Racing For First

Cambria Callaway

One of my favorite activities is competitively swimming.  I wouldn’t really call it a hobby.  To me, swimming is my future career and life.  Everyone has a moment in their life when they realize they will be great at something. For me, that moment came in early June of this year. I was at Las Vegas, Nevada for a swim meet.  A swim meet is where swimmers race each other to get faster in the sport of swimming..  At this particular swim meet I was going to swim the 800 meter freestyle.  It was an open event which meant that I would have to swim against people that could have been older or younger than me.

I knew from earlier experience that this race was going to be long, grueling, and painful.  Luckily, I am a distance swimmer which means that I do better at swimming longer distances just like the race that I was about to compete in.  My coach gave me a talk about what to do in this race and how to dominate.  I was extremely nervous because I knew that I would be the youngest in the whole race.  I would have to race side-by-side with girls that were 14-18 years old.  Behind those blocks I felt like Michael Phelps or Katie Ledecky, ready to swim their best and give it their all.  If you don’t know who those two people are then you should know that they are the best swimmers in the Olympic sport.  Have you ever had a moment where you feel like a balloon?  You feel so ready to soar but you’re afraid you might pop.  That’s how I felt; ready to race, yet afraid I might fail. I took a deep breath and waited for the race to begin.

The official blew their whistle signaling to the swimmers to step up onto the blocks.  I stepped up and took my mark.  I waited for the familiar ring of the starter.  As soon as the buzzer went off, I took a deep breath and dove under, then kicked for a few yards under the water.  The water  was inviting. It was cool, refreshing and crystal clear so I could see where I was going.  At the beginning of my race I followed the black line at the bottom of the pool until the next wall came closer.  I flipped and headed toward the end of my first hundred.  I flipped again and started on my second hundred, nowhere near the end of my race.  I took a breath to my left and saw that the girl in the lane next to me was slowly passing.  Everyone else was behind us.  I noticed my coach to my right making signals for me to go faster and pass the girl next to me.

I pushed myself harder and harder, slowly creeping passed the girl to my left. After I fully passed her,I smiled underwater because I was now in first, but I kept going because I knew I had to finish the race.  My coach was now whistling at me.  When he whistles, you know you have to go faster.  My head started to pound and I felt really dizzy.  Then, for a split second, it  felt like everything was in slow motion.  I couldn’t hear anyone cheering, I forgot what I was doing, and I felt like I was in a parallel universe.  I tried to forget about the headache and dizziness by focusing on the main goal, finishing the race.  I pushed myself harder and harder, slowly reaching the end of the race..  By then I had passed everyone.  I was almost done.  My legs and arms felt like they were going to fall off and I couldn’t hear anything over the pounding in my head.  Then, before I realized what happened, I finished.  At last, I had reached the wall and finished the race.

I looked up to the scoreboard and looked for my name.  Next to my name was my time.  I had dropped about 18 seconds.  On the other side of my name was the place I had gotten.  It was kind of obvious but I was still stunned.  I had gotten first.  I had gotten first to girls that were older than me by 2-6 years.  I was overwhelmed with so many emotions.  I was tired, achy, and proud of myself all at the same time.  At last, I had had my moment.  I knew I could potentially be great at the sport of swimming.  Ever since that race, swimming has been my favorite thing to do as well as my new found passion.