Christmas with Her Daredevil Doc by Kate Hardy

Author:Kate Hardy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2017-11-23T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

FINALLY IT WAS the end of October, and Hayley finished her last bit of training with Sam on the Friday night, running the full 10K outdoors. They met up with Dani afterwards to have dinner and discuss strategies for the race itself on the Sunday. Saturday was a rest day, and then on Sunday morning at nine o’clock the three of them headed to Alexandra Park for the start of the race, getting Hayley set up with her numbered bib and the electronic tag for her shoe that would record her time.

Dani seemed a bit distracted, but Hayley put it down to the fact that her best friend was watching the race instead of running it. It was nearly three months since Dani had been diagnosed with the fractured metatarsals, and although the cast was off now she still wasn’t quite back to her full mobility. Hayley knew that taking it slowly was driving Dani crackers, though at least she was watching the race with Sam—who would make her be careful, but without making her feel as if she was wrapped in cotton wool.

Which was ironic, because Hayley didn’t feel as if she could make Sam be careful without wrapping him in cotton wool.

Hayley was glad the weather was dry, cool and calm; the worst thing would’ve been running on wet roads with a bitter wind whipping through the runners. She would be happy if she could run the course in under an hour and a quarter. The route was lined with marshals, and some of the roads had been closed off for a couple of hours for the run. The course had two laps, partly along the streets and partly in the park; she’d also been told that there were two water stations, so she wouldn’t need to take a water bottle with her.

It was the first time Hayley had done a race like this in a crowd, and after the first ten minutes she was surprised to discover that she was enjoying it. Plus running in a crowd meant that she didn’t miss having either Dani by her side when she’d done the interval training on the treadmill at the local gym, or Sam by her side on the outdoor training.

She was flagging a bit on the second lap, but then she saw Dani and Sam near the finish line. They were cheering her on, and it spurred her to run harder for those last few metres. And then she was over the finish line, and a few moments afterwards she was swept into a hug by both Dani and Sam. Hayley found herself unexpectedly in tears with the emotion of it all.

‘You’re wonderful,’ Dani said. ‘Because of you, we’ve raised a ton of money for the new equipment for the ward.’

‘People donated for you,’ Hayley reminded her.

‘But you’re the one who actually ran it.’ Dani hugged her hard. ‘Thank you so much.’

Hayley hugged her back and then hugged Sam. ‘Thank you both. I couldn’t have done it without you training with me.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.