Young Writers Society

The Battle

The pine trees surrounding me swayed in the cool breeze and yellow leaves fell to the dead grass. I pulled my knees to my chest and shivered. How cold could it get in October? An icy raindrop plopped on my nose and I wiped it off in disgust. It always seemed to rain on meet days. I hoped it would hold off until after my race. I pulled my math folder out of my backpack, deciding to do something productive. As soon as my pencil hit my paper, they got knocked out of the way as my friend sat on my lap.

“It’s freezing!” Katie exclaimed. She pulled my homework toward her. “Geometry? Ick.” She dropped the paper back on the cluttered, blue tarp. It stuck out from all the orange and black duffle bags scattered across it, each belonging to a different cross country runner. I felt another raindrop.

“Are you nervous?” I asked. Katie nodded her head. I checked my phone for the time. “We still have an hour and a half until our race,” I groaned. Claire and Jill crawled over to our corner of the tarp.

I pushed Katie off my lap and re-started my math as my friends started chatting excitedly about the race. I tried to zone them out and concentrate but I couldn’t. My mind was on the race too. I put my math aside and joined in on their conversation. We passed the time by talking and joking around. We huddled together to try to keep warm, in the cold, fall air. The time passed slowly. I watched my phone as the minutes passed by.

“Your race is in ten minutes, JV girls,” the coach yelled.

Two more raindrops hit my face. I looked up at the navy, cloud-filled sky wondering if it was ever going to decide to actually rain. Sighing, I pulled on my wrinkled orange jersey, as a knot formed in my stomach. My teammates were nervously kicking up the grass with their spikes and checking their watches. I rubbed my clammy hands together in attempt to warm up.

“Start heading over, ladies,” the coach commanded.

The team of nervous girls squealed and grabbed each other’s arms. This was the race our team had been waiting for. Our two previous meets had been canceled due to rain so this was the first meet in three weeks. Everyone was hoping for a P.R. (personal record).

I blocked everything out of my mind as we rushed over. I didn’t have a specific goal, but I was hoping to improve my time. I wanted those hard weeks of practice to pay off. We had gone on a course walk earlier, so I knew exactly what to expect. There were no big hills or muddy spots. It was a pretty flat course, which made it good for personal records. We arrived at the starting line and butterflies exploded in my stomach. It was just a JV race. My time didn’t really matter, however, my happiness depended on it

My teammates and I jumped up and down, trying to settle our nerves. We discussed strategies we already had gone over a hundred times before. I told them I couldn’t do it. Then they told me they couldn’t do it. We talked each other out of it and encouraged each other. We tried to calm down, but it was no use. These were the same conversations and emotions we had before every meet. The ones at this meet seemed strangely different. The were very real; I remember them exactly, word for word. I looked around at the sea of brightly colored jerseys and the unfriendly pine tree forest we were about to enter. A fresh wave of nerves overcame me.

I grabbed Emily’s shoulder. “I really don’t think I can do it,” I whispered.

“Yes, you can. We’ve been training forever for this one. Now is the time to show it. You got this,” she whispered back confidently. I tried to convince myself her words were true.

I heard the thirty second warning and froze. The orange jerseys in front of me blurred and the pine trees seemed to be getting taller and taller. My teammate caught my eye and we exchanged nervous glances. This was the last moment of peace before the twenty minute battle that was about to take place. There was the ten second warning. A raindrop fell on my forehead. It was dead silent. My heart was pounding against my chest. I couldn’t do it. The last race was horrible, and I had been incredibly tired. How was I going to cut off any time from it?

“Bang!” the gun shot out and the silence was immediately replaced by the sound of hundreds of shoes pounding on the hard ground and their enthusiastic fans cheering them on.

My legs burned the second I moved them. I adjusted my speed, trying to get a good spot and not succumb to the pain in my legs. I focused on a girl a few yards ahead of me in a blue jersey, deciding to catch up to her. I slowly weaved through the tight pack of girls, and caught up the blue jersey girl.

I tried to keep up with her as she flew down the first hill, but I couldn’t. I crossed over a wooden bridge spotted with raindrops, and heard shoes pounding on it behind me. My nerves had left now, but the pain in my legs remained. I spotted a mass of orange and black covered teammates ahead, off to the side, cheering us on. I sped up as I heard their voices yelling, and cheering for me to push myself.

“Halfway done,” I told myself, as I finished my first lap. I had maintained my spot well for the rest of the first lap, only letting one more girl pass me. The sidelines were covered with screaming fans.

“Come on, Lizzy! Halfway done. Push it now!” I saw orange and black off to the side again.

I sped up as much as I could, which wasn’t much. My legs were burning and my breath was jagged and short. Every time my legs pounded to the ground, pain shot though them. I had no idea how I was going to finish this.

“Good job,” a voice gasped. I turned my head to see an out of breath Elk River girl catching up to me.

“You too,” I breathed back. I timed my steps with hers so I could keep up, right next to her. The cold air was ripping at my lungs. I saw the big mass of orange and black ahead off to the side. Their yells filled me with happiness and determination.

As I passed by them, I also left the Elk River girl behind. Feeling confident from their encouragement, I decided to ignore the pain in my legs the best I could, and just push it to the end.

“Let’s go, just keep thinking about that P.R. Kick it up a little, your almost there!” a teammate stressed from the sideline.

I took their advice, and pushed it a little more and focused on catching the girl in front of me. She was closer and closer each moment. My legs were aching, but I put it in the back of my mind. She was only a few feet in front of me, and she wasn’t going down easily. I managed to catch her just as I rounded the last corner, and passed her. The finish line came into view, but it was still in the distance. I couldn’t feel my legs anymore so I just gave it my all. There was a large pack of Osseo fans, cheering me on. I sprinted past them to the finish. I looked up at my time on the big electronic clock as I passed the finish line. I had cut off exactly two minutes from my best time. I was overcome by happiness and fatigue at the same time. Given no break, I was rushed down the finish shoot by unfamiliar hands. I wrapped my hands around my stomach and closed my eyes, trying to catch my breath. The feeling in my legs was slowing coming back, and they ached more than before. I looked around, hoping to see a teammate. There was Emily, waiting for me in the crowd of exhausted runners.

“How’d you do?” She asked excitedly.

I smiled. “I cut off two minutes. Two!” I replied. It felt good to tell someone.

She smiled and hugged me. “I knew that would happen. I told you that you were going to do great.”

We started to make our way back to our teammates slowly, discussing the race. We all exchanged hugs and congratulations. Everyone had done great. Claire came up to me.

“Did you P.R.?” I asked.

She smiled and nodded. “Over two minutes! You?”

“Two minutes exactly.” I told her. I wondered if life could get any better than it was at that exact moment. “Guess all the hard practices payed off.”

“Hey, you know you stepped in puke, right?” A voice asked.

“What! Me?” I exclaimed, turning to Jill.

“Yeah,” she laughed. “By the finish line, you ran right through it!”

“No way!” I laughed and pulled my worn shoe off and checked the bottom, refusing to believe it until I saw it. “Ick!” I dropped it on the ground with disgust.

I grabbed a yellow Gatorade out of the cooler and took a long sip, letting the freezing cold liquid travel down my throat. I didn’t let that little mishap get in the way of happiness. The pine trees now looked friendly and inviting. The battle was over. I felt one raindrop after another. It was finally actually raining. I smiled to myself, thinking of the two minutes I cut off. Huh. I guess I could do it.