Ecstasy: A Short Story

There I was, anxiously waiting for the guy at the starting line to shoot the gun so we can begin our journey to the finish line. After what felt like a lifetime, the gun went off and everyone took off like a stampede of wildly angry animals. I began sprinting while remembering to count to five in my head, slowly declining to a fast jog, then to a slower jog with big strides. Some of the other girls and I played tag for a while, they passed me and I passed them, which was the start of the race to the end. The pack of runners turns a corner and my legs nearly collapsed when I saw what was ahead, a very slow yet steep inclined hill. At first, I thought about what coach said and wanted to sprint up the hill, but then realized I would be out of …show more content…
After reaching the top of the hill, there was a sight that I didn’t want to see, another hill. This hill wasn’t as bad as the previous, but the idea of running up a very steep hill just to run up another when I reached the top was crazy. Tirelessly, I sprinting up the smallish hill and darted into the path in the woods. This was the moment I realized it might not have been the best idea to wear spikes. The jagged rocks were making it very difficult to run. Just about every other step I was taking I was tripping on a rock, each one hurting my ankles a little more every time. I reached the end of the woods trail to run more of the golf course. Passing the pond, I noticed some of the cute little ducks swimming around. A little ways after the pond came another path into the woods. Rocks were causing me to twist my ankle multiple times, but that didn’t stop me, mainly because we weren’t even halfway done with the race. I took a sharp turn shortly after exiting the woods to run down a steep hill. I had to flail my arms just to keep my …show more content…
By the time I got up the super steep hill for a second time, I was truly exhausted. My legs felt like jello, I could barely breathe, and my body was numb yet it ached all over at the same time. Snot was dripping down my nose, so I sniffed it back up and spit it on the ground next to me; some wouldn’t let go and left strings of mucus hanging from my nose. The second time I had to run up the set of hills was way worse than the first time. I had no more energy when I got up them but I just kept plugging along. I passed several girls that were either injured or puking. One girl in particular I remember was having an asthma attack. Tears were rolling down her face, she took short, quick breaths to try to not struggle as much to breathe. She eventually stopped running and had a break down, falling to the ground balling her eyes out. I wanted to help her because she looked so miserable, but that was against the rules. There was only one thing that I was thinking about, finishing the race trying not to walk or run out of energy. Once the finish line was in my sight, a burst of energy spread throughout my body, only five hundred meters to