“Last call for the 400 meter dash!” That’s her cue. Senior Tina Driscoll makes her way over to her designated lane and starts to warm up for the race that most girls on the team consider to be one of the hardest.

“Runners, take your mark!” She loosens up her muscles one last time before crouching down into her starting position, knowing that having correct form can be the difference between

“Get Set…” At this point there’s an argument raging on inside her head. One voice asking her why she is doing the 400 in the first place, and the other voice trying to calm her down and reassure that she’s a good runner and to just do her best.

BAM! The pop of the gun echoes through the once quiet field, which is now electrified with cheers from the audience and pure adrenaline from the runners. Now, the feuding voices in her head are replaced with self-talk and strategic planning.

“The 400 is definitely a lot of self-talk,” said Driscoll. “My first part is like, ‘Go go go,’ and then it’s like,‘All right, calm back down,’ and then when I come to the last 100 it’s like, ‘Come on, go as hard as you can!’”

For Tina, running 400s in track meets is something that she’s grown used to. After joining track in sixth grade out of curiosity, she decided to stick with it for seven more years and it ultimately ended up becoming her passion.

She signed with Tennessee Tech University where she will be running Division One track. Although she’s excited to be running on a collegiate level, there’s one thing she’ll always miss about high school track.

“I’m really gonna miss the team, the girls, the family part of it.” said Driscoll. “The coaches too. I say the people mostly, just everyone.”