Bradford looked under his bunk for
the fifth time. It still was not
there. Where in the world could
his belt be? He had looked
everywhere. In an hour he had to
run a race in the Camp Celebration and his only clean pair of shorts needed the
belt to stay up. Where could it
be?
He
sat down on his bunk to think.
Where had he last seen his belt?
Did he have it when he was swimming earlier at the pool? He couldn’t remember, but maybe he
did. He ran to the pool and began
to walk over every inch of the area around it. His belt was not there. What was he going to do?
He
went back to his cabin and looked at his other shorts to see if any of them
were clean enough to wear.
Unfortunately, he had had a lot of fun at camp. All of his shorts were filthy. Then he came across a piece of rope
lying on the floor. He wrapped it
around his waist. It was long
enough. This would just have to
do. He couldn’t go without a belt
at all so he thread the rope through his belt loops and tied the best knot he
could muster. Hopefully this would
be okay.
He
made his way to the field where the Camp Celebration was to be held. His event the 1000-yard race would be
last so he sat down in the stands to watch the other races. His friend, Logan, won the 50-yard
dash. Bradford jumped up and down
cheering his friend on to victory.
The next race was the 100-yard dash, and his friend, Noah, was in this
one. Again, Bradford cheered for
his friend, but Noah slipped and fell.
He came in next to last.
Bradford would have to cheer him up after everything was over. The relay race was next, which was the
race before Bradford’s. He made
his way down onto the track to get ready.
So far his rope belt was holding, but it seemed looser than when he
started.
While
the relay race was under way, Bradford did his stretches to prepare for his
race. He would have to complete
nine laps around the track. He
pulled the knot in his rope belt as tight as he could, and then made his way to
the sidelines to watch the finish of the relay race. He didn’t have any friends in this race so he really didn’t
care who won. The red team had a
massive lead going into the final lap, but the last runner for the blue team
was fast as lightning. Bradford
jumped up and down with excitement despite himself as the blue team pulled
ahead of the red team at the very last moment winning the race.
Now
it was his turn. Bradford took his
position on the starting line.
When the buzzer sounded he took off at a good steady pace. This was a long race so he needed to
pace himself. Bradford’s strategy
was to stay in the middle of the pack until the last lap. Then he would pour on the speed hoping
the lead runner would be tired out from setting too fast a pace.
The
first four laps went by without much incident. Bradford kept himself squarely in the middle of the
pack. On the fifth lap, Bradford
began to notice that his shorts seemed to be hanging lower than they had
been. By the seventh lap, Bradford
had to pull his shorts up every so often.
On the eighth lap, Bradford had to pull his shorts up every few
feet. When he hit the last lap, he
wanted to pour on the speed, but by this time his rope belt came completely
loose. Bradford had to use both
hands to keep his shorts from falling down around his ankles. He ran as fast as he possibly could
while holding up his shorts, but it was awkward. He came in fifth place.
When
the race was over, Bradford collapsed in the grass. He wanted to cry but didn’t. His friend, Noah, came over and sat down next to him in the
grass. For a while, neither of
them said a word. Then Noah began
to giggle. Bradford looked at him
and giggled, too. For the next
half hour the friends talked about how silly Bradford had looked trying to run
holding up his pants, and what bad luck Noah had had in his race. This would be a Camp Celebration to
remember.
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