Keep Running

Chapter One

My lungs burn as I take a deep breath. It feels like I've been deprived of oxygen and this is my first breath back to reality. My lungs fill with the fresh, cold, morning air and empty again as I watch my breath form in a large white cloud in front of me. It may only be mid august in England but it feels as cold as Antarctica in its harshest winter. I sit back on the cold, damp grass and watch the sun rise. It lights the sky with beautiful shades of pink, red and purple. I decide it's too pretty for just this moment and take a picture of it on my phone for my art folio. By this time my coach has walked across the tracks to stand in front of me, holding my water bottle and a stopwatch. My breathing has slowed down a little but its still rapid as he throws my water bottle down at me. I take a large swig and listen to him ramble on about my time, and the effort I'm not putting in. I'm not really paying attention until he chucks the stopwatch down at me, hitting my stomach.

"Riley! Are you even listening to me?" He asks, clearly annoyed.

"Yes, of course. You want me to put in more effort and train harder, maybe stretch more." I answer back, surprising myself, perhaps I was listening.

"I'm going to bring you into my son's training session on Sunday morning, I want you to see how you should be running this." I roll my eyes at this and stand up.

I know I'm not the best but he doesn't have to mock me about it by showing me how amazing and fantastic his son is. I toss the stopwatch back at him and walk out the arena to the car. I go to open the door and the car unlocks, I pull the handle and sit in the passenger side, seeing David walking up with the car keys in his hand. I kick my trainers off and pull my feet up onto the seat in front of me, huddling my knees to my chest.

"The sooner you turn eighteen the better, I can't be arsed driving you to and from practice twice a week. Three times is enough for Tom and then there's you, I still have to drive Sophie on Fridays as well. They're really coming on so you being my only student who isn't my child means you're going to have to work extra hard." I laugh at this and lean back in the seat closing my eyes.

David mentions this every time we meet, going on about how both his kids run and they're both amazing at it, that I'm falling behind and need to work harder. It's not exactly fair when I only get to see my coach twice and they get to see him all the time.

David starts the engine up and drives me home, there's not much traffic since it's so early and we get back pretty quickly. For some of the time we drive I look over at him, his mannerisms and natural attitude. David is heading into his forties, but still looks young for his age, dark brown hair and a large build. He parks up in my driveway just behind our car and pulls up the clutch.

"Right, beat it. You're depressing me already." He smirks and I push him lightly.

I open the car door, lifting my trainers and now empty water bottle before closing the car door and walking to the front door of the house.

I step in and jog upstairs to the bathroom, which my brother has just come out of.

"Aw please don't tell me you stunk it up this time." I exclaim, throwing my head back and breathing out.

"Just for you, dweeb." He says with a smirk while walking across the landing to his room.

"Dork." I say back walking into the bathroom. "Ugh! Matt that's disgusting!" I shout, running to open the window.

I hear him laughing from across the hall and flip him the finger even though he can't see it. I lean out the window for a few minutes, waiting for the air to clear before I stand back in the room flat-footed in front of the mirror.

I look into it's reflective surface as I take my hair down out of its bobble. My hair is long, blonde and soft with light curls. I brush it down smoothly and find where it ends which is now down around my waist. I've been growing it out for some time now but it might need a trim.