Charles and Marcela Howard felt scared/overwhelmed before the race.
Rainsford had an epiphany at the end of the story when he was being hunted by General Zaroff. The external conflict was General Zaroff hunting him. His epiphany was about how animals felt when they were being hunted because, in the beginning of the story, he said that animals don't feel fear when hunted. At the end of the story, he understood how it felt to be hunted like an animal and that they do feel fear.
There are multiple words that can describe anything that departs from normal or usual, here are a few examples:
abnormal
unusual
uncommon
atypical
different
