Part 5: Getting to the Line

For six weeks she had been running in her dreams. She’d kept the pamphlet secret from her parents, tucked under her pillow. She started a dream journal, and after three nights, she was already able to recall her dreams so vividly, that she didn’t need to write them down anymore.

Soon she was able to wake up inside her dreams. No matter where she was or what she was doing in her dream, she would go, take the subway or just run to High Park, and spend hours in the trails. At first it was hard. She could feel her broken foot. She could still run on it, but she felt a sharp pain that would have stopped her had she not known it was a dream.

Karina reminded herself that she wanted to heal fast. At the end of every run, she sat in the grass in the park and rubbed her foot. She put it in the cold river and let the soft current run around it.

When she was awake, she could barely walk at first. She limped around on her cast, and did not put too much pressure on the foot. But she was confident. She told her teammates that she was preparing for the championship race.

“Yeah, right. How are you going to pull that off?” Kat was skeptical.

“Running is all mental, Kat. It’ll happen.” Ali was a little more supportive.

“It’s not ALL mental. You still need your legs. You need a not broken foot. Kar, we love you. We want you to be on the team, but it’s going to be hard.”

“The hardest part will be convincing Coach Terry to enter me. The doctor and my parents don’t want me to run at all.”
“Well, I think we can help with that part!” Kat said mischievously. “You just show up ready to run.”

***
On the day of the championship race, Karina walked with her three teammates to the starting area. Coach Terry was waiting.

“Thanks for coming, Karina. I know it’s tough for you not to be able to race, but it’s great that you came to cheer on your teammates.”

“Of course.”

“Kat, where’s this new girl you told me to enter? You said she was training on her own, because she had to work at her parents’ store after school?”

“Coach Terry, there’s no other girl. It’s Karina. We wanted to make sure she would be able to run. She says she can do it.”

“Kat! Karina, I really don’t think I can let you do it. I’m responsible for you, you know. Do you really think you can run?”

“Coach, I can do it. I got my cast off two days ago. My foot is fine. I’m walking around without a limp. I know what the doctor said, but I have been going over this moment in my mind for the last six weeks. You always tell us how important it is to have a mental plan, that the pain is a sign that we’re doing it right, and that if we trust the training, we can push through the pain. Well, I’ve trained my mind for this, and my body, well, it’s going to follow along. I promise.”

“What if something happens? I can’t…I’ll have to scratch…what’s her name? Petra Buniak? Wow. Well done, Kat.” Terry giggled, but then turned serious again. “Really, girls, I’m sorry.” He started to walk over to the officials tent on the other side of the field.

“What are we going to do?” Ali looked at her friends, distressed. The girls stood and watched as the coach crossed the field, their hopes of a team championship, or a team score at all, getting further away with every step.

“Terry, wait!” The Coach turned around, shocked to see his injured star runner gliding towards him like her usual self. It was the first running she’d done-while awake-in six weeks. She sprinted the 100m to catch up with him before he got to the tent.

“Karina, did you just run across the field, just like that?”

“Yes, see I told-”

“Did you feel any pain?”

“No.”

“None? You’re sure?”

“Yes.” Terry looked into Karina’s eyes and saw that she trusted him to make the right decision, that she believed he trusted her, and that she wouldn’t ask for this unless she could do it right.

“Karina, this is a very bad and unprofessional decision I am going to make-”

“Thank you!” She jumped up and hugged him quickly, then turned around and sprinted back across the field.

Return each Friday for the next installment of John Lofranco’s six-part serial. Coming up next — Part 6: The Race.