It was the first day of practice and my running coach/biology teacher came up behind me unannounced, as was customary. I didn't turn around when he began,
"You do realize you don't have the build for this, don't you?"
I nodded, not looking directly at his face. I stared down the length of the track, watching heat radiate off the surface, the smell of hot rubber wafting into my nostrils.
"You haven't trained for something like this."
"Who's going to do it, then?" I demanded.
"I can move you and the other girls around. One meet, you can run the 400 and the 800. Another, you can have the mile. The next, you'll have the two mile. And we'll just move people in and out of them like that."
I shook my head. "No, sorry, coach." I was calling him coach now. I was selfish like that. When I didn't think I needed him, he was just my coach or teacher. "You know perfectly well that out of all three of us, I'm the only one that can actually pretend to compete in these races. Just let me do them, okay? I'll fill in for the mile and two mile if I have to, but I
want these."
He looked at me with scrutiny. "Why? You loved distance running. What's happened to you?"
I smiled disdainfully, and looked at him silently.
I need a place again. Distance running is a thing of the past."Well. Go with the sprinters. You have to learn how to sprint."
"Thanks."
A few months later, the sun is beating down on me as I'm running my final race for the Regional Meet, and my High School Running Career: The 400 meter dash. A fast race. But the longest I've ever ran.
When I think about it now, I think of Arthur in
The Once and Future King, when he's pulling the sword from the stone and anvil, and images of all of his childhood friends appear around him, cheering me on. In my mind, I was thinking of any person possible that gave me support in some way. I had had The Mortal Kombat theme stuck in my head all morning, so that was occasionally breaking through as well. Which, kind of sucks, like, it could have been some really meaningful song "Battle We Have Won" or something, but no. It was some voice saying, "Liu Kang. Scorpion. Johnny Cage," over and over and over.
Needless to say, I loved that song beforehand, but I love it more now.
And here I am, keeping up on the balls of my feet. Completely different from distance running, when I was striking the ground with my heels. I watched the backs of the runners ahead of me.
Catch them, Laryssa. Catch them dammit. The air was thick, I was hot, but the great thing about short distances (it was short to me after years of running mile after mile) was that I never quite had enough time to get tired. Knees higher, stay loose. Stay loose. Stay loose.
I finished. And I didn't place where I wanted.
"I told you, you're not built for this."
We laughed.
"So, basically, I sacrificed all of these points that could have been earned by another runner actually capable of running like this, for you. Did you at least find what you were looking for?"
I shook my head.
"I thought I'd do better. I thought I can make this event my own by excelling in it, and have my niche again."
He clicked his tongue.
"Laryssa, you're the student and athlete I think never have to take care of, the one that just needs to be told what to do, and you'll do it. But then you pull stuff like this, and then I'm once again reminded that every kid needs attended to in some way. Why did I get a degree in this?"
We laugh again.
"I thought you already knew, and that I wouldn't have to tell you: You're extraordinary for the efforts you've made. You trained for a couple of events that are alien to you.You filled in gaps for the team where no one else had the guts to step. I'm so proud of you."
"Coach..."
"It's Dad. I can be Dad when I'm not a crutch too."
I smiled.
"Go pack up your bags so that we can get our trophy. We've won second in the region, baby."
---
The only thing I miss about running track is him. And I hadn't quite trained for that.
Comments (4)
I'm sorry, you kind of lost me at mortal combat: The theme is stuck in my head now and is blocking out all my attempts at concentrating.
@KuyaD - As soon I posted this, I thought, "Dean is going to be all over the Mortal Kombat thing."
I swear.
i miss track! minus the running. that wasn't so hot.
i dunno how distance runners do it. don't they just get sick of RUNNING?
@TheBigShowAtUD - They are sick of it DURING the running. Afterward we have this memory deletion thing in which we don't remember exactly how painful the whole shebang was.
Kind of like you having a bad night out at the bar or club.