My Name is Ghoulish Gold

Entrance of Ghoulish Gold

We set off: a massive pack of fifty charging up the earthy path, littered with jutting tree roots and patches of mud ready to slip and slow us down in case any came too close.

We were like a ginormous bug crawling across the body of the hill. Already the pack was thinning, the slower runners not having the determined pace to keep up with the solid leaders. 

I was in the line second to the front, the sound of thudding trainers pounding the earth all around me. The pace was comfortable. It was just the start of the race: the long hard race. I could see the back of Speedy Silver right in front of me; writing an unbreakable running style. He was ranked 2nd overall and was proving it.

I looked around. There were around twenty of us still remaining at the front. Four rows of five drumming a single rhythm with the ground as our instrument. Seeing Bouncy Blue still hanging on to the tough run made me smile. If he kept this up, he would finish in a higher place than he ever had before. Behind me, a long trickle of runners flowed backwards down the hill. They were all clawing to maintain the speed of the runners immediately, faces anguished with desperation. 

We were reaching the top of the hill when Five (ranked 4th) darted forward, raking a gap between him and us.

The whole atmosphere of the front group changed suddenly. This was an intense competitive race; not a  sweet jog up a hill. Speed quickening, runners were hurled off the back into the vacuum of space behind us. The pacemakers at the front - Daniel, Speedy Silver and Raring Red - were charing after Five, like great buffalos with their horns placed upon a target. Fourteen of us remained now, not including Blue. 

I was ranked seventh overall and even I was proud to keep up. Five always made these great breakaways, but he wasn't getting nay further than about ten metres away. We were fast. 

To my left I saw Joey Kidney (ranked 15th) running past me. He had an elegant gracefulness to his running style that almost made him seem like he was floating. He drifted past Red and started to cross the gap. Daniel latched on to Joey just as we reached the top. He had managed to detach himself from our group and both were now two metres into the no mans land between us and Five just as we were making the descent into a dark gloomy forest. 

Five punched through the blackness, quickly followed by Daniel and Joey. We knew this forest very well and the jumble of tall randomly placed pine trees with large amounts of leaves and branches did not affect any of us. 

Silver, Matt (ranked 3rd) and Red (ranked 5th) could not let Daniel or Five get away. This would be difficult. Daniel was ranked first overall and was extremely competent on all kinds of terrain, angles and distances. 

The soft muddy ground had been rained upon heavily the day before and still some of the natural foliage seemed to swim in front of us. That added on to the fact that the path was narrowed, allowing only two runners abreast. We had to watch our footing, which would slow us down. Luckily, the same problem was felt up front. 

Five, trying to expand his lead by taking advantage of the risky mud, zoomed down at full speed. Big mistake. The front of his foot caught a risky patch of mud and sent him skidding to the ground. He was immediately up again and uninjured. Except now Daniel and Joey were just half a metre behind him. 

The ground flattened. Finally. The angle of the ground was still downwards but much less than the ski slope of before. we show down the track like bullets from a gun. Our entire existence circulated around running and we were the fastest of the herd. On either side, the images of the forest blurred into a brown and green haze, like a toddlers art drawing. The only constants were my fellow runners around me. We were down to eight of us and I was in the third row from the front.