Olivia stood on the track in the schoolyard, looking around. She roughly estimated there were around 500 or 600 spectators. "How many of them are here to cheer for me?" Olivia thought silently. She slowly walked towards her lane, the 4th one. The warm and comfortable sunlight of 10 a.m. shone on her face, making her feel more relaxed than ever. She did some warm-up exercises and glanced at the seven other competitors around her. Getting into the finals usually involved the same few people, so Olivia didn’t pay much attention to them.
“The first place will definitely be mine, there's no doubt about it,” Olivia thought as she stood on the track, turning her head to focus on the path ahead.
This was the final of the girls' 400-meter run at her middle school. Olivia was 14 years old, tall and slender, with well-defined muscles. It seemed she was born for running. Olivia was the star runner in the school's girls' 400-meter race, having won more times than anyone else in the school's history—a record 11 times.
As the whistle blew, Olivia bent down, stretched her legs, and prepared to start. Her thick blonde hair looked particularly striking at that moment. She took a deep breath, gradually emptied her mind, and focused all her attention on her ears, her legs ready to explode with power.
When the electronic starting signal sounded, Olivia's muscles instantly unleashed their strength, launching her body forward like a spring. The crowd immediately became excited.
A fast start was Olivia's trademark, allowing her to quickly gain an advantage in the initial stage. In the first 50 meters of the straightaway, she was already closing in on the runner in the outermost lane, about to lead the entire pack. Olivia increased the frequency of her arm and leg movements, surging into the curve.
In the curve, Olivia could no longer see the other runners within her line of sight. She tilted her body slightly to adapt to the curvature of the track. But as she was about to re-enter the straightaway, a white speck appeared in her peripheral vision on the left side.
Olivia was startled—the runner in the first lane had caught up with her on the straightaway. Halfway through the race, Olivia lowered her head slightly and sprinted with all her might, her arm movements becoming faster and faster. Just as she was about to reestablish her lead, Olivia’s running vest got caught up in her exaggerated arm movements, tangling around her shoulders.
This sudden mishap made her extremely uncomfortable. She gritted her teeth and persevered, but every arm swing affected her power. In the final curve, Olivia couldn't bear it any longer and reached out to adjust her running vest. However, that split-second extra movement disrupted her rhythm. The runner in the first lane had firmly taken the lead. Seeing this, Olivia desperately sprinted forward.
She was getting closer to the runner ahead, but the finish line was also approaching. Olivia and the runner in the first lane crossed the finish line almost simultaneously, but she knew clearly in her heart that she had lost.
Second place was still a loss, especially for a runner of Olivia's caliber. As she crossed the line, Olivia felt like she was falling into an abyss, and her legs lost all their strength. Coupled with the abrupt stop from high-speed running, she suddenly fell heavily onto the track, scraping her knees, which instantly started bleeding and swelling.
Olivia lay on the ground, unable to get up. She didn’t feel any pain, only those questions repeatedly running through her mind, "How did I lose? Why? Was it because of the running vest? Or because I didn't train hard enough? Or..."
Olivia lay there, completely unaware of the crowd gathering to check on her injuries. She didn’t even hear the anxious calls of her friends, who were just a few steps away on the sidelines.