Marathon (or You Can't Run From Problems Forever)

• James Poulin, Grade 9
• Short Story
• 2018

I was once told that you can’t run away from your problems. I was always told when I was younger, “Toby Goodwin, face problems like a man. You can’t run away.” That was my soccer coach, Mr Hopkinson, after I was told to be goalkeeper when the other team’s striker, Bradley ‘Bullet Foot’ Brendwood was about to take a penalty. I nearly ran away from the ball. My parents always read me this Dr Seuss book called ‘I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew.’ It was about someone who had problems where they lived, so they decided to go to this place where nothing bad happened. The character goes to the city only to find out he can’t get in, so they decide to man up and take on their problems. All this taught me something, but then came the day I chose to run away from my problems.

Nobody knew what the Marathon was, all anyone knew was that the Marathon was abominable and that they should escape. As we eventually learned, Marathon was a military bio-weapon gone wrong, caused by scientists detonating a nuke during a supercell. It was a giant storm moving incredibly fast. The Marathon left nothing in it’s wake. Everyone in our small town of Jenkins saw it coming, but, just like a good captain going down with the ship, no-one would leave the place they called home. No-one, that is, except me. My father told me to stay, to go down proud of what I achieved. I refused, said I knew better than him, I knew that I had lots to live for. I ran out of the house, grabbed my bike and said my final farewell to Jenkins as I pedalled harder than I ever did. I was not going to be consumed by a giant nuclear storm. I would be consumed by something else. I just didn’t know it.

Guilt. I was consumed by guilt. Here we are in the present, 4 months after I left Jenkins. I convinced myself that I was doing the right thing when I escaped, that I had lots to live for. Looking back at parts of the world, I realise something. What have I got to live for if there is no world to live on? I ran away convinced that what I was doing was running towards something, not away. The Marathon is a freak of nature. Just look at the world after being hit by it. I’m surviving to live on a planet that did not survive its own creation. One storm took the world.

I know what I must do. I must stop running away from the storms of life, the problems. I must start running towards them. The Marathon may take me, but I’ll be proud of what I achieved. I finally discovered what had been told to me by those who taught me. My name is Toby Goodwin, and I stopped running away. I’m running towards a Marathon.