13.1

"How did I get here?" Angela thought to herself? "When did I sign up for this and why?" On mile 2 of 13.1, Angela wondered what could be wrong with her that she ever saw this as a good idea.

Angela and her best friend, Maggie, had decided six months ago to sign up for a half marathon in hopes that they'd be inspired to run more often. To give themselves credit, they had run far more then they had 6 months prior but this was borderline certifiable.

Angela was only on mile two and already she was bored and suffering. As she watched people pass her, she was sure she'd be the last person to finish. "There can't be that many people running this race,” she would think to herself.

The pain in her lungs was intense and she wasn't sure that she could suffer through it for eleven and a half more miles. Shaking out the stiffness in her arms, she pushed forward. Two miles was nothing. She ran that three to four times a week. Heck, ten miles wasn't that big a deal anymore. For the last three Saturdays they had run ten to twelve miles each. Now that it was race day, it seemed impossible.

Taillights

Megan watched him drive away. 10 years of marriage fading away with taillights in the night. Just like that. No warning. No explanation. Jason just left. Leaving his five year old son, a crying heap in her arms. The man she loved had left a long time ago now the man she married was following suit.

She knew Jason was unhappy. She knew he was struggling with so many things; marriage, work, his faith and the loss of his parents two years ago. They had tried therapy, prayer, and constant arguing but nothing seemed to bring him back to her.

When Megan got home that night, she found him loading his car. The ache in her gut began immediately. There were no planned trips especially that would take that much luggage. What gave it away though was that he was loading up the Civic. He never drove that car. They had been trying to sell the car for over a year. It wasn't worth much, but she was sure it could get him where he needed to go.

Invisible Regrets

She woke up that morning feeling like something wasn't right. What was wrong? She wasn't sure and couldn't put her finger on the source but she knew today wasn't going to be her day.

Avoiding what was waiting for her, she stayed in bed. Snooze became her best friend and most annoying one at that. Pulling her trusted eye mask over her eyes, she rolled over and waited patiently for the piercing sound to annoy her again.

Finally after an hour, making her extremely late, she pushed the covers down and allowed her eyes to open to the bright morning sun. Glancing out the window she could tell the sky was out in all of its glory, ready for the day ahead. Jessie wasn't ready for what it had to offer her.

Hold Your Breath

Grace wasn't sure how long she had been under but she could feel the pressure on her lungs, the ache in her chest and the need to draw in each breath slowly and intentionally. Devin had challenged her for the 100th time to a "hold your breath" contest. This time, she was determined to win. She had been practicing every day, desperate to add to her 45 second record. Devin had at least 10 seconds on her each weekend and she was determined to finally beat him.

"Ready, set, go", deep breath and they were under water. The pressure the water adds to the hold makes each second feel like minutes. She waited for what felt like a minute before opening her eyes. She knew from experience that to watch Devin made it harder for her to keep her breath. So she waited, eyes closed, dreaming of the ice cream she knew her mom would buy her at the end of the day. Excited about the trip to the fair her parents promised on Sunday. When her head started to go light and her chest started to scream she slowly opened her eyes. Devon was no where to be seen. She didn't know if he was teasing her, psyching her out so she waited until she couldn't wait any longer and then slowly came up for air.