One-Minute Writer (OMW): Peer Pressure

In efforts to get myself to write more, I set about the web for inspiration and stumbled upon a blog called One-Minute Writer.

One-Minute Writer challenges writers each day with a topic in the form of a Writing Prompt. The idea is to write, guided by the Prompt, for one minute. I may write for a time longer than a minute, or I may write shorter. My goal is to use this as a source of inspiration — or “kick in the pants” — to write a few times per week; I will keep the subject within the realm of this blog, ‘Dreams of Iron…’

Today’s Writing Prompt is “Peer pressure.” Guidelines are to write about an instance of positive peer pressure you have experienced or observed.

OMW: Peer Pressure

A quarter-mile into the race, I made a move to take over first place. The amount of energy required to get into the lead of this 5K race would eventually do me in with pace later on, but having never lead a road race before, I couldn’t resist. I was willing to suffer the consequences.

A few minutes later, still within the first mile of the race, the lead group of 10 swallowed me whole, the consequences turning toward my suffering. My pace slowed slightly as I tucked in, now sitting squarely in the middle of the pack, sure my day was done for having gone out too fast even if it meant taking the lead.

Just then a friend pulled on the side of me. I wasn’t enthused to see him. It meant that I had to maintain this high effort; I couldn’t slouch off by dialing back pace and enjoying the Thanksgiving morning.

Running shoulder to shoulder, stride for stride, with my peer, we pushed hard, running very fast over the next two miles. A mutual friend would relay to me later that my friend had said he “felt like a little kid, like he was racing his best friend down the block.” I knew it to be true, because I had the exact same thought.

Like little kids, my friend and I ran neck and neck, pushing each other far harder and faster than either of us could alone until finally the fast start caught up to me. I lost a step, then another, and finally another. The finish line came earlier for him. But it came faster for both of us – each of us pressed by the other.