Biography: The Finish Line

2-mile mark: You see your coach to the side. You hear him yell at you: "One mile left, 5th man!" You knew instantly what that meant. Cross country adds up the places of the top 5 finishers on the team and the team with the lowest total score wins the meet. You're not the best on the team but you were good enough; most importantly, you knew how important it is for you to finish strong. You push yourself.

Finish line

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800-m mark: You're almost halfway there. Your legs are telling you to stop. You can barely breathe. To make matters worse, there is someone right behind you breathing down your neck. You knew that if you slow down even a little, they will pass you. "I wonder what coach would do if I just stopped now?". You think this during every race. You smile to yourself and keep running. 

400-m mark: Your legs are burning. The person is still behind you but you see a couple people in front of you. "I can definitely pass them," you think. You grit your teeth and you speed up. 

200-m mark: You turn a corner and you can make out the finish line. Your teammates are lined up. "Go! Sprint!" you hear them yell. You make eye contact with one of them and you nod. You can feel the adrenaline coursing through your body. You’re breathing hard. Your heart is pumping like never before. Your legs are numb but you don't care. Your mind goes blank and the only thing you can think of is sprinting down the straight. You can feel the dirt being kicked up behind your spikes. Wind blowing your hair. The person behind you also starts sprinting.

100-m mark: It's an all out sprint. The person behind you is keeping up. You weren't going to let them beat you. You can see your coach at the end. You knew you had to dig deep for that extra boost.

50-m mark: Your form starts to break. You can’t breathe. Your heart feels like it will burst out of your chest. You've lost feeling in your legs. The only thing that you can think of is winning. 

25-m mark: You start to edge out the person next to you.

15-m mark: A brief memory of your coach telling you to run through the finish line crosses your mind.

5-m mark: You start to lean forwards.

4... 3... 2... 1... You cross the finish line.

Note: I decided to use second person point of view to narrate a very vivid memory of me running cross country. I figured that second person can help everyone kind of feel the same feelings that I did. It was a very impactful time of my life and for some reason, this specific race really stuck with me.