all runners run, but only one wins the prize, run that you shall may obtain this prize? And I've been Catholic my entire life. I've always tried to, you know, grow closer to God, but I've also felt like in the past couple months I've taken my biggest leap of faith. And so with my most important season coming up, I want my trust in God and my faith to be as strong as possible. And that verse is written on all of my spikes, all of my shoes. And it's just like a constant reminder of how I got here, who I'm running for. Funny story, actually, it was my sophomore year. It was the gaucho relay meet. And I'm on the line and I look down at the guy in front of me, his shoes, he has the same Bible verse, and he's in college now, but we're still really good friends. And we bonded over the fact that we had the same Bible verse written on our shoes, and that was just like that's just like a testimony to like how great the Lord can actually be at bringing to get people together through like such small circumstances.

SPEAKER_01 13:19

Oh my God, I love oh, who just said that? Oh my god, yeah. I love hearing, I love hearing that because that's like faith can play a huge role in sport. And I know it did for me as a Christian athlete. And so

Nutrition As Performance Fuel

SPEAKER_01 13:30

whenever I see kind of Christian athletes, you know, I of course always I have to stay within my professional role and and make sure I'm not, you know, turning into some kind of preacher when I'm down on the track or interacting with my athletes. But I know personally as an athlete that faith was really powerful to me. And Nichols, would you say that in a way, faith, your faith and your dedication to it and trusting your faith actually helps to get rid of nerves, perhaps?

SPEAKER_00 13:54

Yeah, I would, without a doubt, I would say that I know this is Bible verse, I can't remember it off the top of the head, but it's like it goes along the lines of just put your faith into God, like worry about nothing, pray about everything. I try to pray before every single race. I have like the Bible verse app on my phone. Every single day gives me a different verse. Yesterday I had my first outdoor meet. Um, it was around the 300, and the Bible verse was Lamentations chapter three, verse 25. The Lord is good to those who have hope in him, to those who seek him. And that was just kind of the whole mentality I tried to bring into the meet, and I end up winning. So I kind of like have to give, you know, appreciation to that God giving me that verse the same day I won the race.

SPEAKER_01 14:24

Wow. Okay. Now I'm not advocating that you copy me in this, but I do actually have a tattoo on me that says glory to God. As at that, I got that in my early 20s when I was a professional, just as a reminder to say, hey, Belinda, you're here, but and you've got these talents, but just be grateful and all the glory and success that you have, okay? Put it to the big JC. And it sounds like you're already doing that. So just to ensure I keep mom and dad happy, you do not need to get a tattoo. Okay. You can just keep riding on your shoes. But we see it every day that faith plays a huge role for athletes from every level. Now, with JC being a huge role model for both you and me, can you tell me who else has been the role models in your life that have really inspired you in your track and field career?

SPEAKER_00 15:09

Yeah, I don't have like a giant huge list, but I would definitely say the first one, I think it's inspiration, definitely better doubt, is Noah Lyle. It's like I think a lot from him and how he embraces himself. You know, there's always gonna be people who dislike you, don't love you, or don't even like respect you. What really matters is whether you respect what you see in the mirror. And he's all about that. Like I heard a quote once, it was from a show. It goes, people have thrown dirt on a name, others have given flowers, but in the end, it's all a garden to me. What matters is how you grow from that. And I'm just so grateful that track has someone that stands just like that. It's like a great spokesperson. So I feel like that's what the sport really needs in such a mentally demanding aspect, because you know, the mental game is so important in track. I think it's the most like mentally demanding sport out there. And so if you don't come in with the mindset that you're gonna win the race and you're just the best one out there, then you've already lost. Definitely second role model is my teammate, Lainey Ryder. She she has been out here with me since before preseason. You know, she's a division one commit NCS champion, state qualifier, and she just embodies the idea of iron sharpening irons or sharpening each other. And she, her success, it's not luck, it's all from discipline, attention to detail, and just consistency. And every single day, that's just like a model of exactly what I try to be because you obviously she has had that success already.

SPEAKER_01 16:14

Yeah, and you know, Lainey, who it has committed to Cal Poly University in Southern California, uh, is an amazing, up-and-coming young female sprinter, super impressive. And it's it's great to put her actually in the same sentence as Noah Lyles because she does have that steely dedication. She, you know, holds herself in high esteem. And she doesn't just talk the talk. She actually walks the walk. And you see that when she trains and you see that when she practices. And so I agree with you to have to be surrounded by role models like that and to have a teammate like that, that actually must help you in maintaining your level of uh focus and dedication each day. Because, you know, track, you're at the track every day, it's a long season. Sometimes it can get pretty tough.

SPEAKER_00 16:59

Yeah, definitely. Like if there's a famous saying, you'll hear it all the time in track. If you want to get faster, you have

Lessons From Training Fails

SPEAKER_00 17:04

to race against people who are faster than you. And Lainey, obviously being as fast as she already is, I can't help but just try and surround myself around her, trying to push each other to become better and better each and every single day.

SPEAKER_01 17:13

Yeah. And just going back to Noah Lyles, listen, love him or hate him, one thing that I feel as though people forget, and maybe I'll do an independent podcast on this because this is more on the sports psychology side. But Nicholas, I'd love you to comment on this post, you know, what I'm just about to say. Athletes are performing, okay? It's a performance. So when you see Nicholas Love step out onto the track and he does his strut and he is a hundred meter or two hundred meter sprinter or getting ready by the four by one, he is performing. He is putting on a performance. That's not who he is as a person. That's who he is as an athlete. And I know I can attest to that because of the athlete that I was was kind of brutal, but off, you know, outside of triplon world, I'm just a bit of like clumsy and and a bit of a doofus, to be honest. But that wasn't me when I was competing. What are your thoughts on that statement?

SPEAKER_00 18:03

Yeah, I definitely feel like who you are outside of your sport defines you more than the actual sport. Try to not just have track as your entire life or it will take over you. And if you don't win a race, obviously it's going to affect you. But you have to remember that there's a light outside of track. And I don't just do track, like I also ball on my side. I've recently tried other sports. I've picked up rock climbing in the past. And building these other hobbies just besides track helps me, you know, limit the effect of having like a bad practice or a bad meat, because you know, one bad race doesn't mean a bad meat. One bad meat doesn't mean a bad season.

SPEAKER_01 18:35

Yeah, it's awesome to hear a young athlete talking about balance because the identity crisis for athletes is real. It gets exacerbated in college because they do have to spend so much time. But it's great to just hear athletes leaning into having more of a balance because honestly, having more balance equals better performance. So, guys, if you're under the assumption that you always need to do more, it's incorrect. Okay, you don't necessarily have to do more, you need balance. So, what Nicholas is talking about is like spot on. So, listen, we're on the same page. We all love sport here. And if you couldn't be, you know, the class act high school track athlete that you are, what are your other sports and and why? Like, why are you drawn to sports kind of like track and you know these other sports?

SPEAKER_00 19:21

Yeah, I think the competition as a whole, it something clicks inside me. Like I said, before I can even remember, I was raised just always playing sports. I couldn't remember a year where I didn't play sports. Like I used to play basketball and I was I wasn't very dedicated, but I miss it more than ever. And like I'm a huge, huge Warriors fan, diehard. I love watching, you know, the best play of all time. Stephen Curry defy the odds every single day. And that just makes me miss it so much. But I have to remember that like the Lord closed that door for a reason and you opened another one. I found so much success in it that I have to just you know thank him at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_01 19:51

Yeah, well, I mean, and it doesn't mean that maybe not during track season, because I I definitely don't want to interrupt Tracy and Susan's preparation. Maybe no basketball until after track season, because often when we're just mucking around, that's when the injuries occur. So, guys, you can play as many sports as you want out of your actual competition season. But, you know, it science has shown us that the multi-sport athletes actually perform better and you only need to look at some of the grades. Roger Federer, Rafa were also talented in other sports. So it's great to hear that you also have, you know, you love other sports and you love to like combine them. So, you know, I feel like sport has been my entire life. And in your young life so far, I'm sure sport has been huge for you.

Core Strength And Relaxation

SPEAKER_01 20:33

What kind of life lessons has sport taught you so far?

SPEAKER_00 20:38

Yeah, I would say more specific, I would just say track. It has taught me accountability. You know, all eyes are on you, and the only person you can blame at the end of the day is going to be yourself. Like going back to the garden analogy, I've learned that showing up every single day, staying committed to who like you are called to be. I've learned that if you come back tomorrow ready to pursue the you know power that's given to you and having not given up on yourself and the image that you want to become, that's not what failure is. That's just sometimes what success will look like.

SPEAKER_01 21:04

Wow. Holy, maybe I need to actually do some check-ins with Nicholas. Maybe I need to have some sports psych with Nicholas because he's he's giving me a lot of wisdom here. So, and along those lines, unfortunately, I'm not gonna be at track season this season coaching. I've stopped coaching, you know, to focus on uh studies and other areas of my life, but I do hope to be there to support you and other track athletes. But how are you going to support your teammates this season?

SPEAKER_00 21:30

Yeah, I want to be like a role model, especially for like the newer runners like the freshmen that have come in and definitely the sport can feel overwhelming at first. There's so many mechanics, there's so many things to learn. I would say take it slowly, just space it out. And like success doesn't only mean crossing over the finish line first. I think a big reason that my success has come from like so many different places. Definitely, my like freshmen, when I came in and my freshman class class of 26, we're all seniors now. We've all been able to rely on each other. We're not just we're not just a group of sprinters, group of distance runners, we're all like track and field as a whole. We're all an accumulation of all the different events, and we've all been able to lean on each other. And I want to finally give back that one last time. I'm super excited again this year. After every single home meet, we go to Gots afterwards, and that's just like my favorite thing. We have like little recaps of the meets, and I just look forward to that again.

SPEAKER_01 22:13

So it's again, it's like it's a team. It's even though it's an individual event, it's sport, it's a team event in every aspect. Like people don't realize that that track and feel really is a massive team sport.

SPEAKER_00 22:24

Yeah, 100%. I know Katie Spiegel, she everyone teaches me something different. Katie Spiegel definitely taught me like the mentality and just like the everything besides actually running aspects of track, Samantha Carey, same exact thing. All these like older athletes have just given me something that I feel track kind of naturally gives out. If you you can't really experience it unless you actually do track, it's just like a family experience. Everyone at meets, I've never had a bad experience that I meet with other people because everyone else is in the same boat. Everyone else is just here to race, compete, show off what they can actually do. And no one ever has like, you know, bad vibes from it.

SPEAKER_01 22:55

Yeah, it is a special feeling. And I was just recently at a track meet in Reno with some athletes. It was an indoor track meet. And I could sit there all day. Like I really enjoyed the vibe. I loved the environment. And while there were no relays, you know, that day, as you were speaking, Nicholas, I did have a little flashback to the time when we were at a championship meet and during the relay, either someone dropped the button or someone ran too

Starts, Focus, And Patience

SPEAKER_01 23:20

early or ran late. And that was heartbreaking. Can you share how you move on from experience? Because that happens. Sometimes it happens, and sometimes people just jump the gun. One, how do you recover from something like that?

SPEAKER_00 23:35

Yeah, I remember that was my VAL final sophomore year. One of my teammates, we just had like a little fluke, and I we had all 100% perfect pass accuracy that entire season. And I'm the fourth leg. So I'm like looking over to the right, I'm watching it happen. And the second time I see it happened, I just like kind of broke down. But you know, the world wasn't over after that. I kind of just had to get rid of that and worry about my relay next season. Obviously, this is the last relay race of my season. I'll worry about that next season, but I'll worry about the next race. And I end up running my fastest time ever, my PR next race. And that just goes to show like if you can actually push out whatever negative thing just happened to you, whatever like outside thing you had no control of, you shouldn't like let that dwell upon you. Because if you let that thing really weigh you down, then you're gonna have other things holding on to that and it's never gonna be able to flow freely through you. And that's so important, especially in sprinting.

SPEAKER_01 24:20

Yeah, it's great advice because every athlete on any level always gets hears the same old kind of you know dribble from sports dikes that, you know, control the controllables and let everything else go. But sometimes in reality, that can be just like so crushing. So to have the capacity to be able to just recalibrate. And you know what? I'm I'm actually a believer in have periods where, you know what, you don't have to snap back straight away. If you you just experienced an awful thing in track or any sport where you suffered massive amounts of disappointment and you're very upset and you want to be left alone. Hey, here's a tip for supporters, parents, coaches, everybody. Let the athlete grieve. Let the athlete have an outburst, a moment, let them release that energy because it will pass through. But they're not robots. Okay. And they need a space to be able to just process what they're going through. And I often kind of see parents hover and go, hey, you'll be okay, blah, blah, blah. But what you really need to do is just allow the athlete to be, give them space, and in their own time, they will process it. And undoubtedly, as Nicholas just shared, the love of sport and the love of competition, it returns. Okay. And then you're busting to get out there. But initially, you don't need to snap back into, hey, I'm 100% okay, I'm fine. And oh, that was just a hundred meter false start, and I just got disqualified and I should be okay because you know, I can my heart's still beating. I get that. Okay, please don't be philosophical with athletes. Okay, it's annoying. We get that. We know we're not going to die on the spot. But I know, Nicholas, you'll support me in this. When you've been training your butt off, it hurts like hell, right? When things just fall apart.

SPEAKER_00 25:58

Yeah, 100%. I've had many times. Like a lot of times last season, like I didn't understand what was going wrong. I didn't yar for so many meets. I didn't know what I was doing. I was bigger, I was faster. I had, you know, the newest pair of spikes, but something just wasn't clicking. And it took me a second to just back off, then come back in again. Because, like you said, the love of the sport will prevail. It will come back, but you just kind of have to let those things, you know, figure out on its own, just like how I had to like process, you know, my relay team, like not coming to the challenge that we were meant to. Like it was in one of my seniors, it was Jaden's last race. Like that really like held me down. But you just gotta like take a step back, look at it from a different angle, and then come into the next race ready to give it all.

SPEAKER_01 26:34

It's Jaden Washington, right? He was in the team. Yeah, and his and his sister, Jordan, is playing basketball at Santa Rosa Junior College. So hey, you know, it's it's a very small world. Jaden was part of Nicholas's relay team that, you know, unfortunately dropped the baton that day. But the avenues to continue on sport at multiple levels, you know, it is prevalent. But yeah, awesome advice, Nicholas.

SPEAKER_00 26:57

And Team USA drops the baton all the time, you know. Like every single like actual Olympic team has dropped the baton

Faith, Scripture, And Nerves

SPEAKER_00 27:03

multiple, multiple times. But you know, it's never like one year where they just don't come back. They're always stronger, they're faster again.

SPEAKER_01 27:10

Absolutely. And you're you see it in not just track and field, you see it in multiple sports. I remember seeing, I've lost the name of which pro soccer, female pro soccer player it was. Someone will text me later and say, it's this person. But I remember seeing a USA women's soccer player actually mishit the ball where she kicked over the top and then she just laughed. And I think that's also one of the best responses. Yes, if you're really upset, process it. But also try not to lose your humor because at the end of the day, we can bust our butt to be the best that we can be. But sometimes, just on the day, it doesn't come together. So guess what?

SPEAKER_00 27:43

Yeah, we're all human.

SPEAKER_01 27:44

We're all human, and guess what? There's another race, there's another event, there's another game. There is another day for you to show your athletic prowess. So laughing as well as crying can also kind of be be useful. Hey, so as we kind of like wrap up with the Plan B podcast, is there a final message that you in your very experienced track, high school track career would like to share with our listeners and our fellow athletes, either a quote or something that you know you have learned from the years that you've been doing track?

SPEAKER_00 28:19

Yeah, two immediately come to mind. Uh the first one just being like, don't let anyone tell you how you should feel about yourself. Like only you know the full extent of who you are, the work you've put in to become better. Like people judge from the surface, but they don't actually like look at like what's underneath you. Listen to the music that you like, dress however you want to. If you're hanging around the wrong people, then you definitely become like those types of people because the tree does fall the way it leans, but you're also going away from the original construction that you were because you're falling the same way as other people were leaning. I don't know if you know who Tyler the Creator is. He's like one of my favorite artists. He he once said in one of his songs, it was it's like my favorite song by Tyler the Creator. It's you are the light, it's not on you, it's in you. Don't you ever in your life dim your light for anybody? And I try to remember that so often because so many people will be like, Why do you like wear that? Why do you dress like that? Why do you do that when you're on the track? And it's just because that's just who I am, that's just me. Second, definitely like final message I want to give is it's not too late to like incorporate God somehow into your life to give back fully. You know, chances are, especially nowadays, you either like don't believe in him or you do believe in him, but you don't act like it. But it's never too late to like in anybody's life to really just make that a change.