Gone With the Wind

I have found a new love. Watching you run. In the fall. 

Each Cross-Country event presents a challenge against your previous time on this particular course. You time yourself, and run to the point of throwing up. After each race, you are visibly flushed and overwhelmed with anxiety. Your head is clouded and you feel as if you're going to faint. 

Still, you run. As if your life depends on it. You run like you're being chased by the wind. You run because you love to challenge yourself. You run because it's in your DNA. Your dad was a runner, and his dad was a Cross-Country star. 

This 8th grade year of Cross Country, you have yet to place less than Top 3. It is inevitable around the final bend, I anticipate seeing you bolting out of the woods toward the finish line. Because you kept the faith and you will finish your course. 

But the absolute coolest thing about watching you run is the fact that you and your best friend Emma Margaron are intrinsically glued together no matter what. You start out running together, and coming out of the woods, it's always you and Emma still side-by-side. She makes you laugh. She makes you challenge yourself. She makes you want to push harder. And sometimes she pulls ahead by a few steps at the finish line. Sometimes you are the one pulling ahead. 

But you're never more than three steps from each other. 

 

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