That was it for me for a while. I still had to cheer on my friends. It was time for the hurdle events. I had wanted nothing to do with them. The staff had to set them up in their proper places. There were no seniors in this race surprisingly. They were all going for the 400 meter hurdles. Apparently they had spoke on it by themselves. There were five of them, so Leo entered to make it even. He was not going to be trying to get in their way though. This paved the way for an underclassmen to finally get a medal. All the sophomores and Micheal and James from the freshmen year entered. It was a simple medal round. I cheered on Robert and Micheal as they were both on my relay team. At the end of the race, Micheal got bronze. Robert got silver. Sebastian got the gold. Micheal really was very fast. They would both be advancing to more than one event with me. The new hurdles were added to the track to prepare for the 400 meter hurdles. Aaron took this one. Lucas was 2nd by a hair's breath and a very tired Andrew came in 3rd. The seniors got their race together. It was time for mid distance.
Leo took gold in the 800 meter dash just as he said he would. It helped that the only senior in that race was Andrew. He came 2nd. Bronze medal went to James. He had nearly passed out after crossing the finish line. Everyone on the team pat him on the back and celebrated him for that show of endurance and perseverance. I joined in with them. To be honest, I zoned out after that. I was surprised when Anthony knocked me upside the head with a medal. "Listen to me, damnit!" he yelled. That jolted me to full attention. It was a silver. I asked where he had won it. "The 1500 meters! You weren't even watching!?" he snapped. I said "Sorry. I'm still tired after all of that sprinting. You have tons of endurance Anthony." He flexed his muscles with a huge smile on his face. "Of course I do. My family works the docks everyday from sunup to sundown." he said with pride. That was true. Anthony had told me before. He then sat beside me. He was waiting for the 5000 meter race. After that, he was going to be racing with us in the relay. Micheal was also waiting with us. Robert had the 1 mile race left.
Eventually everyone had gotten through all of the races. Robert got a respectable bronze medal in his final race. That put me at 2 medals; Anthony at 2 after his big 3rd place finish at the 5000 meter race, Micheal at 1 and our skittish Robert at 2. It was very remarkable of them all. It was then time for the relay races. We were all rested and limber for it. We had already determined the order. I would go first. Then Anthony would go and pass it over to Robert. Finally he would had it off to our very quick anchor, Micheal. Leo's team had him go first to pass it to Noel, Oliver and then Paul. Lucas was the anchor for his team of sophomores. The Senior team had it set up so Noah would pass the baton to Jackson who was the anchor. It was not likely to change before races. We had 2 chances to not mess up and come in last. The first relay was the 100 meters. The 400 meters came after that one. The starters for the 4 teams were Aaron, me, Leo and Daniel. When the starting pistol went off, I was way faster than anybody. That was what rest could do for you. I handed the baton off to Anthony.
Anthony was not the fastest among the runners in the second position. However, he had great endurance and could keep the pace well. That was all he needed when I gave him the lead. He kept it until the end and handed the baton to Robert perfectly. Noel and Andrew were right behind him though. Benjamin was lagging behind a bit. I was very happy about that. Robert was another endurance runner. He was soon outpaced by Noah. Oliver was neck and neck with him. When Robert passed it over to Micheal, Jackson had already gotten a convincing lead. We were fighting for the silver medal now. Micheal was sprinting at full power. He got across the finish line half a second before Paul. Lucas was not fast enough to make up the difference between them here. I had a feeling that would change when he had more track to run. After the podium we had to do it again. This time the race was longer. Once again I gave Anthony a good start. It was not enough though. Aaron caught up to me and Leo was not that far behind. He quickly fell behind when it was between just him, Noel and Andrew.
