It was the last race of the fall season. Although we already completed two races before this one, it was as nerve-wracking (maybe even a little more). This race was a big race. Probably not to anyone else but to these three girls’ crews; who have worked all summer and fall to be better than the other it was huge. Four crews share our boathouse. Girls from three of these crews were competing in this race. The crew to win that race gains bragging rights. After months and months of not knowing who was the better crew of the girls’ novice teams, this race would determine it. We got into our boat and onto the water in only a short amount of time. It seemed even shorter once we finally reached the starting line, because it meant the race would begin. Everyone in the boat was very nervous. We had shortly talked about it before reaching the starting line. Once we got to the starting line everyone became dead silent in our boat. We could still hear the quiet talking of the other boats but we didn’t dare speak a word. There was dead silence for what seemed a few minutes between all boats. Then we heard the officials say, “Sit ready,” and we knew the moment was coming. As I sat there waiting for the command to row, all I could think about was what Dr. B (our coach) said to us before hand. The only way to win is to get ahead in the beginning sprint. Then I heard the command, “and ROW!” We were off. We pulled as hard as we possibly could, trying our best to get ahead. You could tell by the strength in the boat that we wanted it so badly. The moment that proved to be most crucial was when they caught a crab. Catching a crab is when your oar gets stuck under the water. They had to completely stop their boat! That was the moment we knew we had it as we pulled ahead full force. By the time the race was halfway over the other boats were mere specs in the distance and I think everyone in the boat could agree that we shared a moment of pure pride. We became extremely proud of one another. All we could think about at that point was how amazing we did and it had been the first time we did one of these races and we won it! We became amazed and stunned but so happy that we could finally say we are better than the other crews that we had been longing to beat.