On "I Was There for the Team" by Kim Chinquee (305 words) ****

The track meet was mandatory at my school. It was a small school, and I suppose the idea was that few of us would have participated had the meet not been mandatory (at least until my senior year, when the participation in the meet was attached to a "beach party" on another day and suddenly people actually wanted to attend). I was, like the narrator in this story, no good at any of it. I ran the mile, since at least I could feel like I accomplished something, as opposed to coming in dead last in a 100k or something and feeling incredibly stupid. In fact, running the mile also offered one the ability to place sometimes, since so few others wanted to run it. Last, but third or fourth--not too bad. Here, Chinquee gets the feel of a good long run to those of us who aren't professionals, the way we're reading to hit the dirt--with our faces, not our feet. Scroll down to the bottom and read the piece here at the Collagist (while you're at it, why not read the other shorts ones too?).