My Marathon Buddy by Natalie M

It had been my dream to run a marathon. I loved jogging and running only when I was in my forties. I decided to take part in a marathon. Two days before my very first marathon, I met my marathon buddy.
The gentle breeze brushed against my face. Jogging on a Friday evening was always wonderful. It was especially so when I was going to run a marathon in two days. I had been training for months. Alas, those months of training had come to an end. It was my big day soon!
I decided to just have a light jog at the East Coast Park to loosen my muscles. I did ten sets of jumping-jacks before I started jogging. After that, I took a step to the jogging path and I started jogging.
There was a silver-painted hair man in front of me. His steady pace was too fast for me to catch up with him. I tried to overtake him unsuccessfully. Strangely, the speedy jogger was bothering me so much as he was coughing incessantly while running.
I mumbled to myself, " Can you please stop coughing? It's so annoying. If you are not healthy, why don't you just go home?"
He kept on coughing and coughing. He slowed down his pace and his legs were wobbly. I thought he was tired. I seized the chance to run past him. But before I could, his knees fell to the ground and he collapsed.
"Oh My God!!! What should I do? I should not have harboured those bad thoughts about him. Now he is unconscious," I panicked.
I ran towards him and knelt next to him. I sprayed a little jet of water from my water bottle and sprinkled it to his face. But he would not stir. I tapped his pale cheeks softly but he was still lying on the ground face-up, motionless. I slapped him a little harder that I could see his cheeks turning a little bit red. His eyelids twitched a little and opened up slowly. I was so scared that he was going to scold me as I had slapped him so I ran away before he could say a thing. When I was fleeing, I saw a lady looking at me so I thought she must have seen the whole incident. I asked her to helped that man and she nodded. I ran away as fast as possible so that the man would not be able to see me.
Back home, I did not think much about the incident. My mind was preoccupied with the first marathon that I was going to run in two days.
The big day came. Before the crack of dawn, I was at the marathon starting line. My bib number was 42 and a man beside me was a man with a number tag bearing number 21. He looked so familiar. I tried to remember who he was and it finally came right into my mind. He was the man I slapped at East Coast Park two evenings ago.
He said, "You...you were the one who slapped me yesterday."
"I am so sorry, I did not mean to slap you..."
Before I could finish my sentence, he said, "No, it"s okay. Without you, I would not have come round that evening. Thanks a lot." "
Huh..." I sighed. I felt a great load lifted up my chest.
The horn was blown. The runners took off from the starting line. Number 21 and I were neck to neck. We finally finished the marathon. Amazingly, we finished it at the same time after five hours and forty-three minutes.
" We finished our run!" We chorused in unison, both thoroughly soaked in our perspiration. X
We both got our finisher"s medals and I could see a grin from ear to ear on number 21's face. I was absolutely jubilant!
That was the story of how I met number 21 two days before I completed my first marathon. Until now, I still kept the medal nicely. From that slapping episode, I got a new friend and a medal of my dream. Till date, I still call him by number 21 instead of Alan.