The Winner

I just tied up my second running shoe, when the door of the changing room burst open and a boy and a man came in. The man was shouting. “Believe me, I’ll give you a hard time, when you loose today, you’ll wish you’re never born! I didn’t have the chance to participate and I don’t want my foolish, lazy son to ruin it this time, so…”

He stopped abruptly when he realised my presence. Than he threw a sharp look at the boy and without another word he turned around and left the room.
I knew the boy; his name was Victor. He was small and thin, with very short brown hair. I had run against him several times before and he had never won.
Victor didn’t look me in the eyes, when he started to change, but I saw his hands shaking as he opened his bag.

I left the room and closed the door behind me. I really felt sorry for Victor.
I liked him, although we’d never talked to each other; but when I saw my Dad coming towards me and heard him say “Five minutes to go son!” , I banished Victor out of my head and started to concentrate on the competition.

In the moment the starting gun went off, all nervousness fall away from me. This was my day, my race, my chance. Only six miles separated me from the finishing line and so from the qualification for the most important national youth race in whole Victoria. I had trained for months for this competition and in less than one hour, I would know if my training had been worth it.
The red, dry ground made dust, when 24 pairs of feet started to run.
It was nearly midday and the sun burned on my skin. In front of us drove a white Pick Up to show us the way trough the bush. I tried to run slowly to save my strength for later, but a tall boy with dark skin and black curly hair took the leadership of the group and started very fast.
After about half an hour silent running the first boys dropped back.
My T-Shirt was wet and it seemed to become hotter every minute. At that moment I passed the four miles mark, Victor overtook. He was panting and I could see the sweat drop down from his hair. He was the smallest in the group and maybe the youngest but he was really tireless. I sped up and left two boys behind me before I reached Victor. We were the leaders of the group now. When he realised I was next to him, he sped up again, but I followed.

I turned around half. The group was metres behind us.
I concentrated on the run again. I could hear Victor’s heavy breathing next to me. That reminds me of his father. Would he really punish his son if he didn’t win the race? He sounded really aggressive in the changing room. Maybe I should tell somebody…
Suddenly Victor struggled. He tried to get his balance back but he couldn’t and fell down hardly. I didn’t even have time to help him get up, so fast he was on his legs again and continued running. I followed him. When I was next to him again and moved my head in his direction I could see his knees were bleeding. When we reached the five miles stone I became excited. Ten more minutes and we would reach the finishing line. My legs hurt and I could see on Victor’s red face that he was as exhausted as I was.

And then we saw the finishing line. We could here the voice, the music and see the huge banner with the inscription ‘Finish’.

I started to run as fast as I could, only a few hundred metres more! To my great surprise Victor caught up. When I turned my face to look at him I saw something I didn’t expected. His eyes were full of tears. He hadn’t shown any sign of pain when he fell down and I never saw any emotion on his face before, but now he was crying. He knew I would win. I was so much taller, my legs were longer and I wasn’t as much out of breath as he was.

That was the moment I decided to let him win. He deserved it more than I did. I really wanted to win, but he had tried so much harder, he must have worked so much harder to have a chance to be as fast as me and the other taller boys. And there was his Dad… I took a deep breath and slowed down.

When he reached the finishing line I felt a small stitch of regret. But when my dad reached me and patted my back enthusiastically and my mum gave me my water bottle, I felt happy and proud. I knew I had made a good decision. On the way back to the changing room, I saw Victor and his father. The man looked as arrogant as if he had won the race. Victor was surrounded by people. His face was pale and red spotted and he had sunburn on his nose, but he looked happy. I decided to be a fair loser and walked towards him to congratulate but even before I had a chance to speak he caught sight of me. His smile turned into a nasty grin but he didn’t look me in the eyes directly when he spoke. “Look!” he said in a loud voice. “Here’s the loser! I beat you by miles. I have no idea how you ever won a race before!” and he turned around and disappeared into the crowd.

I froze. I was speechless. I felt anger rise up in my chest. He knew as well as I did, that I was the better runner. I didn’t expect him to thank me, but… I couldn’t believe it.
When I turned around and went in the opposite direction, there was a single thought in my mind. Maybe he was first in this run, but that didn’t let him become a winner at all.

Impressum

Tag der Veröffentlichung: 25.09.2009

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