Meet Day
Power bars, Gatorades and shot blocks are tucked away
Like hidden pockets of energy
Adidas sweats, Northface jackets and Nike shoes
Are their protective shields
Ponytails, French braids and buns
Hold back the hair of sixty nervous girls
Warming up correctly, hitting splits and PR’ing
Is everyone’s main focus.
Everyone is lined up at the starting line, shaking out their
muscles and fiddling with their watches
The announcer calls for runners set, and they step forward
Off goes the gun
And ahead goes the crowd
Legs are moving like they are being controlled by a machine
Perfect strides and their arms are swinging fast
Commanding their legs to go faster
Click, click, click go the spikes on the track
For the runners ahead, there’s no looking back
Swiftly swinging their limps
Who can cross that line first?
Thump, thump, thump the blood is pounding like the
Thick sound of a song on the crowded dance floor
The 100-meter runners’ feet look as if they can’t keep up
with their bodies
The hurdlers finish their last set, lead leg, trail leg, and
sprint towards that line
The relay runners channel enough energy to yell “stick!” as
they hand off the baton
The 3000 runners push their legs of jello to that finishing
shoot 50 feet away.
The slip they give to the runners, the place they received written
in thick black Sharpie marker
Is a prize saying, “I did it, I finished!”
The night dark is soft under their feet with pity
But strong with pride
The smell of determination and will power is in the air
Looking around, the girl from lane 1 gets a smile from the
girl in lane 3
Unsure because lane 3 falling 2 seconds behind her would’ve
been the definition of glee
It’s over, it’s done, the race has been run
Legs feel like pieces of stocky, heavy wood, and are hard to
move
Foreheads damp with sweat, the salty taste on everyone’s
skin
Fix a loose hair band; shake the other competitors hand
Like a lion that has captured prey, they are proud and walk
off the track.
The spikes come off and the layers come on
Relief; the feeling that ends a stressful situation
That is how everyone feels
There is the girl that got cut off who is feeling red
The boy whose leg hit the hurdle knows he could’ve been more
precise
The girl who dropped the baton can feel the disappointment
in the air
But the boy who sped across the line and claimed first, he
is feeling yellow
The girl who cleared all the sets of hurdles knew this was
the best race of her life
The boy who yelled “stick!” at the perfect time can feel the
excitement as his team is given first prize
Then you hear the gun
And know that there is one final race to be run.
