My body became engulfed by the weight of my feet, and I started to slow down. The sun seemed to be beating harder on me, the rays stinging into my back, I felt a light burning sensation. Sweat dripped down my forehead and onto my cheek and into my mouth. A gust of wind whipped by and I was brought back to reality. My hair plastered on my wet cheeks, my eyes focused on the road ahead, and my speed picked up. My mind was blank, focusing entirely on the rhythm of my movements.
The whistle was blown, and I was off, down the endless road. I had a strong start, and my biggest competitor was beside me. We have struggled through races before, but this time I would beat her. I took longer strides, and the distance between the two of us enlarged. The dust of the road engulfed everybody as we trampled to the half mile marker. The once large clump of people, all zooming at the starting point began to separate from one another. The transition of terrain occured at the half mile mark. I was now fighting the uphill battle over the rocks and through the trees. My toes ached from running straight up and around a mountain. I felt the urge to stop, but I didn’t. “It had only been a mile and a half.” I told myself. My stomach was turning, and the heat had started to get to me. I wanted so badly to stop. “Keep going.” I kept telling myself. Still fighting my way through the woods, I tripped and fell over a tree stump. I was frustrated about this, but got up and still kept going. My back began to hunch and my head was now tilted downward. I was staring at my feet, my mind focused on nothing. I was exhausted, and it felt as though I was trying to carry my own body. My pace was slower, and the heat struck me more. “Two miles. Only one left” yelled the volunteer. I could see the street road and the volunteer just ahead, through the last couple feet in the woods.
My mind clicked back on. I forgot about my exhaustion. My head came back up, I tilted my shoulders back and I started to race. Having paid no attention to my surroundings, I had lost sight of my competitor. I then noticed she was ahead of me. I thought to myself about the one mile I had left. “This was the last stretch. This is where I give it my all.” My words constantly played over and over again in my mind. I raced hard, catching up to my opponent. I felt as though I had never run faster in my life. We were now neck in neck with 150 yards to go. She started sprinting, but my legs wouldn’t let me. They continued to hold me down. With 100 yards left, I pushed hard to be ahead of her. She was only a couple steps in front of me. I dug deep for my last 100 yard stretch. I could just touch her. My fingers spread out pulling me towards the finish line. I was ahead of my competitor by a hair. Now, I was a couple steps ahead. I crossed the finish line, and as I crossed, a line from “All I Do Is Win” played and I ran through with my hands high in the sky. At the end of my race, I got my time of 22:50. My competitor, PR, came in at 23 flat. I had finally beat her. My perseverance through my race, and my accomplishments make me feel alive.
The prompt for this piece was (what makes you feel alive) ? When I was deciding on what to write, I immediately knew I had to write about something that connected with running because running has always brought me so much joy when I beat my own records. I feel like this piece of writing is a very creative and interesting piece because instead of having a real life person who is not me as my competitor, my competitor is me. Adding this creative touch into my piece to captivate how I compete against myself everyday to be the best I can be was a very important part of this paper because I did not want to give away that I was my own competitor. I feel that I have hide the idea that I was my own competitor well, and am happy with the outcome of my piece!
EM, I love this, being extremely competitive myself I could relate to the feelings and desire that you displayed so well here. You could feel your exhaustion in your writing and it was a great read!