Dealing with mortality

"The rest of our team rallied on, and we completed the first lap successfully. But on the second round, I lost my breath completely, and I could feel my heart struggling in my chest. The kids in the group were still energetic enough to speed on, but I was panting mercilessly. 'Tita, you can do it! You can make it!' egged Benjamin Spock. I didn’t want to let the kids down, but all I could think of was to sit down with a nice cold bottle of regular Coke and just enjoy burping the carbonation through my nostrils." (Click Something Like Life for the rest.)