Breathe, Annie, Breathe Read Online Free PDF

miles
October 12
Country Music Marathon in Nashville

TODAY’S DISTANCE: 5 MILES
Six Months Until the Country Music Marathon
    Today is what Matt calls a “rest” day.
    This means our team has to run five miles before we do seven miles next Saturday. Five miles does not seem like rest to me. I’m beginning to think a radioactive spider bit my running coach.
    I wonder if it’ll be a Jeremiah-free day—I didn’t see his Jeep parked near the rest of our cars this morning. Maybe he’s off working with runners training to run the Boston Marathon or something fancy.
    Matt’s making us run around downtown Nashville this weekend, because we’re all sick of the trails; plus he wants us to get used to running in the city since we’ll be doing that during the marathon itself. He made us memorize our route today—it’s important to understand a course before you run it. You need to know where the hills are, so you can steel yourself. It’s also crucial to know which coffee shops are runner-friendly and will let you use the bathroom if there aren’t any porta-potties nearby. And just in case we get lost, Matt hung a bunch of orange ribbons on various light poles and street signs. Like Hansel and Gretel and their crumbs.
    Our team started out at Music Row, home to all the country music labels, and now I’m coming up on mile 4. The largest building in Nashville—the AT&T building—looms over the city. Everyone calls it the Batman building because its spires stick up like Batman’s mask.
    I run past a smattering of trees that surround LP Stadium, where the Titans play. Titans tickets cost a few hundred apiece, so the only time I’ve ever been to a game was when my brother won a pair of tickets from a radio station contest. I loved the cheering crowds, the cotton candy. It was just an overall good day. Remembering the energy in the stadium gives me the extra oomph I need to push through this mile as I head toward Bicentennial Park—the finish line.
    When I see the final orange ribbon, I sprint toward Matt and arrive to cheering and clapping from the people who finished a few minutes before me. Matt hands me a cup of Gatorade, checks his watch, and writes my time on his clipboard. “You did good today, Annie.”
    I lick Gatorade off the cup’s rim so it doesn’t get my hand sticky and then take a sip. “Am I getting faster?”
    He grins. “No, not really. But all that matters is that you build the stamina to finish the race, okay? Your goal is to finish.”
    Queasiness suddenly rushes over me. I squat to the ground. Sweat rolls off my face and splatters on the concrete.
    “Up you go,” Matt says, pulling me to a standing position. “We gotta walk it off. Let’s move.” He leads me in a wide circle like a circus elephant. After I’ve caught my breath, stretched, and clapped for the runners who came in after me, it’s time to go home. Since we ran from one place to another today, not out and back like we do at the Little Duck River, Matt said he and his assistants would give us rides.
    “Who’s taking me back to my car?”
    “I’ll take you,” a voice says.
    It’s that slow, twangy accent again. I look up from wiping sweat off my face with my tank top to find Jeremiah grinning his ass off. Did he appear out of thin air?
    “No,” Matt says, rolling his eyes. “Bridget’ll give her a ride.”
    “Why can’t I take her?” Jeremiah says. “I’m a good driver. I’ve been driving for four years…six if you count the time I borrowed Dad’s truck freshman year of high school.”
    “You mean the time you stole his truck to go fool around with Melody Andersen at that potluck supper at church?”
    “I borrowed it.”
    “You stole it.”
    “That’s just semantics.”
    I interrupt, “I’m glad I only have one brother, not two. All y’all do is fight.”
    “That’s not true,” Matt replies. “We don’t fight when we sleep.”
    “Sometimes we do,” Jeremiah says.
    What goofs.
    “C’mon, I’ll