Theday finally came, and the sun was shining in the light-blue sky. I walkedoutside, enjoying every second of the crisp fall morning. As I climbed into thecar, I felt a nervous chill go up my spine. The drive was long and quiet; I beganto get very nervous once we arrived. I ran to my team and watched closely asother teams raced, thinking we would never be able to row like that.

Weput our hands on the smooth wooden boat. We had all played this day over and overin our minds and practiced so hard. The walk to the dock seemed even longer thanusual. After what seemed an

eternity, I caught sight of it. Seeing thedock and thinking we were almost done made me feel better. That was one of theonly things that was normal about that day.

Everyone was very careful notto put the oars in backwards. By the time we were told to get in by our coxswain,I was so nervous I was shaking. The second I touched the long oar, though, I feltbetter. Shortly, I heard the gun go off. It was time to start! It was so loud itmade me jump off my seat. Through-out the race I wanted a sip of water, but Iknew it would cost us the race.

From the corner of my eye I saw a boatand realized we were not going to come in last. I was interrupted by thecoxswain's raspy voice telling us to stop rowing. We all obeyed. After we all hada second to look around, we realized we were at the finish line. Our team was theonly boat there, meaning we came in first place! I could not believe my eyes. Wehad all seen the other teams practicing, with their colored shirts constantlymoving, their backs always together, and usually they beat us. Today, though, weshowed them we were the better team.