THE START LINE TEASE  

WORDS BY OLIVIA MULLIGAN  

Here we are: it’s the start line tease  

The start line fidgets and the nervous wees 

Placebo effects of those compression sleeves  

The burning quads and the dodgy knees  

Preparing to struggle, to sweat, to wheeze  

Total discomfort and total unease  

Overheating to one hundred degrees –  

You freeze. 

What the hell am I doing?  

Running with toenails that are blackening and blueing  

Bubbling self-doubt and negativity is brewing  

Not fit enough, not fast enough thoughts are stewing,  

Chewing, chomping through your mind.  

Stop. 

Enough.  

Rewind.  

Leave those Thoughts behind.  

Let’s start again for the start line tease  

The start line fidgets, the excited wees 

Wearing your trusty compression sleeves  

There’s fire in your quads, there’s life in your knees 

Knowing you’ll struggle, struggle through the breeze  

Embrace that discomfort, that total unease  

Embrace your body trying to please  

Embrace the race and the guarantee: 

The certainty that you will finish.  

Your heart will dance with celebration 

You will droop and flood with total elation 

Knowing 

Knowing you gave it your all.