Despite a slightly delayed start, it was a good day for a race.

The participants were all there for the first time in what could be considered a very long time, the weather was good and plenty of people had shown up, filling the stands instead of leaving them mostly empty.

Plenty of the participants could be seen warming up, stretching, jumping a little on the spot, talking to some of the officials to calm themselves down and slowly walking small laps around some imaginary circle that they could see.

It didn’t seem as though anyone was against anyone else, for whilst this race required a competitive attitude, many of the participants knew each other from either previous years or other events, such as social gatherings or chance meetings in the same office space.

All the participants looked to be in strong form, each appearing as though they had been preparing for a while, although for them this was just another race in their year.

They were glad that it was more for fun than anything else as this race fell between other, more serious ones and worked well as a meter for how much more work they needed to put in before they were next on the track, using their body to move themselves as quickly as they could, cutting through the air around them whilst they completely inhabited the moment and nothing but the moment in order to ensure that they got to the finish line as quickly as possible.

They needed to make sure that, whilst their movements were as graceful and fluid as possible, that they exerted as much energy as possible, revealing their powerful motion as leg moved after leg, arm after arm as they glided along the track.

It wasn’t a serious race, but it could have some very serious implications.

It was still within the realms of the morning, but soon all the athletes participating would be lining up, preparing to take their positions on the track whilst also preparing to do as much as they could to tune out the crowd and strengthen their focus.

During the wait there were a few festivities to be held to celebrate the event, mostly designed to get the crowd excited for the main event, which of course would be followed by a few more festivities.

It was time.

The announcer began with their opening lines as was routine for the years that the race had been run. The runners were still lining up, getting into the position.

When it was time, they crouched to prepare to put themselves into starting position.

After a few minutes, they knew that it was time. The announcer had stopped their spiel and began top utter the words that they knew would tell them to start running.

“Ready.”

They were ready.

“Set”.

They put themselves into their final position before running.

The crowd was quiet, waiting in anticipation.

The athletes were as focused as needed.

The starting gun went off.

The time it took to write five-hundred words: 10:43:25

A bit slower than I hoped.
I struggled a fair bit whilst I was writing this, so perhaps I should have taken my time rather than made it a challenge.

Written at work.