By: Jiahao Chen

As the sweat beads clung to my face, my heart raced as I passed the “3 Miles” sign. I breathed in and out, hoping I could make it to the end without collapsing. After a minute, we turned the corner to where we had started, and I burst towards it with speed that I didn’t know I had. Once I had crossed the finish line and claimed the medal that had been waiting for me for 29 minutes, I collapsed due to the lack of oxygen. I had beaten my old time.

It was a Sunday in the middle of May, and I was preparing to run my second 5k, but this time my friend Emily was joining me. We were warming up and soon, crossed the start line and burst forward, hoping we would finish earlier than my last 5k, where I got the time of 35 minutes. I was looking forward to beating it, now that I had a friend that I wanted to run faster than. We stayed steady for the first couple of minutes, and soon the whole throng of people split into small groups.

The path was crowded, and I found it hard to navigate through the crowd. We continued to weave through the lessening crowd, and we made our way to the middle of our group. Beads of sweat were already forming, but because I sweat easily I didn’t mind at all. We started running past the orange cones, and I felt that we were running faster than my last 5k, and I decided to keep this pace.

I noticed many interesting things, people were sprinting then stopping, and I noted that they would quickly fall back, because changing pace would cause painful cramps that would inevitably slow someone down. I also noticed someone carrying a water bottle, and I went back to the time where our coach told us that we shouldn’t bring water bottles, but I let the thought slip away as we continued running. After what seemed like only five minutes, we passed the “1 Mile” sign.

We continued jogging, with no signs of showing any stopping, and we continued to weave around the small crowd that dispersed. We turned a corner, and we saw a stand full of water, meaning we were halfway through. I grabbed a tiny bottle, drank some water, then poured the rest over myself after overhearing an adult saying it was refreshing.

We were running to a corner, and were about to turn, when a car impeded our flow, and we stopped. Soon after the incident, Emily asked, “mind walking?” and I responded, “yes, I do mind.” I said this because I didn’t want to slow down, but because we promised to stay together, I reluctantly slowed down to let her catch up. After her rest, we started running again, and before I knew it, we passed the “2 Mile” sign.

I remembered what had happened during the last 5k I ran, when I had sprinted downhill thinking I was close to the end because of cheering parents, but I soon realized I hadn’t even passed the 3 mile mark yet. I warned Emily not to make the same mistake I made because it wasted much of my energy and slowed me down.

The third mile had many uphills and downhills and I got a cramp, so I asked for her to slow down while I caught my breath. We continued running after I felt better and I soon heard the noise of people shouting and cheering, and I knew we were at the downhill where I had made the mistake that cost me a minute. I saw all the parents holding signs and cheering us on, and one sign caught my attention, it said, “Run like an Ender Dragon is chasing you!” I referred this phrase to Minecraft, and for the first time during the 5k, I smiled at the sight of the poster.

Shortly after the slope, I saw the “3 Mile” sign, and despite the fact we still had quite a distance to run, Emily started sprinting, leaving me behind even after I beseeched her to slow down. After I saw her determination to beat me, I decided to put everything I had into the last .1 of a mile. I sprinted, quickly catching up to Emily, who just realized her efforts were in vain, and I continued on, until we reached the part where we started.

I heard Emily’s footsteps and urged myself to push harder, because she had the intention to leave me, so I dug my heels into the ground and pushed. We saw the finish line, I sprinted even as my heartbeat accelerated, and the path split into two, divided by cones. I took the path closest to me, and I thought Emily would take the other, but she followed. I sprinted and I looked behind me and to my surprise, Emily looked like she gave up. I then realized we were just in reach of the finish line, and I glanced at the clock, and I saw that I had finished in less than thirty minutes. As I crossed the line, I heard the announcer say, “Alex Chen,” and I knew I had done it.