August 10th, North Shay City, New England
The day of the Shay City Marathon was here.
It started as something polite that the city council put together, and sank a lot of time and cash in-an obstacle course mixed with a race, from one edge of the city to the other. Everyone of every species was welcome, and at first plenty of people tried, but by the third year it was more of a competition between anthros suited to intense travel and speed than anything else. Most humans couldn't keep up by a longshot. By now, the tenth annual marathon, the contest was stacked full of cats, goats, hares, and a few dogs. This, by and large, was fit to be something everyone of any age could savor, a day of athletics, of skill, of finesse, but the latest talk of the town was that allegedly, there was a human who stood half a chance at making the distance.
This human, Anon, really wasn't sure what the hubub was about. Sure, he did cardio for as long as his body could handle everyday, and got his jogs and walks in once a week, but that wasn't too special as far as he could tell. Really, he signed up on a whim, just wanting to meet a few people and make a few miles before his heart gave up (or out, really), but the news that he was giving it a shot spread like wildfire. He couldn't even go to the gym without at least one or two people asking him if he thought he'd win!
At first he was polite about it, giving a halfhearted "I'll try", back to back, but by the twelth ask, Anon, tired, annoyed, and just wanting to go home and relax in a place with air conditioning, said "Yes."
Yes. That really turned heads.
It turned so many heads he was doomed to double up the training to keep up appearances about how serious he was, and now he was bound by his own words to give the Shay City Marathon a genuine effort. More than a genuine effort, a genuine scare that a human could outcompete every other species out there at what they're best at! Anon, in all honesty, didn't like those odds.
August 10th came anyway.
In a few short minutes, Anon had walked to the area marked as "Starting Zone" on the city app, and reported in as Contestant #105-7, and was handed a deep green jersey. The attendent, a polite looking doe, asked if he understood what the -7 was for, and Anon replied earnestly that he had no fucking clue.
"Well, it's your team!" Team? "Every contestent has a group of other teammembers they're bunched with, so each species can use their skills together. Yours is, well, Team 7, they're organized under-" Anon asked if it was Tent 7.
"Maybe."
Was it?
"I dunno."
Y-yes?
"....nyes."
Yes?
"You're holding up the line, it's Tent 7. Here's hoping you win big guy!"
Anon mumbled a healthy "You too" as he got out of the way and wandered to his teams starting point, hoping that there was atleast ONE-
There were exactly zero other humans on the team.

Fuck.
Team Seven consisted of a rabbit, two bats, and a horse.
Team Seven was also, conspicuously, all female.
Anon, the social nightmare that he was, could not find a way out of this. He was stuck with walking up to the group and introducing himself.
Despite grouped attention being hard to stand, he didn't misspeak at all, and the rest of the crew gave their names as well.
The rabbit was the most extroverted one it seemed, and she replied quicker than the other three could realize it was their turn.
"Claire! My names Claire! Top of my class in rock climbing, and uh, and track, and uh- she's my classmate!" The white rabbit excitedly pointed at the gloomy looking horse, who nervously rubbed her knuckles before speaking.
"Uhm. May. I Uhm."
She paused, and Claire bounced up and down waiting for her to continue.
"I like uh, Undertale...."
Another pause, as Claire motioned to continue.
"And I'm good at...ah... running..."
With that, Claire pumped her fist. "Yes! Over there are the twins, they're cool! Come on!"
Anon couldn't give a word before Claire pulled his arm towards the pair of bats, who both wore shades goggles. They looked at the approaching duo, before looking at eachother, and tried their damnedest to look away, but Claire just waved her arm and asked their names. Twice. Thrice. Four ti-"Alright! Damn!" Started one in a Hispanic accent, turning around. "I, am Karina Potter-Bruno, and this is my sister-" the bat grabbed her identical looking twin and continued. "Lorena Potter-Bruno. We are damn good at, ah-" Karina thought for a moment, before looking at her sister. "What are we good at again?"
"Gymnastics. And flying."
Lorena looked at Karina. Karina looked at Lorena.
They both looked at Claire and Anon.
"Yeah that's about right" they both bluntly stated.
Anon, who had never so much as touched a girl (save for his mothers hugs(and the time he accidentally puked on Angelina in fifth grade when she high fived him)) just nodded up and down.
We're definitely a winning team, he said in earnest, before May, the horse, huffed. "Nuh-uh, we're like super slow!" Anon confusedly asked for elaboration, causing May to quickly look down and away before glancing up at him. "Auh-uh-I mean-" May looked at Anon and explained "I can't do any like climbing stuff, and the bats can't go fast, and you're like, uhm, a human, so Claire's the only one who-" Claire cut her off and resoundingly yelped-
"MAY! Did you not pay attention in class?! Anyone can compete in the marathon cuz anyone can win!"
Lorena chimed in with bad news. "No humans joined in the last three years, I don't think that happens for no reason, ey?"
Anon closed his eyes at the surge of new information, and the sheer amount of surprise everyone else had at the news of his joining made sense now. Why didn't he pay attention to the news?! No humans in three years? Are you joking?
Wait!
Anon asked exactly that, if Lorena was joking.
"Damn bro you kinda remembered my name quick. No, I'm not joking."
Fuck! Claire let go of Anons arm, and instead grabbed his shoulders. "Listen! Between you and me, and the three other people listening, we're the best team in the competition! I don't care if Team One is nothing but Cats-" Anons heart stopped "or if Team Two has three Kangaroos and two other Cats-" Anons breathing stopped. "Or! If Team THREE! has a Cheetah-uh-are you okay?"
Anon explained that he was just shocked at the lineup.
"You too?" Claire repeated, confused. "Don't tell me you need water already buddy! May, get a water for Nonny here!"
Anon felt a bottle of water get poured on him, which shocked him back to life. "Alright pal, head in the game!" Claire turned him around and slapped Anon on the back. "I don't know if you've been listening as well as I've been, but there's just a minute before we start! Let's line up!"
No. No way.
Yes way, all the other teams were lined up. There WAS a fucking cheetah. No way.
Anon could only take deep breaths as he knelt down to the starting line alongside the others on Team 7, before realizing something. People were taking photographs of him.
A lot of people were taking photographs of...just him.
They wanted to see his A-Game. Everyone wanted to see if this human could walk (well, run) as much as he talked!
With a shaky breath, Anon looked forwards...
The announcer, a mouse held up by a dog, spoke.
"Get ready! In THREE! TWO! ONE....
RACE!"

Anon rushed forwards, along with Claire, with May, with Karina and Lorena! Anon-
Watched as the cats sprinted forwards like someone set their tails on fire, followed by iguanas and rabbits.
Claire too, there went Claire. For all the talk about teamliness she sure did dusts Team 7. Wow.
Hey, he was keeping up with just about everyone else though! Him and May were up in the front, if you ignored the fact that lots of other people were up in front! They were in the middle! That's something!
The crowd roared as the Shay City Marathon began, and the sole human competitor, Anon, was smack dab in the middle of the racers. He used every trick in the book to make sure he stayed there, breathing techniques, slowing down to speed up, running through the pain, feeling the burn. He huffed, and May grumbled out "This is like when uh, Undynechasedfrisk.." before her speech was just mumbles. Anon, having no idea what she meant, said Yeah, it is! This made May smile, and Anon overheard the twins, doing a mix of speed walking and running for their lives, having their own conversation.
Karina happily yelled out, "Just pretend they aren't there Lorena! It's just a regular old walk!"
Lorena didn't respond to Karina.
"Just a regular old, ah, just a walk!"
Lorena kept walk-running.
"Yep!"
Karina didn't continue.
Anon focused up on the race, remembering what little he checked up on before today. After this, the ten minute mark, one half of a mile, they came across the first obstacle! A giant rock wall, meant to be climbed, leaped, or somehow crossed. Without just walking around it!
May groaned loudly.
"I've got HOOVES!"
Over her groaning, Anon looked up to see that a fair amount of cats were actually stuck up there! Two of them were even arguing about who went down first, and involving a lot of cursing in it as well!
Seeing as how this was his chance to get past a chunk of the competition, Anon braced himself and leaped to the wall, trying to grip as best he could. He slipped, here and there, but was the third to start clambering. The other two being Karina and Lorena, who didn't speak to him, or May, as they scrambled up.
May gingerly held onto the rockface and started to put her tiphoofs to any area she could stick to. Anon, ever the gentleman, looked back and said that she had this, before giving it his all to climb. It was hell, honestly, he didn't practice this part at all, leaving his arms as sore as his legs from the stretching as he did his damnedest to hold up and lift up his weight repeatedly. By the time he was able to clamber onto the top, May and nearly every other horse were just making headway. All she gave Anon was a sad thumbs up, and he nodded back before starting the descent.
The descent was actually kinda worse than the first part, because Anon didn't exactly have a third person camera like in Metal Gear, or Monster Hunter, or Shadow of the Collosus, or-
"Hey!" Anons concentration broke as he looked to a brown and black speckled cat. "Can ah, can you, can you be a bro and like-"
The cat, a Team 1 member, flashed an award losing smile as he asked "Can you help me find a way down?"
Anon thought on it.
If he did....it'd be the really polite and kind thing to do for a cat stuck in a high place...but the chance of winning was pretty much zero.
Anon held eye contact for a moment before sliding down the rockface and stopping, before sliding down again, hitting the street quicker than if he just climbed. The cat gave a friendly "Fuck you!" as Anon moved forward. Now it was back to jogging. Anon let himself breathe for the next half mile, seeing as how he had three more miles to go, and the best thing to do would be to conserve energy anyways. What if the next obstacle was something requiring b-
The next obstacle was a series of balancing beams. There were a number of them, each marked for what range of species it could realistically be difficult for-and Anon was right behind Claire, surprisingly enough! He inquired into what happened with the twins, and Claire happily said "Well, after I just jumped over the rockwall with the other frontrunners, I didn't see em until I got here! I'm such an energetic bun I keep sliding off! Haha! Anyway, they both went one after the other, and just tightroped on by!"
Claire sniffed the air a bit.
"Jeez! Someone's working up a real sweat, aren't you?"
Anon apologized.
"No no, it's good! I mean, you're good, at, running and stuff-oh its my turn-"
Claire quickly rushed to her balancing beam and began to cross, leaving Anon to wait behind her to see if she could make it....
She didn't. Anon gave it a shot, and while it was nerve-wracking, Claire watching as though both their lives depended on it gave him the push he needed to desperately extend his ability to balance to nearly normal levels, which was all he needed to get across!
Anon waved to Claire, who gave him a wave back, as he pushed on.
Mile one? Crushed. Finito. Mile two?
Aw fuck, it was entirely uphill! Where was a goat when, well the one goat who was here was taking a breather. Team five! Anon waved for a moment before she yelled out "You can get it you know!", and then he nervously looked forward and kept jogging uphill. Anon could get it? She must mean that he could get this years trophy! Thank you, random goat lady! Anon strained himself, despite all the pain, to make just a little bit more ground!
Anon did exactly that, getting a few feet up before he sighed and stayed still. Man, did this hurt.
Who was he kidding? Claire could have gotten past this part in no time! He idled, letting the burn subside for as long as the goat chick did. After two minutes, the first set of runners went past, and then the goat girl started to approach him...
Anon started running again.
He ran, and ran, and ran, passing by the other group of runners (who were shocked that he wasn't out yet), until the third obstacle, a climbing rope over a brick wall was in view. Lorena and Karina were at the top, and before he could speak, had spread their wings and leaped all the way downhill! God-DAMN!
Wasn't Team 7 supposed to be shit? These two were dusting everyone! Mama didn't raise no quitter (except for high school basketball), so our hero approached the rope and began to climb....and it was over as quick as it started. Huh.
Okay.
Cool.
Peering downrange, Anon saw that there were only some fifteen people ahead. Out of a hundred and five, Anon was in sixteenth place.
He was doing it. Wasting no more time, he dropped down from the wall and nearly bust his ass, beggining to fall downhill, but thankfully got up in time to catch momentum and race forwards. His knees were NOT going to be thanking him for this, but hey that trophy was closer by the minute! What's a torn ACL compared to that?
Down, down, down, Anon couldn't believe that the fourth obstacle was just a series of stacked tires meant to keep those sprinting from making too mad of a dash. He had to be light on his feet, weaving one way, then the next, left, right, left, right, he was starting to get dizzy as he registered what was in front of him-
Hurdles!
Now he was leaping, hopping, ducking, diving, passing other contestents. Karina and Lorena were right next to him by the time he was done!
"God-Damn Chico" they both said before looking at eachother in surprise.
My name isn't Chico? Anon replied.
Karina and Lorena both ran into tires from their confusion.
Oof.
Anon gave a very heartfelt sorry as he moved forward. Ten people left! And he was going to be first!

In truth, Anon was NOT going to be first at this pace!
That damn cheetah was up ahead, and despite all his rage, Anon was only moving as fast as a rat in a very small cage. That quick break of his didn't amount for much at all at this point, even if heading downhill was easier on his body, everything else sure wasn't!
He...he had to stop, or else-
The cheetah slowed down. Every other contestent was slowly coming to a stop too. Anon, in his tired mind, genuinely couldn't believe what was happening, but realization hit him quickly.
It was SUMMER!
All these cats, the two kangaroos, the hares, they were made to go fast, but that fur made them trap heat like a motherfucker. They gave it their all for so long that-
Just as he expected, it happened. The anthros, one by one, stopped and found shade and water under tents, breathing as hard as Anon was. Anon wasn't able to go on much longer, but his break was bound to be shorter than theirs, and even then, when they restarted the race, they'd just heat up as quick as before! Time for a pit stop.
The other day, Anon was worried he'd even get this far. Now he was drinking water with the most toned roo he'd seen in his life.
Sheila? Anon hazard a guess.
"You're lucky you're a right pretty looking humie ya fucking bogan-" she started, and then continued "I mean, a dag like you! Being as much of a DRONGO as the rest of these, Americans! Americans! Honestly!"
Anon quietly drank the water as he looked to side.
"I mean FUCK ME DEAD MAN! Ya fucking MONGREL!" The kangaroo was only getting more upset the longer he was silent.
Anon started running jogging again.
He left the cheetah behind.
Before long, Anon had walked another half mile by the time the cheetah sprinted up near him again, and then Anon started running. Them he started running seriously.
The cheetah was about as angry as a cat could get.
It didn't help much.
Anon was able to keep marching as the Cheetah stopped and sped up, stopped and sped up, all the way down to the finishing line. The crowd was in silent disbelief at the sight, this clearly socially retarded man completely dunking on an anthro that was built for speed, for distance!
When Anon stepped across the line, the cheetah just knelt down and sighed.
Then, the cheers began.
After a day, a trophy, and a fair amount of bras (and panties) thrown at him, Anon was something of a small town celebrity, his steam page filled with friend requests from newly made accounts, and his phone number has a few too many texts. What really surprised him though, was when his team was waiting for him in front of his house after work.
Anon carefully asked why they knew where he lived, before Karina and Lorena showed off badges that stated they both were official state workers.
Alright, Anon replied, that was creepy but, it made sense how you found me. Why then, were they here, Anon changed the question.
Claire looked to the side and explained for the others.
"Well...there's something I didn't tell you about Team 7. We all wanted to be on the same team as you, so we asked about that!"
Anon listened close.
"We all have a thing for...well..."
She bit her lip, before going up and down on her heels.
"She means that we don't fuck with furboys." Lorena(?) waved her hand. "And these two virgins were pestering us all day about wanting their cherries popped by you, Chico. You gonna open that door or what?"
Anon couldn't fish his keys out fast enough.