It took several minutes for the 512 remaining participants to leave. Outside of the stadium, we found a track. I suppose we were to run in them.
Miss Carsalina continued,
"Each of these tracks is 500 miles long and there are 512 of them for each and every one of you. Those who leave their track or fail to complete 500 miles will be eliminated. The rest shall proceed to the next round. Now each of you, get on a track."
There were 512 tracks? Wow! And all of them were pretty wide too. I and Nicola chose the first 2 tracks. No one dared to stop us. Nicola looked at me with determination.
"I'm not gonna lose this time"
I was impressed by her determination to get 1st place. But there's no way I was going to give it away. I grinned at her.
"We'll see"
She nodded and took that as a challenge. I hope I didn't offend her. In about 5 minutes all participants got on their tracks.
"Alright, in the count of 3 I want all of you to be running."
All of us got tense suddenly. The master and the captains were looking at all of us with anticipation. Wait a second. Why do I feel like the master is looking only at me? I'm not bragging. Even though he is far away I can feel his gaze on me. Well, I didn't have time for that. Miss Carsalina started counting.
"1"
My heart was beating. I should be able to do this. I trained for 8 years.
"2"
"Nervous?" Nicola bluntly asked.
"Yeah" I replied.
She nodded and looked at her track. I did the same.
"3"
Everyone took off very fast leaving Miss Carsalina who was behind them by a few feet to eat dust. I closed my eyes and ran in a straight line with all my strength and speed. I opened my eyes in a few seconds. I was…the 3rd. Nicola was at first but she was already about half a mile ahead of me. The second was unfamiliar. But he was about 7 feet tall and looked like a ninja with his body covered fully (except his eyes) with dark clothes. But I was also in a league of my own compared to the other contestants. In about 2 minutes I had run 3 miles while the others didn't even complete half a mile. But if I finished up third, I believed it would disgrace the words of my dad I said to Nicola earlier.
So I pressured my legs and burst out with all my energy. I slowly caught up with the ninja dude. After a few minutes, I barely passed him. But Nicola was already 2 miles ahead of me. A lot of time passed and many people dropped out. I finally reached 470 miles. Nicola was at 480 miles and the ninja dude was at 420. So it was clear that my second place was secure. But I wasn't satisfied with that.
"Come on Schleider. You can do it." I muttered to myself while running.
The only thing I could think of right now was how to honor my dad's words. I kept on running. When I was at 478 miles I noticed how Nicola seemed to slow down. Maybe she was tired. But when I finally reached 490 miles she was at 495. Just a little more to catch up! Can I do it?