Thirteen Point Four Seconds

This is it.  The moment.  That one moment I’ve been building up to.  I can hear the rumbling of the crowd. Muffled.  I am walking through a tunnel and the noise of the crowd gets louder and louder.  The light from the sun is blinding for a moment.  I raise my hand, flat, to shield my eyes.  The other girls are with me, dressed in similar attire.  We walk, we jog, we make silly movements; knee to chest, swivel a foot, pull an ankle up towards our waist, circling our shoulders, twisting, bending.  Two sharp trills on a whistle signal us over to the starting point.  I crouch, feet set one behind the other, touching metal, fingers and thumbs not quite touching the white line.  SET.  I bend my head down and raise my hips. BANG. A shot rings through my ears and I propel off.  Stamp, stamp, push, push, elbows tucked in, arm swing forward, arm pull back, fists clenched.  I can hear nothing other than the sound of my feet on the track and my heart beating.  My stare does not flicker from the goal in front of me but I occasionally see the curve of my knee just appear in my eye line.  I balance on the balls of my feet, digging my toes into the ground, accelerating.  Keep going, keep going, only a few more meters.  The line approaches, I lean forward and fling my arms out.  The roar of the crowd again.  I slow to a jog and glance over my shoulder.  No.  It can’t be.  I won? I check the digital display nearby.  Personal best!  I crouch again, my feet askew, my head in my hands.  Suddenly, I feel as though I am floating.  I am.  I’m being lifted above their heads.  A flag is passed to me.  I wave it, joyously.  I look out at the crowd with tears in my eyes.  Champion.

* * *

I have written this for the Writing Workshop that is  run by Josie at Sleep Is For The Weak.  This week was Workshop #26 and I have taken my cue from prompt #4 - write about one moment with all of the richest, imaginative, sensory description you can muster - and this is based on a true experience.  Not quite the big event, but as close as I got before my running career ended suddenly.  Also, it's another trial at a different style of writing.

You can find all the other Workshop posts >>> here <<<