Far Westerns: Race to the Wall
You step onto the block,
Making me shiver.
It’s not that you’re cold,
Annabelle,
You’re just nervous.
You know you can’t beat them.
Just do your best.
Even if you don’t get first,
It’s still good.
“Take your marks…”
Then,
Like a beep or frog croak.
I exploded off the block.
To a hundred pound sand bags.
Uneasy thoughts flooded my mind,
Oh Annabelle, what are you going to do,
You should just give up,
Just go easy, save energy for your 200 fly,
I tried my best to erase those nervous feelings.
I followed my plan,
The plan I prepared for this.
But when I got to breaststroke,
I started to get scared.
Breaststroke was my weakest stroke.
Usually, breaststrokers catch up.
I did my best to work on the technique,
I needed to get faster.
Right now,
My teammate is racing next to me.
She entered finals with a slower time than me.
I thought it was a clear win for me,
But she’s faster.
If it was the me from yesterday,
I would have given up by now.
I got lectured by my parents for not trying hard enough.
I thought to myself,
I’m not going to make that mistake again,
just because someone is faster
when the race hasn’t even finished yet.
I sprinted the breast,
Leaving no energy for the last freestyle,
Which is unlike me.
Again,
Erasing the uneasy thoughts,
I raced.
Finishing faster than my teammate.
I learned that
Focusing on my own race
Is the most important.
Not letting uneasy thoughts
Interfere with my mind.
is the key to winning.