From The Other Side Of The Line

Growing up as the faster sister always has its perks. I mean, I’m not very fast with my legs but on a bike, I’d like to think I’m the flash. Celeste and I liked to make everything a competition, but one day when we were kids my competitive spirit got the best of me. We used to live on a gravel road on a hill, and everyone knows hills are always the best landforms to ride bikes down. But at the end of this gravel hill was a hard turn that led to our driveway. So when Celeste and I got to the top of the hill, we lined up and said, “Ready, set, GO!” We were side by side for a little bit, but then I gained a lot of speed and led the way. I looked behind me and saw she was pretty far back, but the next thing I knew, she gained on me and it scared me. You know that feeling of extreme fear because someone is chasing you? Yea, that’s what I was going through. As a result of the intense fear, I sped up a little too quickly, and when I hit the turn into the driveway, I drifted sharply and ended up on the ground with bloody, scraped up, and dusty legs. After that horrible experience, I decided to retire and hand Celeste my cape. That, now, made her the flash and me, the one on the other side of the line.

There I am at a meet. Not just any meet, Celeste’s meet. I made my way from the parking lot to the course. Coming over the slight hill I saw crowds of people gathering on the sidelines. I made my way to our team’s tent and I saw that Celeste was not there. I looked up and saw her and the girls jogging up the path as they were getting done with their warm-up, all sweaty and out of breath. Celeste made her way to the tent. 

“How are you feeling?” I ask.

“Feeling Good,” she answered when she sat down to take a drink of her water. As she is sitting, she is talking to her other teammates and asking Kaydence Gibson, “Hey are you putting your spikes on?” I looked at the time, Celeste raced at 10:30, it was 10:20.

The whole team and I started to make our way to the start. I saw that Celeste and the other varsity girls started to break off and head behind the starting line to start their warmups. I told Celeste “Good luck” as she joined her teammates. Seeing Celeste do her warm ups up and down the field, all I could think was how nervous I was for her but also how good she is going to do. I looked back at my phone and saw it was 10:25. The announcer turned on his intercom and said, “Five minutes! Five minutes till we start!” I looked over little ways out from the start to see Celeste, her teammates, and coach in their group prayer that happens at every meet. Time goes by quickly as the announcer got back on his intercom and said, “One minute! Get your last warm-ups in and we will start.” At that point, I knew that I was a nervous wreck. All I could think about was how Celeste must have been going crazy.

All the teams got their last jog in and started to gather on the line. They were all told to get a couple of steps back from the line, finally, the announcer said, “On your mark.” At that moment all I saw was the whole crowd of runners moving gradually to the line. “Get set,” the gun gets raised to the sky. POW! And they were off. 

Following the crowd with my eyes I saw that she was right in the middle of all the girls, I screamed, “GO CELESTE!”. All the parents and other supporters quickly sped off going from the starting line and making their way to the one-mile mark. I followed after, and thought to myself, “I don’t know how they do it.” After I lost my breath and ran 50 meters, I saw a big group of girls start to come out of the woods, Celeste was in the top ten. “Good job Celeste!” I yelled as she passed me, she was already doing so good. I then jogged to another part of the course on a steep hill. The girls quickly met me up there, I looked through the line of runners, and saw there was a Potosi jersey in the top three. They got a little bit closer and my entire heart dropped, Celeste was in the top three. I began to tear up a little bit, “I am so proud of her ” I said to myself. I was so excited, I quickly made my way to the finish line. As Celeste was trying to sprint her way down the final stretch, everything inside of me screamed, ”GOOD JOB CELESTE, YOU DID SO GOOD!” 

I raced behind the finish line and grabbed a cup of water to find her. After about a minute, she found me. I looked at her, and I could see it on her face. She was so exhausted. She ran her heart out and I felt like such a proud mom at that moment. She was falling over, so I grabbed her sweaty arm and put it around my shoulder. I didn’t mind because I just wanted to make sure she was alright. We walked for a little bit until she could cool down and collect herself. “I am so proud of you, you did so well!” I exclaimed. 

She said, “Thank you.” She is not one to know how to take compliments well but I could tell that she appreciated it. 

We started to walk back to the tent and she was so curious about how everybody else did, “How did you do?” “What place did you get?” She was also very supportive, even if her teammates didn’t do that good she still congratulated them and told them that they did well. If it was me, she would have rubbed her top three in my face but I guess that is the difference between me and her teammates.

After the race, mom, Celeste, and I headed to Russels in Caledonia, our tradition. Celeste runs a meet and I get food for the hard work she put in. Plus we have some pretty good memories there, but that’s something you’ll have to ask her about.