Mile 22
SYDNEY WATSON WALTERS: That surprised you? That you climbed up the mountain?
QUINN: Totally. It was the first time I did something that I thought was impossible. It was the first time I really felt proud of myself.
SYDNEY WATSON WALTERS: Most of us only dream about doing the impossible. But you’ve actually gone and done it. What was the best thing about the 100-mile race?
QUINN: The food.
SYDNEY WATSON WALTERS: The food? Seriously?
QUINN: For sure! I don’t know if you know this, but long-distance running is probably the only sport in the world where the athletes get to eat piles and piles of CRAP. Well, aside from bowling, anyway. Ever watch bowling on TV? Those people aren’t eating salads.
Anyway, here are the foods I normally eat in my real life:
Salmon and trout
Chicken
Brown bread
Broccoli and kale
Corn
Asparagus
Bean salad
Water
MILK!
Almond butter
Low-fat yogurt
Beets and yams
Lentil soup
Disgustingly healthy stuff, I’m sure you’ll agree. My mom’s into healthy eating, what can I say? Now, check out what they feed you at 100-mile races:
Chocolate-chip cookies
Salt-and-vinegar chips
Baked potatoes
Pretzels
Hamburgers and burritos
Candy bars
Root beer, ginger ale, cream soda
Chocolate- and yogurt-covered raisins
Pizza
SYDNEY WATSON WALTERS: Why so much junk food?
QUINN: When you run 100 miles, you need LOTS of energy. And the fastest way to get energy is from fatty foods and sugar. Salt’s important too, since it keeps your muscles from cramping up. That’s why they feed you potato chips and pretzels.
Anyway, when I got to Silver Valley, there was all this awesome food spread out on a table. Unfortunately, my stomach was feeling pukey, so I didn’t feel at all like eating.
SYDNEY WATSON WALTERS: You keep talking about these rest stops. Can you describe what Silver Valley looked like?
QUINN: It was like a movie set in the middle of the forest. Music was pounding, and little kids were running in and out of tents. But the thing I remember best are the volunteers. They were amazing. They cheered as I jogged into the clearing, as if I’d won Olympic gold. That bald guy in the kilt was flipping burgers over a firepit.
“Hey there, Lucky Number Thirteen!” Bruce shouted. “What can I get you?”
I looked at the burgers sizzling on the grill. They were shiny with grease. “Nothing right now,” I said.
Bruce cracked open a can of cherry-flavoured Perk. “Don’t tell me,” he said, “you’re a vegetarian, right?”
He took a sip of his drink and slid a tray of baked yams across the table. The ropes in my stomach tightened. “Pass,” I said.
“Ya gotta eat something,” Bruce said. “You’ve got seventy-eight miles left to go.”
I shook my head. “No thanks,” I said. I walked over to a camp chair set up beside the clearing.
“Don’t sit in that,” said Bruce.
I looked up. “Why not?” I said.
“Beware the chair,” Bruce said.
Beware the chair?
“If you sit down, your muscles will tighten up,” he said. “You might not get up again. It’s happened to a lot of runners over the years.”
I stared at him for a moment, trying to figure out if he was serious. He was, so I walked over to the picnic table.
I refilled my water bottle and my hydration pack — a mix of half water, half sports drink. I took a long drink and reholstered my bottle, then looked around for Kneecap and Ollie. The hatchback wasn’t in the parking lot, so I figured they were still on the road. I walked back to the food table.
There were bowls full of peanuts and jelly beans, and plates filled with those weird cookies with the red jam in the middle. Who eats those? I wondered.
Bruce put his spatula down and walked over. “How much have you had to drink?” he asked.
“Lots,” I said.
“Mmm.” He picked up my hands and inspected my palms. He pressed each of my fingers and then he did the same thing with my wrists. “Any stomach problems?” he asked.
“No,” I lied.
He let go of my hands. “What colour is your pee?” he asked.
He might as well have been asking about the weather.
“I’m not sure,” I stammered.
“Keep an eye on it,” Bruce said. “You want it to be clear. If it’s dark yellow or brown, you need to drink more water.”
I nodded and looked up at Chimney Top. A thin white line — a river — was carrying fresh rainwater down from the top.
“Follow me,” Bruce said suddenly.
He led me to the side of the medical tent and made me stand on a scale. The digital read-out blinked for a second, and then a number popped up: 106. “You’re down a pound from when you started,” he said, squinting at his clipboard. “That’s not bad, but you need to keep drinking. We’ve got water, apple juice, Perk and ginger ale. Which do you want?”
“Perk please,” I said.
Bruce shook his head. “Try some ginger ale.”
He slopped some into a paper cup.
“Could you stir the bubbles out of it?” I asked.
“Sure.”
He stirred it with a spoon and handed me the cup. He watched as I drank it, stroking his sideburns with his fingers. “I’m sorry that your dad isn’t running this one,” he said. “We always had a good time when he was around.”
Bruce looked at me expectantly, but I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t feel like talking about my father.
Something exploded in the trees behind us. It was as loud as fireworks. A brown ball of feathers skittered this way and that.
My heart raced. Bruce burst out laughing. “It’s only a wild turkey,” he said. “Right there, see?”
He pointed at the bird, which had come to a sudden stop a few metres away. It was grey and black, and nearly invisible against the dead leaves on the forest floor. It was three times as big as a pigeon.
“Those stupid birds don’t budge until you’re right on top of them,” Bruce said. “Then they make all that racket. Gives me a heart attack every time.”
Someone shouted from the far side of the clearing. “QUINN? NO WAY! Hey there, Q-Tip!”
Kneecap rushed over and gave me a hug. Instantly, she sprang back. “Yuck!” she cried. “You’re slimy!”
“Sorry,” I said.
She grinned. “Jeez you’re fast,” she said. “How long have you been here?”
“About five minutes,” I said. “Where are Ollie and Mom?”
“They spun down to a bakery in Torrance. We weren’t expecting you for another hour.”
“But I told you I’d be here by ten,” I said.
“I know,” said Kneecap. “But we didn’t believe you.”
I didn’t know whether to be pleased by this or not.
Kneecap looked me up and down. “You’re looking strong, tiger,” she said. “What place is he in, Bruce?”
Bruce ran a finger down his clipboard. “Quinn Scheurmann, let’s see …” He flipped back a page. “Actually, he’s sixth.”
Me? Quinn Scheurmann? In sixth place?
Bruce held the clipboard out so I could see. He’d been placing check marks beside the names of the runners as they passed through the rest stop. So far there weren’t very many marks.
“That’s got to be wrong,” I said. “I can’t be in sixth.”
“Why not?” said Bruce.
“Because I’m a kid,” I said. “And my legs are shorter than everyone else’s.”
A burst of applause erupted behind us, and another runner staggered into the camp. The new arrival raised his fist in the air and then promptly lay down on the ground.
“Check out those socks,” Kneecap whispered. “Hoo boy, that is some stylin’ toe-wear!”
It was the creep who’d told me to drop out of the race.
Bruce walked over to meet the new arrival. I watched him offer Mr. Dirt Eater a burger.
Kneecap peeled a banana. She was wearing her Raptors T-shirt and a pair of puke-green flip-flops.
“Thanks for inviting me out here,” she said. “It’s good to be hanging out with you again.”
I picked up a rope of red licorice and took a bite. Of all the food I could see, it was the only thing that appealed.
“How long do you think it’s been?” Kneecap asked. “I mean, this is the first time you and I have hung out in months.”
I chewed the licorice for a long time before swallowing. It went down okay. I took another bite.
“You know I got suspended, right?” she said.
Mom told me you should chew each mouthful sixty times. Chew, chew, chew. Kneecap was staring at me.
“You didn’t call,” she went on. “I thought you would, but you didn’t.”
“I meant to,” I said. Chew, chew, chew.
“Yeah, but you didn’t.”
A metal flavour filled my mouth. It tasted like I was sucking on a penny.
“You know,” said Kneecap, “those doctors say you have a big heart. But you never use it for anything but running.”
A muscle in my right leg started twitching. There were tears in Kneecap’s eyes. She was close to crying.
“I invited you to come to this race,” I muttered.
“I know,” said Kneecap. “And I’m glad you did. But seriously, Quinn, you can’t keep icing me out. Not if you want us to stay friends.”
That hit me like a punch in the stomach.
Kneecap wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her shirt. “Anyway,” she said, “I’m glad you’re running this race. I know you’ve had a cruddy year and everything. But it’s about time you cleaned yourself up.”
I looked away. People shouldn’t tell people to clean themselves up. It’s a mean thing to say, even if it’s true.
“Oh, come on,” said Kneecap. “Don’t get mad at me again. You know exactly what I’m talking about.”
I didn’t answer. The ropes in my stomach were knotting up.
“If you want to hang on to your friends,” Kneecap said, “you can’t hide in your bedroom and not talk to anyone. How many of your friends have stuck by you this year? Just one. Me. And sometimes I’m not sure why.”
A tornado was swimming up my throat. It was coming out. Sweat poured down my face.
I dashed into the woods.
“Quinn, what’s wrong? Quinn? QUINN?”
There wasn’t much food in my stomach to throw up. Licorice, ginger ale, a couple of litres of water. On the bright side, I got a good abdominal workout.
“You all right?” Kneecap shouted.
“Yeah,” I managed to choke out.
I rinsed my mouth with a squirt of water. Then I walked back to the picnic table and stood close to Kneecap.
“Toss your cookies?” she asked.
“Yeah.” I hung my head between my knees. It took me a minute to get my breath back.
“Sit down,” she said.
“I can’t,” I said.
“Why not?”
“Because I might not get up again.”
Kneecap rolled her eyes.
“Seriously,” I said. “Bruce told me to beware the chair.”
“This isn’t a chair,” Kneecap said, “it’s a picnic table.” She yanked me down onto the bench beside her.
“Feeling better?”
“A bit.” It felt nice to sit down. Really nice. Amazingly, I was feeling a bit hungry. I grabbed a handful of potato chips. I wanted salt. “Did Bruce see me puke?” I asked.
Kneecap looked over at the firepit. “No, he’s been talking to the old guy in the socks,” she said.
The Dirt Eater was standing on the scale, holding on to Bruce for support.
“He doesn’t look too good,” said Kneecap. “A hundred bucks says he won’t finish the race.”
“He probably won’t leave this rest stop,” I said.
A bead of sweat dripped off my forehead and landed on the wooden seat between my legs. I reached down and traced a figure eight in the tiny puddle. It dried almost instantly in the sun.
“Uh, Quinn … I’m sorry I said all that stuff,” said Kneecap. “Not exactly good timing, is it?”
I didn’t say anything.
“I only brought it up because I miss you, you know?”
For a while we didn’t say anything to each other. A purple butterfly fluttered around us and then landed on the middle knuckle of Kneecap’s right hand. I watched as it stretched out its wings.
“I better get going,” I said finally.
“But you just threw up.”
“I feel fine,” I said. “Everyone throws up in these races.”
I stood up. For a moment, the world went black, and tiny white comets flared past my eyes. When the world reappeared, I stumbled across the parking lot and made my way over to Bruce. The Dirt Eater was sitting in a camp chair, staring down the hill toward the lake.
“Seriously, didn’t you see it?” he was saying.
Bruce shook his head. “No. I didn’t.”
“What about you?” Dirt Eater said, turning to face me. “Did you see it?”
“See what?” I said.
“The school bus,” he said. “It just drove across the lake.”
I looked out at the lake. It was robin’s-egg blue.
“I don’t see anything,” I said.
“Wow!” the man shouted. “There it goes again!”
Bruce and I squinted at the lake. I saw whitecaps, green hills, but — surprise surprise — no school bus.
“Why don’t you lie down for a while, Ted,” Bruce said.
Dirt Eater scowled. “I don’t need to lie down,” he said.
Bruce shook his head. “Just for a while,” he said. “Just until we can get your blood sugar up a little bit.”
The Dirt Eater glared at Bruce, then threw his water bottle down the hill. “It’s this kid you ought to bench,” he muttered. “He’s way too young to be running this race.”
I said nothing. I hate it when people tell me I’m too young. Wayne Gretzky scored 300 goals when he was eleven. Annaleise Carr swam across Lake Ontario when she was fourteen. No one told them they were too young.
“Take it easy, Ted,” said Bruce. “This young boy is Tom Scheurmann’s son. He knows a thing or two about running.”
Dirt Eater grumbled and turned back to the lake.
Bruce leaned over to me. “Don’t worry about him,” he whispered. “He’s just going through a bad spell. Hallucinations.”
The trail demons, I thought. Dad told me they always turned up after 35 miles. We’d only run 22 so far. I guess Mr. Dirt Eater was in for a long day.
Just then, a silver hatchback pulled into the parking lot. The doors popped open and Mom and Ollie sprang out.
Mom was wearing a yellow sundress tied with a green cord. Ollie was holding a cardboard box. “It’s Speedy Quinnzales!” he shouted.
Mom walked over and gave me a hug. “How are you feeling?” she asked.
“Pretty good,” I said.
“You’ve got colour in your cheeks,” she said. “Are you wearing sunscreen?”
“SPF 70,” I said.
“Good.” She turned to Bruce. “Has he been eating?”
Bruce shrugged. “I weighed him and he looks okay.”
Mom lifted the lid of the cardboard box. A dozen Nanaimo bars glistened in the sunshine. “What do you say to these?” she asked.
Nanaimo bars are usually my favourite. But not today. My stomach lurched.
“I’m not really hungry,” I said.
This threw Mom into high alert. She pressed her palm to my forehead. “What day is your birthday?” she asked.
“Mom,” I said, “I’m fine. Really.”
She wasn’t buying it. She was twirling her magic lasso of truth. “What day is your birthday?” she repeated.
“August third,” I sighed.
“And where do you live?”
“135 Champlain Drive.”
Ollie grabbed a Nanaimo bar and folded it into his mouth. Mom was too busy asking me skill-testing questions to notice. What was the name of my first-grade teacher? My favourite colour? My Pinterest login?
Ollie gulped down the Nanaimo bar and interrupted. “You’ve got a suntan on your legs,” he said.
I looked down. “That’s not a tan, that’s dirt,” I said. I tried to scrape off the layer of crud but it stuck to me like sap.
“Did you visit the Shrine yet?” Ollie asked.
“Not yet,” I said. “It’s still seventy-five miles away.”
“Oh.”
He reached for another Nanaimo bar, but Mom zapped him with her laser-beam eyes. Reluctantly, he withdrew his hand.
“It’s only ten-thirty,” Mom said, turning back to me. “You got here too quickly. You promised you’d take it easy, remember?”
“I am taking it easy,” I said.
“Not easy enough. You know what your father would say. Take it slow. Enjoy the scenery. Smell the flowers.”
I seriously doubted that my father would tell me to smell the flowers. More likely he’d just say, “Be the tortoise, not the hare.”
Bruce topped up my water bottle one last time and handed me a plastic bag full of salted yams. “Eat as many of these as you can,” he told me. He looked me in the eye and spoke real quietly. “Seriously,” he said, “eat as many as you can.”
“What are they?” Ollie asked, squinching up his face.
“Sweet potatoes,” I said.
“Rocket fuel,” Bruce corrected.
I squeezed the bag into my fanny pack. “Time for me to get going,” I said.
Mom’s smile sagged. It looked like a laundry line in December. “But we only just got here,” she said.
“Now now,” said Bruce. “This isn’t a social visit. The kid’s running a race. And he’s right, he’s got to go.”
Mom knelt down to double-knot my shoelaces. “Are you sure you’ve had enough to eat?” she asked.
“Yes,” I sighed.
“He shouldn’t even be running,” the Dirt Eater growled. “He’s way too young to be running this kind of distance.”
“That’s enough, Ted,” Bruce said.
Mom glanced over at the Dirt Eater.
“See you later!” I shouted.
“Wait!” said Ollie. “Don’t you want a joke?”
I smiled at my brother. “Definitely,” I said.
Ollie grinned. “Knock knock,” he said.
“Who’s there?” I said.
“Lettuce.”
“Lettuce who?”
“Lettuce in, it’s freezing cold out here!”
The adults all laughed, except for the Dirt Eater. He was still preoccupied with his imaginary school bus on the lake.
Mom gave me a hug. “Make lots of noise out there,” she said. “Let those bears know you’re coming.”
“Sure thing,” I said.
“Promise me you’ll sing,” she said. “You used to sing all the time. Why don’t you sing anymore?”
I tried to swallow, but my spit had dried up. “Probably something to do with puberty,” I said.