The middle school girls clustered up on the starting line in their matching purple T-shirts. They had been practicing for weeks, running around and around the block. When the 5K began, the girls took off, but this was no normal race.
No one surged ahead, and when someone fell behind, or a girl stopped to tie her shoe, the whole group waited for them to catch up. They shouted encouragement at each other and pushed one another to keep going. No one intended to win. The goal was to finish together, as a group.