It had already been raining. We were all already wet. The siren went off, and we obeyed the call to start trotting in circles. We were given ankle straps that contained timing chips so that our results could be official. They velcroed on and I remember hoping that they were waterproof.
A few of us were in a cluster for the first mile or so. We joked about the weather, the mud. The subject of the timing chips came up.
Me, the minority, saying, This ankle thing makes me feel like a goddamned prisoner.
A white woman saying, I’m thinking more along the lines of free range organic chicken.
Somehow, that made me furious.
