Diploma Dash raises money for scholarships and promotes Alumnus at our school.  You get a good workout and it’s for a good cause. 

Two weeks before the Diploma Dash I hurt myself during Taekwondo Club practice when a sparring partner kicked my shin with destructive, life-threatening force.  If his kick was near any of my vital organs, I might have been killed.  It was that bad.   Anyways, excuse my exaggeration, but after the injury, I wasn’t able to walk without limping for two days.  What’s worse, I couldn’t walk without feeling pain until three days before the diploma dash.  Because of my shin, I didn’t prepare for the event properly, and I trained inconsistently because of the pain.

The thing is when I don’t work out, I tend to harbor bad attitudes and I binge eat a lot.  One time, I ate a Big Mac, medium fries, one Hot’n’spicy, one McDouble and a cookie at McDonalds.  I ate like this at least three or four times a week.  My motivation was out of wack, and when I worked out, my heart wasn’t there.

Although my shin hurt for two weeks, I found motivation in an instant.  Luckily, it was right before the race.

On February 25, a Korean athlete, Kim Yu-Na won gold in figure skating at the Winter Olympics.  She completely captured my heart.  Watching a fellow Korean win gold at the Olympics moved me.  It made me want to work out again.  It made me want to try harder in school and train harder for Taekwondo.  What makes her really awesome is that I don’t know a single thing about figure skating, and still, she captured my attention.  I couldn’t do anything except be amazed by her performance.  If you don’t know her, then you should look her up, because she’s definitely an inspirational athlete, whether you’re Korean or not.