Chapter 32 The Marathon
The crowd of students moved together in a lively wave toward the school track. The campus had a massive field, and though it was already close to 10:30 p.m.–with dorm curfew hitting at 1:30–it was still packed with people.
Xander was off to the side stretching. He was determined to make a comeback. No way was he going to lose to Cameron twice in one night.
Cameron was stretching too. It was a basic warm–up, the kind any serious runner to avoid pulling a muscle before high- intensity movement.
A bunch of students clustered around to watch, their curiosity buzzing. Someone whispered, “So how are they gonna race?”
Feeling confident, Xander handed the reins over to Cameron. “Pretty boy, your call. How do you wanna do this?”
Cameron’s lips tugged into a faint smile. “Marathon.”
Xander blinked. “A marathon? What, are you planning to run until sunrise?”
There was no time limit in a marathon. The idea was simple–whoever stopped first, lost. It only got interesting when there were a lot of runners.
He thought, ‘Just the two of us? Running a full marathon? Is he kidding me?‘
Cameron shot him a look. “So? You in or not? Are you scared?”
Xander scoffed, “What would I be scared of?”
Cameron slipped off her jacket and draped it over a potted shrub nearby, then stepped to the starting line. Xander followed
suit.
Someone in the crowd called out the countdown, “One, two, three.”
The moment “three” dropped, Cameron burst forward like a flash of wind.
Xander was stunned. He shouted after her, “Cameron, what the hell? This is a marathon, not a damn sprint.”
Cameron’s speed was a full–on sprint–no question about it. Everyone knew that marathon runners had to conserve energy,
or they’d burn out quickly. And yet, Cameron kept up that blazing speed.
With that many people watching, there was no way Xander was going to let himself fall behind. He had no choice but to kick into sprint mode too, chasing after her with everything he had.
“Come on, Xander. Cameron’s already over 200 yards ahead of you,” someone shouted.
“Shut up,” Xander snapped, seething.
His stamina was solid. But no matter how good he was, running this fast for this long wasn’t sustainable.
Meanwhile, Cameron showed no signs of slowing down. It was like she didn’t even get tired–just kept pushing harder, faster. The gap between them kept widening, and Xander had no choice but to push himself to the brink just to keep from falling completely behind.
“Let’s go, Xander. Cameron’s about to lap you,” someone yelled. That meant she was nearly a full mile ahead–one lap around the track.
Soon enough, Cameron caught up to him. By that point, she had already run four laps–four miles. Xander was only on his third. Keeping up that kind of speed for that long was already unbelievable.
Xander was gasping for breath, struggling to pull in air. His chest burned. Meanwhile, as Cameron passed him, her breathing was steady, her pace smooth. In just a few strides, she pulled ahead of him again.
Xander was someone who cared a lot about saving face. Watching the distance between them grow, he gritted his teeth and pushed forward harder.
Milena jogged up beside him. “Xander, it’s a marathon. Slow down. Let Cameron run if he wants to–once he runs out of energy, you’ll win.”
She handed him a bottle of water with a sweet smile. “Here. Drink this. No rush–just pace yourself.”
“You’re right,” Xander said, panting. He was exhausted and parched, so he took the water from her hand and, little by little, eased his speed.
He thought, ‘She’s right. This is a marathon. It’s
Successfully unlocked!
ndurance.‘
But slowing down only made things worse–Cameron pulled two laps ahead, then three, then four, and even five.
Xander was struggling more with each lap, his pace slowing down, while Cameron was still running at the same blazing pace, lap after lap, like she didn’t know what fatigue was.
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Chapter 33 Stay Out Of My Buenwes
