It was lunchtime one Saturday in the summer of 2003. Max Goof grabbed himself a slice of pizza from his stand before he went to buy a cheeseburger and a cup of coffee from their stands and went to look for a park bench in Forksville Park to eat have his lunch. The park was as massive as it was beautiful that there were plenty of benches so finding one wouldn't usually be a problem. But today it was different because the park was full of runners. They were running through the park as it was part of the track for the Forksville Marathon 2003.

After Max gave up trying to look for a park bench, he decided to sit down wherever he could. He was able to watch the runners in the marathon while he enjoyed his lunch and rested. He had a busy day helping with the Forksville Marathon 2003 which was set up by the children charity he was volunteering for. The charity was called Children For The Future. It was a charity that provided shelter and improved wellbeing for unfortunate children, whether they had mental or physical disabilities or they be orphans from Forksville or from anywhere in the world.

Max had been an admin volunteer for the charity for two years. Since he graduated from college, he had been looking for a job to earn money. Based on a suggestion from his ex-girlfriend Mona, he went to volunteer for the charity so he could get work experience, improve his resume and get out of the flat he and Mona had been living in. He had tried to apply for other paid jobs while volunteering there, but all they every got him was getting to the final two interviews and never getting the actual job. He always reminded himself that he was grateful for the charity taking him on board as a volunteer so he could be prove his worth and learn while he worked. He volunteered at the office on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. When he wasn't at the office, he would help out at events like today's marathon or help out at the Forksville Orphanage, that was owned by the charity. He would help them be out doing physical activities like skateboarding, cycling or doing garden work and help them out on day trips like going to the movie theatre or going to the water park among many outings.

Max's job today was helping on the pizza stand the charity set up in Forksville Park. While the volunteers were baking the pizzas and putting them in the ovens, he would collect the customers' money and hand them the slices or takeaway boxes to them. It had been very busy and he felt very tired, but he felt good about what he and the other volunteers had achieved and the money they collected would go and help the disadvantaged children the charity supported.

After nearly a good half hour of enjoying his lunch and cheering the runners on, it was time for Max to get back to work. He decided to head to the gents first. When he came out of the portable toilet, he bumped into someone and they both fell down.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," Max said, as he picked himself up and went to help who he knocked down. He saw the person was a redhead wearing a green sports tank top, navy blue shorts and white socks and trainers.

"That's okay, really," said the person, who took his hand.

As Max helped the person up, he looked at who he bumped into. Then he gasped as if he had just seen a ghost. "Roxanne?"

The person Max bumped into looked at him and gasped the same way he did. "Max? Is it really you?"

Max thought he was dreaming as he looked at her. "It - it is. Roxanne, is it really you?"

"It is."

And without another word or moment of thought, they embraced each other. It felt like the same hugs they did nearly six years ago. It felt that nothing had changed.

"I've missed you so much," Roxanne sobbed happily.

"Me too." Max had to shed some tears himself. Then he noticed her tank top had a number on it. "You're in this race?"

"I sure am."

He saw her number was two hundred and twenty. "Well, you're doing very well. You're over halfway."

"Thanks, Max." Then she noticed his badge around his neck. "Are you working?"

"Yeah, right here. I'm helping at the pizza stand at the end of the race. Volunteering."

"Well, I could do with a slice of pizza because I don't think I can do anymore of this marathon."

"Do you feel like you're hitting a wall?" Max asked.

"Yes," she said.

I know how you're feeling. I felt the same as you are feeling now when I did this marathon a couple of years ago."

"How did you finish it?" Roxanne asked.

"Doing it for the children that my charity is supporting is what motivated me to finish," Max said. That was not completely true. It was partly true was that he did feel good about the money he raised to help the children and he felt good about finishing a full marathon, but the one thing he didn't want to tell Roxanne was that he was trying to impress his last girlfriend Mona, only to not impress her and see her leave with another man. He never saw her ever again.

"Well, I don't know what motivated me to do this. I never even wanted to do it in the first place. My boyfriend made me do it."

"This boyfriend is still Jake?" Max asked.

"Yes. He was going to do it himself, but he said he couldn't be asked to do and made me do it by saying I don't mean anything to him if I don't finish this marathon."

"Maybe that's how you motivated yourself to do this race," Max said. "You're trying to impress your boyfriend. Did he say why he wanted to do it in the first place?

"Because he wanted to prove himself and get a medal," Roxanne said. "Even if I finish this marathon, he's just going to take my medal and claim as his own."

"Well, I don't know anything about this Jake," Max said, "but what I do know is that you are here right now and you are putting the efforts into this, not him. So, you deserve the medal, not him. There's a medal over there and that's got your name on it. So, why don't you get there, finish the race and prove to everyone that you completed this marathon and you earned that medal?"

"All right, I'll do it!" Roxanne cried with more confidence and determination. "Thank you for the motivation, Max. And it was great to see you again."

"And it was great to see you again, Roxanne," Max said.

Then they waved to each other as she started to re-join the runners.

"Best of luck!" Max cried. Then his watch beeped and reminded him that he was late for work. So he himself ran back.