“On your mark . . . set . . . BANG!” I had seven people to beat. I pushed out of my start fast since I was in lane seven. I knew I had to get out hard in order to break the stagger of my nemesis in lane eight. One hundred meters down she was pulling away. Halfway through the race, everything began to hurt from exhaustion. I remembered my coach telling me to relax as soon as I hit the brick wall. I took a deep breath and gave it my all. Two hundreds meters later, there was nobody in front of me anymore.
Alana Moore is a rising sophomore at George Washington University.