Katie watched as her teammates lined up two deep on the starting line. Much like the end of the race, each girl's hair was already plastered to her face. Katie looked around. Not surprisingly, the spectators numbered less than usual for the District Championship. Of the people she could see, Katie noticed that she was the only one besides the coaches not wrapped in a raincoat and huddled under an umbrella. She turned her attention to the starter about fifty yards out from the line. She couldn't make out his words but she saw him lift his arms. When he dropped them seconds later, the two hundred girls in the AAA race moved off in a huge pack. Katie yelled for a moment and then set off to reach her next spot, the 1000-meter mark, before the leaders of the pack made it there.
Luckily, she had already mapped out her routes. The rain made it much harder to navigate her path, and if she didn't know exactly where she was going, she undoubtedly would have ended up in a neighboring county. As it was, she highstepped through one of the cornfields around the course and made it to her destination a minute before the leader reached it.
As the Easton girl lumbered past, Katie was surprised by how quickly the girl moved. She looked a lot like a dinosaur trudging along, but was obviously much faster than that. The girl had a twenty-meter lead and didn't look like she was letting up anytime soon. Katie thought, rather humorously, to herself,
Well I guess the world is just full of surprises. Not to mention previously-assumed-extinct creatures…
She forgot about Godzilla as more runners began to stride past. Oakridge's number one girl, Abby, ran by in fourth, followed closely by a blonde girl in a dark green uniform. As they drew closer, Katie started cheering for Abby.
"Yeah Abby! Great positioning so far. Keep it relaxed. You got this!"
As she drew in another deep breath, the other girl's face came into focus and Katie almost choked on the breath she had just drawn in.
What the hell is Jessie doing on Abby's tail! I didn't even known she was good!
She was speechless as these thoughts cascaded through her mind. The girls quickly passed in silence; as Katie looked on, Jessie's eyes flicked quickly up to her face before returning to a spot on Abby's back. She saw Katie and, Katie was sure of it, recognized her. Katie was still baffled by Jessie's appearance when Lindsay came by as their second girl in fourteenth place. She quickly snapped out of her thoughts and threw herself into her cheering. She counted as each of their girls ran past, Julie soon after Lindsay, followed by Kellyann, then Melissa and Erin together. When Danni passed by, she yelled louder than anyone else and happily noted that she seemed to be doing well before sprinting off to her next mark and 2500 meter point.
Despite wading through an ever-deepening puddle, breaking up a duck party, and nearly slipping into a massive mudpit, Katie still beat the leaders to the halfway point of the race. Dino-girl lunged past, her lead the same if not bigger. And sure enough Abby and Jessie only a minute later, this time running almost side-by-side. A weak "Go Oakridge!" was all she could muster as the pair drew closer. They were running almost in unison, except Jessie was sporting a barely visible…smile. Katie couldn't believe it, the girl was smiling!
She's enjoying this! Unbelievable, she's racing her guts out, covered in water and mud, barely able to see through the rain, and smiling! This girl must be nuts…
The last thought brought a smile to her own face. In the circles she ran in, she was known as the slightly crazy one. Always ready to try something new, go first, or take a risk, Katie had far more scars and stories than most of her friends. But as she watched this lithe, blonde girl running with her teammate, she noticed how this girl made a sport that was a step away from gruesome death look beautiful. Her hair was matted down to her forehead, but pushed away from her face from when Jessie had repeatedly wiped the rain out of her eyes. She obviously wasn't wearing any mascara, it was apparent on the girls that had because it was mostly running down their cheeks, yet Katie swore she could see the raindrops clinging to her lashes. Crazy, but those lashes stuck in her mind. Her thin green uniform was clinging to her body in all the right places, which in Katie's mind was everywhere. All at once Katie was grateful for the cold, drenching rain, well almost thankful anyway. It allowed her to stare unabashedly at this perfection, if unaccepted by her mind, was embraced by her heart.
Jessie was picture perfect. Her stride was smooth, her muscles in tune with the task at hand. Her run looked effortless and she seemed in tune with her whole being. Katie's heart felt like it was running a race of its own. At the last second, Katie was sure it wouldn't happen, but just as she was about to pass Jessie's eyes touched her own for the briefest of seconds. Katie caught her breath, and she was gone. As badly as she wanted her team to win, Katie found herself silently rooting for Jessie as she began to overtake Abby going up the slight upgrade of land.
Her funk was broken once again when her teammates came cruising by. She counted Lindsay, Julie, Kellyann, Melissa, Erin, and Danni all splattered in mud droplets as they carried themselves through the soggy halfway mark. She screamed a few encouragements to Danni, not even sure if she could hear her, and spun away to find the 4000 meter mark.
Absolutely exhausted from her 600 meter near-sprint across an open rolling field, Katie barely maintained her balance as she danced across a wooden bridge and strode up to the sign that let the runners know they were 1000 meters away from the finish line. As each runner passed, they would click off the fourth of five kilometers that had originally lay between themselves and their destination. From here, it was heart and guts that would determine who would run their race and who would give in to their demons. Luckily, the last kilometer led the runners in a rather large "U" shape and Katie would, if she ran quickly, be able to cheer for her girls and still make it to the finish.
Katie was still catching her breath when the Amazon warrior princess chugged by, and this time it was obvious that she had extended her lead on the poor second place girl, whose goal had changed from staying with her to keeping Godzilla in sight. Unfortunately for her, Katie saw that the girl-turned-machine was only now shifting gears and she knew that girl #2 would be promptly buried. Impressed as she was by Godzilla's performance, it was Jessie she found herself straining to see. And sure enough, when Abby and Jessie came into view, it was Jessie who was now a step ahead of Abby. Katie was in awe and tried her very best not to flat out gawk at the runner.
Without Abby's back as a target, Jessie's eyes had nothing to lock on to. When they were close enough to see each other's faces, Jessie's eyes left the ground and met Katie's own soft green stare. This time she didn't flick her gaze away immediately, but they held it. Jessie, because she could, and Katie, because she couldn't look away. Katie willed her mouth to stay closed until Jessie ripped away her stare to seek out her next course marker. When she found it she smiled, briefly met Katie's eyes, which had never left her own, and put a move on poor Abby.
Abby was helpless to stay with the loping girl, and Katie couldn't blame her, Jessie looked like this massive gear-shift hadn't even pained her. The gap between the girl in green and girl in blue opened in an instant and Katie wouldn't have been surprised if Jessie was gunning for the girl in third place, who was at least a hundred yards ahead of her.
The Oakridge girls streamed past, with the only change being Erin leading Melissa instead of Melissa half-stepping Erin. She yelled for Danni, and Danni actually seemed to respond by picking off the next two girls ahead of her. Katie watched proudly as she closed the gap on a struggling red and white uniform in front of her and grinned at her back.
Hauling butt to beat Godzilla to the finish, Katie made it there and squirmed between two of the Oakridge JV girls along the final hundred meter stretch right as the warrior princess steamrolled by to victory. Sure enough, second place rolled in more than a minute later in nineteen flat and third place only a step ahead of Jessie. Katie allowed herself a "Yeah Upton Sinclair!" as Jessie flew by, telling herself that Abby couldn't catch her now anyway. She was watching Jessie in the chute already patting the third place girl on the back and congratulating her on her race when Abby pushed through the finish line. Feeling guilty for not giving Abby one last cheer, Katie shifted her focus to the remaining six Oakridge girls as they charged the finish. Lindsay ran a personal record, Erin and Melissa finished so close even the judges couldn't decide on a victor, and Danni caught four girls coming up the homestretch. Aside from Abby being perplexed at the red girl (Jessie) schooling her the last kilometer, the Oakridge girls were psyched about their performance and those who could whooped around in the rain in celebration.