This is a short story about a 17-year-old inmate at an English Borstal reform school named Smith. Smith, a gifted long-distance runner, has been sentenced to the Borstal for breaking into a bakery. The warden, known as the Governor, hopes Smith will win the Borstal's cross-country running competition, which would bring prestige to the institution.

During his solitary morning runs in the countryside, Smith reflects on his working-class upbringing and his distrust of authority figures like the Governor. He realizes that winning the race would be seen as accepting the system that imprisoned him. In a defiant act at the end of the race, Smith stops running near the finish line, allowing the other runners to pass him.

AI creation