Mary likesto run. Ever since she was in the third grade, she has been training to runlong distances. Now that she was in her eighth grade, her parents agreed to lether run in the Banana Classic. The Banana Classic is a ten-kilometre race. Ittakes place every year in Mattydale. The winners get a lifetime supply (提供) of peanuts and fruit juice.
Marypractised by running ten kilometres, twice every day. On the average (平时的) run, she would finish inthirty minutes. Last year's winner finished the race in twenty-six minutes andten seconds!
On the dayof the race, Mary ran faster than she ever had in the past. As she came acrossthe last kilometre, she was in the fourth place. She picked up the pace (步伐) and quickly reached the secondplace, just as she could see the finishing line. She ran as fast as she couldin a mad dash (冲刺) to the finish line, but she justwasn't fast enough to get ahead of the leader.
