"This is a once in a life time opportunity..." Michelle suddenly felt a surge of confidence rush through her tiny body. _"I'm gonna do it!" _She internally exclaimed as she spun around and began walking back towards the gaggle of girls who looked to be close to finishing up their stretching.
"Any one know who she is?" A tall leggy blonde girl asked her teammates. A couple of the girls shrugged in response, so the tall blonde turned around to greet Michelle.
"Hi!" Michelle said in a cheery tone as she approached the blonde girl. "Gosh she's almost Meg's height.." Michelle thought as she came to a stop in front of the blonde. "I saw you guys stretching and wanted to ask if you were all athletes?" Michelle reached out to shake the tall blonde's hand. "I'm Michelle!" She said in a cheery tone as she looked up at the tall blonde.
The tall blonde seemed slightly confused as to why Michelle wanted to shake her hand, but none the less she shook Michelle's tiny hand. "Yeah we're all on the cross country team." She said glancing back at her teammates. "We were just about to head out for a run."
"COOL!" Michelle said in an energetic tone. "I wish I was a runner like you." She paused and an awkward silence filled the ambient air as the eight athletes silently stared at Michelle who stood there awkwardly smiling at the group like the cute dork she was. "Um... Before you go, can I ask you guys for some tips? I don't want to hold up the run, but since I have experts in front of me I just wanted to see if one of you could give me some pointers while you finish up stretching."
"Yeah I can help you out." A short Latina said stepping around the tall blonde. "What do you want to know?" The girl asked as the tall blonde returned to her teammates to finish stretching.
Even though the Latina was the shortest of the teammates, Michelle still felt kind of short next to her. "Cool Cool! Thank you so much." Michelle said shaking the girl's hand. "I'm Michelle!"
"Lillian." The girl said as she shook Michelle's hand.
"So um... I wanted to ask about gear... Specifically what gear I need, or what gear I should be looking for." Michelle glanced down at her casual clothes and back up to Lillian. "So where should I start when it comes to proper running gear... Or I guess let's just say I want to get into running. Where should I start?" Michelle could see Lillian was about to response, but before she could say anything she continued. " So I guess what I am asking, is if I was going to be a runner how could I improve my current costume... Ugh! Silly me, I still have Halloween on my brain." Michelle tapped the side of her head and giggled. "So um anyways, what would I need to change about my current outfit if I wanted to get serious about running?"
Michelle's verbose question seemed to take Lillian off guard, but after a few seconds of digesting the rambling question she had an answer. "Well I guess let's start with the shoes. You would need a pair of real running shoes. Maybe get a pair of Ons or Hokas... or heck you could even go with Nikes. Then you would probably want to get a pair of proper running tights that have pockets for your phone, keys, gear, etc..." Lillian's gaze moved from Michelle's lower body to her upper body. "That quarter zip is probably too heavy and bulky to run in. You'll want something lighter like a long sleeve t-shirt. Your body is going to heat up on the run and if you have on too warm of clothes you are just going to die out there. Then make sure you've got a supportive sports bra and you should be all set."
"Yeah?" Michelle said smiling at Lillian. "That's how you would improve my current outfit?.. Well I mean that's what I need to be wearing if I am going for a run?"
"Yeah pretty much." Lillian let out a small laugh at Michelle's odd perkiness.
"Cool! Thanks!" Michelle said as her clothes began to morph on her tiny body. The soles of her shoes thickened as they morphed from a pair of cheap sneakers into a proper pair of HOKA running shoes. The material of her generic leggings became a bit sturdier and a pocket appeared on each thigh. The warm quarter zip grew thinner as it restructured itself into a cotton long sleeve t-shirt. Underneath her new long sleeve t-shirt her tank top and sport bra merged together and rebuilt itself into a very supportive sports bra. "I can't thank you enough for your advice!" Michelle said smiling at Lillian. "You've been super helpful! Thank you so much!" Michelle said glancing around Lillian towards her teammates. "I don't want to take up all of your time, you think one of your other teammates might answer a question or two?"
Lillian turned and looked back at her teammates. "Hey Kacie! Come her real quick!" She said motioning for one of her teammates to come join her. A couple seconds later an average height blonde girl was standing next to Lillian. "This is Michelle, she has a couple of question. You think you can answer them while I finish getting ready?"
"Sure!" Kacie said turning her attention to Michelle. "So what's up?" She asked as Lillian returned to stretching with her teammates.
The short lull had given Michelle enough time to mentally prepare her next question. "First off thank you so much for being so generous with your time." Michelle said in a sincere and kind tone. " So let's say I want to be a cross country runner like you guys. What times would I need to be able to run in order to be as fast as you guys? As silly as this sounds, next year I think I am going to dress up as a cross country runner for Halloween and I had this idea of carrying around a board with times on it. Anyways, I want to be as authentic as possible... So long story short, if I was going to improve my costume what types of times would I need to be able to run... Well, what times do I need?"
"Huh... Weird..." Kacie said as she thought about Michelle's run-on question. "So you wanna know times?"
"Yeah! How fast would I need to run to be close to the pros like you guys!" Michelle said in an enthusiastic tone.
"Alright... Um let's see... Your 5k times need to be sub 20 minutes and your 6k would need to be sub 24 minutes... Well actually you would need to do a little better than that, but that would get you close to the times that we run. It really depends on the weather and the course." Kacie said nodding at Michelle.
"Totally!" Michelle said nodding and smiling at Kacie. "So being able to run sub 20 minute 5k's would get be close to keeping up you guys and make my costume more legit?"
"Yeah." Kacie said with a short chuckle. "Yeah if you start running at our pace then your costume would be super convincing because you would probably be one of our teammates."
"Totally!" Michelle said laughing along with Kacie as a familiar heat enveloped her body. "Now I just need to get out there are start working my butt off!" Michelle said as slender body began to build a bit of lean muscle as it shed a small amount of body fat. "I wish I could actually keep up with you girls." Michelle said as new memories began popping into focus in her head. "Well I actually did run cross country in high school, but I definitely wasn't D1 material." A memory of a scholarship offer suddenly popped into focus in Michelle's had. "But, I did get an offer from a couple D2 schools..." More memories flashed through Michelle's head. "Though I'm glad I turned that down to walk on here. The academics here at State were too good to pass up. Plus you girls have pushed me to get better. Heck just making the team as a walk-on feels like such an accomplishment." Michelle said smiling at her teammate Kacie.
"Hey we work as a team and get better as a team. You know that!" Kacie said smiling at Michelle.
"It looks like they're ready." Michelle said pointing to their teammates who were done stretching.
