Salmon Squad Entry

[clemen]

Train ! ! !
It is time to prepare for a 5k. You know this will not be easy and accept the challenge anyway. You do not have any mentor. You must face this alone. Every day you run more and more. You must pace yourself. You hit the hard cement ground as you trip from being tired. Your at your house and you put a bandage on your injury. This will be the first of many. You knew this challenge would come with obstacles, now you have to have face them. You may not be getting very much sleep because you have to fit in running to your busy schedule. But you keep running harder and faster everyday. But one of the days you tire yourself out so much that you fall once again. You go home and put another bandage on it. You decide to take it easier tomorrow. You don’t burn yourself out as bad as yesterday. After running 1 mile you land on your bed, hoping to get some sleep. But you have an exam. You study late and then throw yourself onto your bed. Of course you run once again at dawn. You run faster and try harder but again your legs began hurting. You fall for the final time. You put your final bandage on the scratch and promise yourself to get a good night sleep so this doesn’t happen again. You run the night of the race, even though you have a huge exam. You feel so tired after the run you forget about your exam and go strait to sleep. You end up getting a C- on your exam. Ouch! You ate pasta that night and get ready for the race. The next morning you put your number and shirt on. Number 232. All of your hard work is hopefully going to pay off.


”Start ! ! !”
It is like you can feel shoes hitting the ground. All that you have trained for leads up to this race. You can feel your heart pumping in your chest. “ Whoo!” so much noise is all around you, cheering and yelling. The sun’s glare is like a fellow support, giving you a warm feeling to never stop until your done. A hill comes and you stop to try to rest. While others pass you your trying to get your breath back. You manage to run up the hill and overtake those who passed you. “ Save your energy” someone shouts from the crowd. But once you stop you can’t start going. You learned from the hill. They have a water table. Of course the majority stop but you can’t. Your legs won’t stop until this race is done. Of course there’s more than one hill. It was huge. It was like layers of cake. First there’s easy, then medium, last hard. You run. At this point your legs feel like jelly. This makes you dizzy. But you manage to keep going. A whistle goes off singling that you have ran 2 miles.There is only 1 more. You try to image yourself wearing a medal, but you wipe that thought away. It’s about running, not winning. You run and run until you see the finish line.

Winning ! ! !
You pass the Finnish line as you gasp in relief. You realize the prize ceremony will start in 10 minutes. You nervously sit there as you drink a bottle of water. A loud speaker comes on and announces the winners. You came first by .5 seconds! You are thanking everyone for everything and everyone admires you for a minute or two. You see the younger kids get called. A little girl that is very sweaty looks excited and nervous. She doesn’t win. The girls that did win made fun of her for not winning. This shattered your joy. When th mean girls are gone, you come over and sit by the girl. You try to make her smile but nothing makes her feel better. You have a simple idea that may bring both of your joy back. You take off your medal and place it around her neck. She gasped and hugs you. She asks why you would give up such a honor for her. You take a couple minutes to word it out in your mind. Then you replied; “ I have challenged myself over the days, I have faced obstacles that I overcame. When I stand there and see a sad face, this shatters my joy. The medal means nothing to me. But your happiness mean everything to me. The real reward was seeing you happy and overcoming obstacles.” She gives you another hug before she runs off to her parents. You close your eyes and you think how a small act of kindnesses can change someone’s life.