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14
The Last Lap
<p style="text-align: center;"><br/><br/>Rain hammered the track. Gray skies stretched over the stadium like a ceiling of doubt. Most of the crowd had already left. Only a few lingered, huddled under umbrellas, watching the final race with the same pity you'd give a dog chasing its tail.<br/><br/>Eli Turner crouched in lane five. His knee still ached from last season’s injury, the one that cost him his scholarship and half his senior year. Coaches stopped calling. His name disappeared from leaderboards. He was no longer “the one to watch”—he was the one they forgot.<br/><br/>The starter raised the gun.<br/><br/>Eli stared straight ahead. He didn’t look at the others. Didn’t care that half of them were younger, faster, and injury-free. He wasn’t here to beat them.<br/><br/>He was here to beat the voice in his head that said he couldn’t.<br/><br/>Bang.<br/><br/>The runners surged forward. Eli stumbled on the wet track but found his rhythm by the first curve. Pain jabbed his leg, sharp and familiar. He pushed harder.<br/><br/>One by one, the other runners began to pull away.<br/><br/>He didn’t chase them.<br/><br/>He chased the kid he used to be—the one who trained at dawn, who ran in snow, who kept running when the scholarships dried up and the world moved on. He chased the memory of a promise he made to himself: Don’t quit.<br/><br/>By the third lap, he was dead last.<br/><br/>By the fourth, he wanted to stop.<br/><br/>But he didn’t.<br/><br/>He ran ugly. Limping. Gritting his teeth. Every step said “no,” but something in his gut screamed “go.”<br/><br/>When he crossed the finish line, there was no applause. No trophy. No viral moment.<br/><br/>Just quiet.<br/><br/>But Eli smiled.<br/><br/>Because he’d finished.<br/><br/>Because pain didn’t stop him.<br/><br/>Because quitting would have been easy and he didn’t take the easy way.<br/><br/>And that was worth more than any medal.<br/><br/><strong>Never give up. Not for glory. Not for applause. But for yourself.<br/></strong><br/><br/></p>
6
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