Personal Narrative-It's Time To Take The Arms Out Of Water

I pull my arms down as fast and hard as I possibly could. I explode out of the the water whipping my kick behind me. My leg were on fire, but I had to work through the pain. The wall was awaiting me 10yds out. I hear Coach Mason hollering,”Shoot! Shoot!” as I pop out of the water. He is trying to let me know that I need to shoot my arms out in front of me faster. I throw my arms forward as I approach the wall. I slam my hands into the wall; ripping my goggles off my head. I glance up at the scoreboard. Next to my name it reads, 2:42.86. Wow, I dropped .09 seconds from my previous time; big deal. I couldn’t imagine how I didn’t drop more time. I always try pretty hard in practice and I thought it would all pay off for this day. I wanted the
Coach Mason was giving one of his famous pump up speeches to one of my teammates, therefore I decide to talk to Coach Kamryn instead. “C’mon...what was that?” she questions. I shrugged, wondering the same thing. I wished I had an answer. “You’re better than that,” she explains, “ You just want to make sure your head is down and you're not pausing too much out in front.” I nod agreeing that I will work on that. “Talk to Coach Mason, then go do a long, easy cool down and get ready for your next race.”
“Okay,” I reply heading over to where Coach Mason was located. As I wait for him to chat with me, thoughts of how fast I could have gone if I had done something differently rushed through my mind.
Finally, it was my turn to speak to Coach Mason about my race. He ensured me that my next race will be better. I hoped that he was correct. He also made the remark that I may get too anxious before my races. He stated that because I get so nervous, my muscles get tight and don’t have enough time to loosen up before or during my race. I had never thought about that.
I head over to the other pool to cool down, just as Coach Kamryn told me to. While I’m cooling down, I ponder what Coach Mason had told me. Maybe I did get too nervous before races. I always get the feeling like I’m about to throw up when I’m behind the
My whole body was trembling. Bbbbbbeeeep! I leap off of the block. Suddenly, all of my nerves were gone. All I was focused on was racing and getting that cut. I focus on the little details of my race; such as whipping my kick and keeping my head down. Most importantly, my turns and pullouts had to be spot on, just perfect. There were lots of those, so they could make or break my race. I forgot the pain and just had fun. Coach Mason was right, having fun makes me swim faster. My last turn comes.I push off of the wall thinking of what happened at my race last year.I didn’t want this race to be as disappointing as that one.I start sprinting as fast as I possibly can. I slam into the wall.I hear cheers coming from the crowd. This could mean one of two things. Either I got the cut, or someone else in my heat did. I slowly twist my head, glancing at the scoreboard. 2:36.29. I got it! I got the cut! A smile that went from ear to ear burst out on my face. I couldn’t believe it. All of my hard work paid off, I was going to be a state