At the end of the race, sophomore Sophie Shapiro celebrates her 42.83 second mark in the 300-meter hurdle – a new school record and the fastest time in Illinois Class 3A.
At the eighth and final hurdle, she jumps off the wrong foot – her right, not her left like she has for the other seven.
At the starting block, she thinks about how the smallest things – the leg she jumps off, the way she pulls her trail leg, how high over the hurdles she is, the way she drives and accelerates – can make the biggest difference.
At the team’s tent, she clutches a trash can in case she vomits. As is custom before most of her races, she’s having a panic attack – she’s not prepared enough for the race.
Shapiro doesn’t know why she’s nervous. After all, before the race day she’ll stretch out, take ice baths, do heat treatments and work with the trainer. But even all those preparations, combined with a good race-day breakfast and lunch and pre-race music, can’t calm her nerves.
“I try to talk to my coach about why I’m nervous [because] I know exactly what to do, I’ve practiced, I’m prepared. So why do I still feel like this?” she said. “I don’t really have a fear of losing. I’m only a sophomore. It’s not like I’m expected to do this stuff. I’ve just been doing it. But I don’t really know why I get nervous. I just do. It’s inevitable.”
In spite of her nerves, Shapiro’s hurdles record this season is a spotless 12 for 12. That’s seven first place finishes in the 100-meter hurdles and five in the 300-meter hurdles. Her times, 14.1 and 42.83 seconds respectively, are both the fastest in Illinois Class 3A.
But those records she more-or-less expected after the first few races. She rewrote the EHS 100-meter hurdle not once, not twice, but three times. What wasn’t expected was her 57.4 second 400-meter dash that shattered a 19-year-old school record – in her first competitive 400-meter since middle school.
“That 400 was the only one I’ve run all season, the only one I’ve run in high school, and I broke the record,” she said. “I really was shocked. I didn’t even know I could run that time at all.”
When reaching those times seemed so far away, Shapiro credits her coach, coach Howard, for making it possible to have the progression from middle school to now.
“I really love beating my own times … and I think that’s what motivates me to hit these times,” she said. “I rewatch the film, and I fix all these little details and practice it with my coach. I stay late most practices when everyone else is gone and we work on form, because it’s not as simple as just sprinting.”
Even though Shapiro acknowledges “sometimes it gets tedious,” hurdles is her favorite track event, so she loves the preparations that go into its race preparation and the minute details to further shave more seconds off her records.
“It’s hard for me to not enjoy hurdle drills,” she said. “It’s fun, planning the race strategies, especially for the 300 hurdles, how fast I’m going to go to this hurdle and how many steps I’m going to take to this hurdle. There’s so much strategy that goes into it that just isn’t seen, because it doesn’t look like there’d be a lot of strategy, but there is.”
While most track athletes would be lucky to nab just one school record by the time they’re a senior, Shapiro’s three school records by her sophomore year have left her looking for more ways to continue progressing and enjoying the sport she loves.
“I need to stay happy; I love running track, and I want it to stay that way, and I just want to keep running,” she said. “I’m on this high right now, and I don’t ever want to come down from it.”