I toe the starting line for the last time.
Other girls wait beside me.
They know nothing.
They don’t understand
the history,
the emotion,
the intensity,
Me.
Memories flash.
I see myself
scared, waiting in the back of the pack,
tired, wishing for the finish line,
apprehensive, leaping out for the front.
I see friends
older, faster,
waving as they pass by, running ahead.
I try to catch them
but I always fall behind.
No time to think now.
The gun.
I’m running.
I work to break away.
It could be so easy,
so comfortable
to drop back
to stay with the group.
I cannot.
I pull away
tears in my eyes.
I start to turn
to take one last look.
But I don’t.
I run
face forward.
Meghan Clay (91)
This was also published in the 1998 summer issue of:
“…like
a girl
a journal
of women in sport”
a Yale undergraduate publication.
Meghan ran away to Connecticut College where she continued to race and improve.
Meghan captained the 1995 Connecticut College cross-country team. I watched
her very first home meet and came away with the following impressions.
or
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