chapter 1

"After winning a record number of medals I now announce my retirement with immediate effect."
I was over, Jodie's pale blue eyes gazed into the camera as she called it a day. She slowly pulled strands of her bright blonde hair over her bony cheeks to cover the sorrowful tears coming down her eyes as she faced the fact that it was finally time to step away from the track for good.
The problem was she said this before and couldn't resist coming back. We'd seen the tears and heard the speech all before, then she came back again and again and it never ended well. Let's just say she lost her touch. It wasn't as though she was in bad shape, scroll through her Instagram account and you'd have seen for yourself... abs everywhere and you could have ironed your clothes on her flat ass.
5"8, slender and veins bulging all over the place - Jodie was made to be active.
That was part of the problem, she couldn't face up to the fact that she was no longer one of the best long distance runners in the world... she was just past it and hanging on. A great body, with no substance, she had reached her peak at 29 years old.
Jodie had to find a way to finally switch off from running and discover a new life, that was so hard because she was ultra competitive. The first obvious choice was to try another sport. The problem was she had spent so much time doing track that she really wasn't great at any other sports. After becoming so elite in one sport, there would be a lot of (self inflicted) pressure on her to be just as good in another. What was the point in doing something just for fun, Jodie thought. Deep down Jodie knew she didn't need a brief distraction or something to pass the time, she needed to fully let go, but how could she turn things around and finally move on with her life? Jodie sat down with her boyfriend and began to think about things that had never crossed her mind before. How could she fill the void for good and resist the temptation to go back on the track and make herself look silly. Jodie pondered... (Continue ?)