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The Final Race

I awoke at 0543 only to groan and roll over, wishing I had more time to sleep. After I fell back asleep, I was soon awoken again at 0625 by my father. I got out of bed and dressed myself, and then sat down to think to myself. My phone then vibrated on my chest of drawers, and nearly fell. I rushed to grab it and I knew before answering that it was going to be the quiet voice of Sang.

"Hello Sang."

"Hi..."

"Do you need a ride ?"

"Uh... My brother is leaving at 0730, so..."

"Okay. We'll pick you up as soon as my father gets ready. Bye."

"Bye.."



We were supposed to arrive at 0730, but because my father wanted coffee, we didn't leave the house until around 0655. After getting Sang, we rushed to Gainsville College where we found the rest of the team shivering and getting prepared for the warm up. Most of the team was missing for the junior varsity runners, but we ran without them. They didn't show up anyways. (the race expected 350-400 runners, but only a few braved the cold)

The warm up was cold, even though I was warmly dressed. We ran about a mile and a quarter in the freezing temperature. My right hand under my lucky glove remained warm; however, my bare left hand was freezing cold. When finally we returned, Sang and Grayson needed to use the bathroom.

We rushed to do that, and neglected to stretch. The race was to begin in minutes so we took off our warm up coats and pants. I had long grey leggings on under mine, and they looked rather silly, apparently. Maggie remarked on them, and I simply said "They make my legs look like stones." There were other jests about them during the race which were ignored.

Mr. Starter gave his usual speech about staying on the course, and all the different ways one can be disqualified. And he explained, as he always does, that if someone falls in the first one hundred metres, the race will start over.

I was ready to run. "Take your positions..." It was the final race. "Get set..." CRACK went the gun and all 190 runners took off.

Normally I stay with Sang at the beginning of races, but today I pushed onward and ran the beginning alone, surrounded my runners of other schools. I soon saw Blake in the distance and tried to keep up with him. After much cheering and yelling from coaches, I caught up with him. We stayed together for the first lap.

Many other runners had more difficulties than I. One runner behind me groaned 'Oh no...' and then I heard his muffled sneeze and then an 'Argh' as vomit poured out of his mouth. I did my best to ignore the sound and moved on. When I reached the marker for the second lap, there was a hill on which one runner was struggling and then walked. Despite my heavy breathing, I managed to choke out, "Don't give up... You've got to run," I passed him, and then he caught up with me second late and just said, "I can't do this anymore.. I can't run anymore," and fell to his knees. He never finished the race.

My second and final lap was difficult. People were cheering and constantly telling me to pick up my pace. I hated that... My mind was always thinking Don't they know I'm already trying my hardest ? However, their cheers did force me to go a little faster. I also had to keep Blake on course a few times. Two runners in purple uniforms began to catch up. One of which passed me and fell behind me several times.

I passed him at the 400 metre mark and began to stride, but with one hundred and fifty metres to go, he sprinted past me making loud grunting and straining noises. I then broke the barrier from running to sprinting to catch him, but I was unable to and he beat me by half a second, and ended up losing to Blake by less than half a second, and the judges had to step in to make sure who won. The clock was broken and no one could view their times.

As I tried to regain normal breathing, a woman gave me my place card. As I viewed the number 176 inscribed on it, I knew the race was a failure. I had not improved much and the end of the season came to a screeching halt with a poor performance.