Running on the beach

Postby lasse672000 » Mon Feb 04, 2013 7:13 am

It was the second to last of the heats of the preliminary rounds. Fourteen year old Sally looked out over the hot, sandy beach. She was bare-foot and dressed in only a silvery bathing-suit, which was all that the rules of the competition allowed her to wear.
She looked at the other girls. Those on her right wore blue and green bathing suits, and the ones on her left wore yellow and red ones. They all looked kind of chubby; not at all as fit as she was.
‘I AM going to win this race!’ she again persuaded herself. ‘All I have to do is reach that finish-line ahead of two of them, preferably all of them, to reach the next round! After that; well, it’s anybody’s guess.’

The problem she, along with all the other competitors, faced was that her hands were put in pouches, crossed in front of them, tied together and to connected to their waists via a short length of rope. That meant that although she was a good sprinter, she would probably have to slow down a bit, so she would keep her balance, even though the surface was loose, slippery sand. Slow down, yes; but not so much she risked losing the race.
She had practiced running like this over and over again, until now she was as good as was likely to ever be.
“One minute!” the starter announced. Sally stared at the finish-line 200 meters away, in her mind crossing it well ahead of all the others and winning the final race, taking home the cup and prize-money to her ecstatic family. Second place wasn’t really an option; she just had to win! If she did; no WHEN she did, she along with the three other winners today, would be automatically qualified for the final at the national competition in two months time, and wouldn’t have to go through any semi-final heats, as the second and third placed girls would have to. Coming in fourth or below, meant you had had a pleasant day at the beach, and nothing more. They would go home empty-handed, one experience richer and probably that much more eager to win next year.

“Ten seconds!” Sally put the toes of her right foot a few millimetres from the starting line, hoping she would get a good, clean start, something one of the girls in the previous race didn’t get. She had gotten the wind knocked out of her, by the girl to her left ramming her elbow into the pit of her stomach. She was still in the hospital-tent getting oxygen to recover. Of course, the perpetrator had been disqualified on the spot, and taken away in disgrace by her family. What would become of her Sally didn’t dare think about, nor did she really care; if you were stupid enough to commit an offence, you had to be prepared to pay the price.

“Five seconds!” The loud-speaker enhanced voice of the starter echoed out over the stands, filled with people.
“Four, three, two, one; GO!” The girls started running.
Sally didn’t get the best of starts, and was second to last when they reached the 50 meter mark. To her relief, it had been a good clean start, everyone keeping her elbows to themselves.
The sand was much looser than the sand she was used to run on, and it took her a while to get the technique and balance right, but once she had, she gradually started advancing in the field.
50 meters from the finish line she had passed almost all the other girls, and was fighting for the lead, with the girl in the red bathing suit.
2 meters from the line, they were still neck and neck, and Sally threw herself over the line, winning by half a second. The second-placed girl tried to protest, but it wasn’t even considered, as the judges thought it was a good, clean finish.

Geoff, her father gave her a big hug, put a towel over her shoulders and told her how proud he was of her.
“Now,” he said; “all you have to do; is do it all over again and you’re in the Grand Final! Think you can do that?”
“I don’t know, but I’ll sure give it a try, sir!”
“Good girl!” Geoff gave a sign to her little sister, who came and wiped the sand and sweat from Sally’s body, making her ready for the last heat of the day. She grabbed the short rope between her sister’s waist and hands and started slowly walking her around the resting area, until it was announced the competitors of the last heat of the day were to assemble at the starting line. Her father gave her a drink of water, and she was led out to the starting line once again.

Sally once again was given the middle lane, and once again she had a slow start, having to gradually work her way through the field. This time, her margin down to second place was even narrower, one tenth of a second, but the victory was undeniably hers!
She was taken to the changing room by her overjoyed family and handed over to a female member of the staff, who released her hands, gave her a proper shower, and helped her put her clothes, a pair of sheer, white pantyhose, white plastic sandals, a white knee-length skirt and a white sleeve-less blouse, on before tying her hands behind her back and taking her out again.

The thought of Sally racing was born when, last year, she saw an old photo of her grandmother with her hands tied in front of her and dressed in an old-fashioned, silvery bathing suit, mounted to a plaque, which said she had won second prize at the national beach competition several years before. When Sally had asked what kind of competition it had been, her father had told her.
“I think they’re actually still held,” he said. A look on the Internet confirmed he was right.
“I want to compete in that!” Sally announced.
“Very well,” her father said. “But I have to warn you: your grandmother always told me the training had been gruelling!”
“I don’t care,” she defiantly said. “I still want to compete! What if I win? That would mean a whole lot to me.”
Geoff built a track in the back yard and filled it with sand, and Sally had spent countless hours, dressed in nothing but a bathing suit, running from one end of it, to the other. After the first month, her father had started tying her hands in front of her, so she would get used to it. When she had a couple of months later, he had tied a rope around her waist, and tied the rope around her wrists to it.

The first year she had entered the competition, she hadn’t even made it through the qualification rounds, and afterwards she was devastated. She even entertained the idea of giving the whole thing up, but then her grandma called:
“I heard you took part in this years’ beach run, and lost,” she said, in her dry old-lady voice.
“Yes, ma’m, I did,” Sally confirmed, close to tears.
“Oh, come on, don’t take it so hard. You’ve only been practicing for a few months, haven’t you?”
“Yes, ma’m I have. I ought to have run better than this!”
“Humph! Not with Geoff doing the training alone. He’s a good boy, bless his heart; but he knows squat about training a girl for that kind of race!” her grandmother snorted. “So that is why, as of tomorrow, I’m going to let you move in with me, and take over your training.”
Sally had to smile affectionately, when she heard her dear grandmother talk like that. Now, there was a woman she really admired; next to her mother, of course.
“Thank you, Grandmother!” she snivelled.
“Don’t thank me yet girl! The training will be long and hard, and I can’t give you any guaranties it will work, but I will try my best, and I trust you will do the same.”
“Oh, I will! I will do my very best!” Sally said, with a huge smile.
Early the next morning, her grandmother stopped her car outside Sally’s house, she had climbed in, and they had driven off.

If she thought her father had been a tough coach, it was nothing compared to her grandmother! She also had a track, but circular and overgrown, in her back yard from when she used to run. Sally’s first task was to clear it up and put a fresh, loose layer of sand on it before she could even start practicing.
In return, her grandmother made her a bathing suit in the same silvery material her own had been made of, when she was running.
As of then, her days consisted of running laps, half the time with heavy weights tied to her ankles, the other half with her knees tied together. And all that those boring hours of practicing had really paid off, in that she was now in the Grand Final!
Whazzzz up!.