Content Warning: The source material and this guide discuss domestic violence.

“He was shooting at us! My dad! My dad was actually shooting…at…US! His wife and his boy!”

In Chapter 1, Castle relives the night when his father chased him and his mother down the hall with a pistol. The sentence structure and punctuation here emphasize the panic and shock of that moment—Reynolds uses a string of exclamations, all caps, ellipses, and sentence fragments to increase the narrative pace.

“Running ain’t nothing I ever had to practice. It’s just something I knew how to do.”

Castle’s idea of running is linked to his father shooting at him and his mother, rooting the natural act in a traumatic childhood. From that moment, he tends to always feel that he is running from something, putting distance between himself and his problems. This introduces Coach’s mantra and a major theme: You Can’t Escape Yourself.

“I always had this feeling that if I could just get on, I’d be the next LeBron. But I never wanted to be the next…whoever the most famous runner is.”

Reynolds characterizes Castle and creates verisimilitude here by having him reference LeBron James, imitating a young teen’s diction by referring to the famous athlete by his first name only. Castle’s affinity for basketball in place of running creates the foundation for his growth as a track athlete.