The Race
by Emma Giles
November 19, 2009
Jogging back and forth.
Stretching your legs. You are warming up for the race.
The nerves are racing through you. You know that you
are five minutes away from running as hard as you possibly can for
twenty minutes non-stop. It is a huge test of your physical
and mental strength that you hope you do not fail.
You joke with your teammates trying to calm
them and yourself down. Everyone fake laughs while they are really
sidetracked with nerves. Now, everyone says their final good
lucks.
All of this still does not feel like
reality. As you wish you were at least five minutes into your
race, you stand and wait for the gun. On your marks…Bang.
You are off.
You are taking off with one-hundred other
runners with similar thoughts going through their heads.
Right now you are sprinting trying to keep up, trying not to
trip over the runner two inches in front of you. The nerves
turn into panic. You attempt to calm yourself down again.
You look around at the course trying to get your mind off of
the running. You are not in pain yet, but you know what is
coming.
Feeling like time could not pass any
slower, you come up on half way. Now your favorite song is on
replay in your head. Then you say, “I think I can, I think I
can,” to yourself. Who are you kidding, this is bad, really
bad, and you doubt that you actually “can” do it.
You can barely hear those thoughts because
you are breathing so heavy. The air seems ten times thicker than
normal. You would do anything for a drink of water, and your
legs feel like they weigh a thousand pounds as you drag yourself up
the hill. This has to be at least five miles.
You can tell the person in front of you is
dying. “But you are too!” you think. Then, you somehow
come up with the energy and confidence to go around them.
Hey, now you spot a few more that you could catch.
“Keep going, pass them one at a time,” you tell yourself,
“for your team.” Your team is a lot of the reason you are
still running in the first place. They are counting on
you.
Next, you see your parents and coach.
They are cheering your name, shouting, “Run faster!!!” and
other supposedly encouraging things. But you feel like there
is no way you can speed up. You are going as fast as you can
right now.
Now you can see the finish line. You
start picking up your pace. Well, at least you start running
faster. How, you have no idea. The end is right there,
but it definitely is not getting closer. The last ten seconds
are taking forever.
You cross the line. Deep breath.
You are done. The best feeling in the
world.
