On Saturday, the day of Kurt's 1500 meter race, it was a nice sunny day, high of 34° low of 23°,
A very humid day, all the runners were warming up, all in big groups with fresh bright jerseys, when Kurt showed up he forgot he needed a jersey, he was panicking, he couldn't see Mr. Roland anywhere, Kurt thought that he would want him to start warming up so he did, and 5 minutes before the race Mr. Roland showed up, with a small box, which was shiny red with a yellow bow on it, he approached Kurt and gave him the box, it looked like a birthday present, but it wasn't his birthday. "Open it". So Kurt opened it and inside was a pair of new shorts, and a jersey, but this jersey wasn't bright like his competitions jerseys, this one was black, with white letters, on the front it said "New Hope" and in the back it said "We put the past behind us". Kurt was so happy, he quickly changed and went got to the starting line "thank you Mr. Roland" said Kurt. "No problem kid, but before you start, I want to give you advice, wait till the last lap, then go" said Mr. Roland with a huge smile. "What do you mean sir". "On your marks" said the announcer. "Don't worry" said Mr. Roland.
"Set". BAM! The sound of the gun startled Kurt, the last time he heard it was before the tragedy. All the runners started running, Kurt had a late start, he was already 3 or 4 steps behind all the other runners. Mr. Roland shouted to him "don't speed up, match the pace". After the first lap Kurt's legs were trembling. He was lagging behind, 7 or 8 steps behind second last place, he was dead last, scantly what he didn't want to do, but there was sill awhile to go. At the second lap, the guy in front of him tripped and fell, Kurt swiftly dodged him, the guy got back up but was very far behind, but he kept running. Kurt was now second last place but first place was 30 feet in front of him. Finally, it was the last lap. Mr. Roland shouted to Kurt "now's your time to shine, do you want last, or first".
Then It clicked in Kurt, he started running faster he had 300 meters left, and only 20 feet behind first place. 200 meters left he got into 5th place out of 10. He did the last turn and there was 100 meters left, only 10 feet behind first place, but all the other guys started booking it to the finish line, guys passed him over and over and he dropped back to 8th place. The race was over, 8th place.
