My Heroic Journey

As the bus left the hotel the 9 of us sat there in silence, no one knew what to say. This was the first time in our rowing careers that we had made it to nationals, and for some of us it was the last time. We sat on the bus, thinking about all the hard work that we put in during the rowing season, wondering if there was something more we could have done to get ready for this one 5 minute race. The worst part about the whole thing was the pressure from our coach, we were the only Loyola boat left, and the only Loyola boat that made it to the finals. Everyone was counting on us, and with this came the added stress of meeting their expectations. Everyone on the bus could feel it. As the bus turned into the race sit we headed down towards the
When I looked left and right I saw my competition, some, like New Trier I recognized, but others I had never raced against before. As we waited to start we heard the official raise his hand and say, “ready all, row!”. At this moment everything disappeared, all I felt was the rhythmic thumping of the boat and our coxswain yelling, “ROW-ROW-ROW”. As we crossed the 500m mark I thought, “great, only 1000m to go”, but at this moment I also realized that we were in second. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, none of us even expected to get in the top 5. I felt the pressure pick up in the boat as we realized we had a real chance of medaling. I slowly watched as the boat on my right gained ground and passed us, “ok, I can hold 3rd place.” I thought. Once we reached the last 500m we began the sprint. The rate quickly increased as we gained speed and the feeling of the sun on my skin was only amplified by the pain I felt in my legs, “almost there, almost there” I thought. As we surged across the finish line we realized what we had done, we had gotten 3rd at nationals for the first time in 5 years. I looked to the shore and saw my teammates jumping up and down in joy. The stress and pressure was gone, I had done