"SET."
My hands spread in place. Feet firm against each starting block. My eyes closed and thoughts erased. I listened for the ocean that song one hundred miles away. The waves colliding into themselves rhythmically on repeat. No stopping. My shoulders lax. My neck was slack. I allowed my lungs to fill .... "GO!"
The gun fired from behind me. My feet exploded off the blocks. Blasting through sound waves--harmonizing my speed. Pound for pound my legs punched into the ground. I kept low. Memorizing those words go... go.... go!
One point forty-two seconds. Two-point eight-nine seconds.
Look forward and look through. The wind, resisted as I launched ahead. Competing against myself. My arms navigated my body while I struck into the air. Knees rose into my chest like a biometric being. Battering the ground with my feet. My breathing in sync with Earth's rotation. No longer weighing me down. I blurred past two runners. Barely catching a glimpse of their streaked colors from my peripheral vision. Only one color ahead of me. I couldn't make out what, but it was there. In front of me. Getting closer and faster. In reaching distance. My eyes locked onto the track. The wind driving me forward. I could sense the barrier in front of me. Heavy and full of energy.
I ran.
Powering through it. Charging beyond it! I absorbed the energy that bleed lighting through my veins. Pumping into my heart and back out as fuel to my speed. I am not man. I am machine.
I ran through my breaking point. No worries ahead! This was my high! My drug. I had become intoxicated with legs. The color became closer.
And I ran.
Images impeded my outer vision. Gaining on me and I ran. Sensing all was far away. My legs extended beyond my being.
And I ran.
Gravity-assisted slingshot me off the runner's next to me wind. Placing us side by side for merely 0.02 seconds. Then I led! I didn't only see the finish line, I saw into another dimension. I saw that ocean one hundred miles away. I spread my arms as my legs steadied into long measured leaps for the crossing line. I leaned in to spear the air. Stabbing it with my speed. Another wall down!
And I ran.
No brakes. No stopping. Voices heard as my hearing regulated. People stood as my vision adjusted.
Still, I ran.
The crowd were on their feet, cheering and applauding. My heart thumped into my chest. My lungs pressed against my ribs. I burned from within. Slowing as I ran-- I began to feel again. Racers neared me, gawking for air. Colliding onto the track. Screaming into the clouds. Their arms wailed and feet tumbled ungracefully into the ground as they smacked into each other. Breathless. I turned around--one hundred meters from where I began. One hundred miles from the ocean. One hundred meters from where I stand.
9.77 seconds. Victorious. I ran.
YOU ARE READING
RUNNING
Short StoryA new track and field runner experience emotions like none before during his first 100 meter race. See what's it like in the head of a speedster during 9.77 seconds of the rest of his life. Written for the #lookingforalaska constest here on wattpad.
