At the start of every practice, I do a series of warmups — hurdle mobility, glut activators and strides — that all helps out various parts of my body. We all do these exercises every day in some kind of variation.

I’m getting ready to do accelerations, so I’m putting on the spikes I would eventually wear in Oregon. I try not to be superstitious, but I keep all my spikes; I have every single track shoe I’ve worn since high school. I try not to say ‘I ran this time because I was wearing these spikes.’ I try not to do that. But I can’t remember any spikes that I’ve lost track of — I still have them all. They all have sentimental value to me. I usually keep all of my spikes with all of my bib numbers in the same spot. With my bib numbers, I write all of my times that I did at that meet on the back. The only one I didn’t keep was indoor nationals in 2012; I ripped it up. With that said, I hold my bibs in higher regard than my spikes. It’s easier to say, ‘At this meet, I ran this time at this date,’ it’s just different. My spikes are just tools to me.

In my three years at Arkansas, I’ve spent a lot of time on this bench. My most memorable moment there was two summers ago when I was getting ready for North American, Central American and Caribbean Athletics Association (NACAC) competition. It was probably the toughest workout I had all year. I was training with Sydney Conley, Mike Conley’s daughter, and I was running 400-meter dashes. I remember in between one of my five-minute rests and before our last rep, I was dead tired and I was trying to crawl underneath the bench. Our coach, Chris Johnson, was telling me ‘Get up! You have one more lap to go!’ I reached up to the top of the bench, got my crackers and tried throwing them at him but I missed and he just started laughing at me. I got back up and Sydney ran the last 100-meter with me and I was going in slow motion.

During acceleration drills, we work on my drive and push especially for my 200 meter races. Coach Johnson likes to time my first 10-20 meters to compare each of my accelerations. I learned everything from him. I had foot surgery twice, so I basically had to relearn how to run. I had to relearn everything and he taught me everything. He helps me stay mentally tough and we work on my finishes. Because of that work, I have so much strength at the end of my races. He has so much confidence in me. Sometimes I feel like he has more confidence in me than I do in myself.

If I were to look back at this photo as a freshman, I would say to myself, ‘Wow, look how great my form is!’ My form before I came to Arkansas wasn’t that good and all the training and practice that I got under my coaches helped me become the athlete I am today.

I just finished running 150-meter sprints and I’m tired. We had to run four sprints at our fastest pace and we had to hit our fastest time. For me, that was supposed to be less than 17 seconds. If we didn’t hit our mark four times out of four, we had to run two extra times. Luckily I only had to do this four times.

This was me stepping foot on the track for the first time in Eugene, Oregon, for prelims. This is my business face. At this point, I try to keep my mind as clear and focused as possible and try to remember to trust the process.

I think one of my best strengths is my second gear. This was a prelim for the 400 so I knew I had the win at this point. My finishes are really strong coming into the last 100 meters; the Texas sprinter on my left was ahead of me, but I had a strong finish and I passed her and won an automatic qualifier into the finals.

This was me finishing second in the 400-meter race. Everything I was thinking at the time is being expressed on my face. I made a mistake during my run that cost me time and eventually the race. One consolation I have is that I still earned eight points for the team and I helped contribute to our national championship win. But this was a very tough moment for me.