Writing 20 Steps

[Onix]

[COLOR=DarkSlateBlue][SIZE=1]This is just a little idea that popped into my head. No basis in fact or reality. Just a little piece of writing.

***

20 Steps, by ULX

The last leg. Always the hardest. That's when you're drained.

You're tired, sweaty, breathing hard. But still you push on. Because you have to. You have to win. You couldn't live with yourself if you lost now, at least, that's what you say now. It always seems like that, like this could be the last time. And you don't want to deal with that.

Your muscles begin to sieze up, cramping and buckling under strain. Sweat stings your eyes, but you blink it away. Fire churns through your nerves, your body is alit. Every breath is like swallowing shards of glass.

The last few steps. 20 steps to victory or failure. 20 steps between you and your end. 20 steps never sounded so tough as it did right now.

Everything slows in the last leg. Not literally, no. That's when you're going fastest. Your heart pounds, your breath quickens, you speed up in anticipation. But time seems to slow around you as you go in those last steps.

Oxygen turns to broken glass, muscules transform into embers, sweat becomes acid on your brow. The wind itself turns against you, moving to quick to be cooling, too quick to gulp down. Your skin feels too tight, your borns start to grind together.

Ten steps from victory, when the cramp hits. Shooting up your leg, it roars and demands attention. You'd been ignoring the small pain before, but now it demanded attention. Every time the foot strikes the hard ground, like a lightning bolt the cramp goes, making you want to cry out and stop.

Ten steps, it's almost over.

Nine steps, muscles on fire, scorching away.

Eight steps, sweat's not acid it's lava.

Seven steps, your bones have all but disappeared.

Six steps, your nerves are flayed.

Five steps, your heart almost bursts with every pump.

Four steps, the wind is too hot, then too cold, then too fast, then too slow. Always taunting you with imperfections that are magnified to torture.

Three steps, your mind screams doubts, telling you to stop before you die, telling you to stop since you'll lose anyway.

Two steps, the air isn't glass it's tiny porcupines filling your lungs with quills.

One step, your heart stops.

No steps, it's over.

You stagger a bit further and collapse. Everything stops hurting a little, and breaths come slightly easier. But it's worth it. Because it's over, and you survived. You survived.

"Great practice, team. Remember, tomorrow's the big race!"[/SIZE][/COLOR]

[Pawn114]

Wow, I like it quite a bit. Nice use of relating sweat to acid, oxygen to glass and such things. Right now I cant seem to remember the proper name for that, metaphor or something. Anyways, I think it showed the effort that one puts in when they have a goal to reach, and will go through any hardship to get there. To give an example using karate. The way you feel when your in your last race (recreational) or have been fighting all day, or even at one of the training camps. One in perticular... Gassaku (sorry, improper spelling, I know). At the end, across a large soccer field, you have to run over and over again the length, pushing yourself, for if you didnt, you'd have to do more workout. The feeling is much the same. Anyways, sorry for all that ---^ but I felt it emphasized my point some. Nice work, a pleasure to read.

[Dragon Warrior]

Mmm... I can relate to this since I'm a runner myself. This is all so true and I like how you put it. At the end of the race, I'm not sure what I'm thinking about, but I'm always sprinting the last 400 meters (in Cross Country 3 miles, that is). It hurts, you're tired, but all I can think about is making it through with my best.

Great job. I'm feelin' it.