Gabriel Giacoppo English Period 7 October 30, 2013 Adventure Story (Final Draft) Strife in the Fast Lane

About 4 months ago, in the summer, I was competing at the Pacific Swimming Zone 3 Championship swim meet in Vallejo. All season I had wanted to make the Junior Olympic time standard for 11-12 year old boys in one of the most grueling races in competitive swimming, the 200 IM. The time to accomplish was 2:36.09 and I was about to get my chance, but I knew that I had to push myself really hard in order to get my time. The adrenaline was running through my body as I stepped up onto the racing blocks. I had two choices. I could make my race hurt and feel sick afterwards, and have a chance to reach my goal time. Or I could swim less hard and not push my body as much, relieving the pain and pressure, but probably just missing the long anticipated Junior Olympic time. To add to my stress, I was seeded next to Carl Grini, a lightning fast muscular kid with a formidable backstroke and breastroke, which makes up the middle 100 yards and is the most important part of the 200 IM. Carl had a reputation for being the best in our age group in both the 200 and 400 IM. Last time I raced him, he beat me by 8 seconds. My mind was made up. I wasnt going to put up with that again. When I heard the first whistle, I rose up to the starting blocks. It was my time to shine, and just because I was nervous didnt mean that I wouldnt push it to the limit. I have been swimming for 6 years; I can do this, I mumbled under my breath. So when the cue to race was announced, I dove in with determination and swam my butterfly segment with confidence as hard as I could. At the turn, I peeked and saw nobody ahead of me. I was actually ahead of Carl! My confidence grew with each stroke forward and I knew it would all pay off in the end. I turned into backstroke and my body was aching. I was still just ahead of Carl who was coming up next to me quickly. Still I persevered through the event, transitioning into breaststroke, digging closer to my goal with each painful stroke.

Gabriel Giacoppo English Period 7 October 30, 2013 Adventure Story (Final Draft) At this point Carl made his move and caught up to me. On the last lap of freestyle I held my breath and kicked as hard as I could. Carl and I were battling and I knew I was finished. I sprinted freestyle as hard as I could and then I slammed my hands against the touch pad. I looked at my time on the board: 2:29.63. That was it! I was done, and I had made the Junior Olympic time with 7 seconds to spare in the process! I took second place over all, less than a second behind Carl, and I was so relived it was over. I was just sitting there, gasping and I knew I had reached my goal. Carl then glanced over at me. Hey nice race; that was tough, he said shaking my hand. Yeah, good swim, I heaved, feeling very accomplished. When I was just about to exit the pool, I noticed an official by my lane. He was writing something down on a yellow piece of paper, and I could see my name on it. He then handed it to my coach, and walked away. My swim coach approached me and clearly had news. Ah, Good race, he said nervously. From the tone in his voice I knew more was coming. So apparently you got disqualified because of a second dolphin kick off your breastroke pull through. The window of opportunity closed, and my old time remained. All I can say is that I was devastated. I tried unsuccessfully to ague with the officials, and reclaim my hard work. I yelled and tore off my cap and goggles, then almost crying I said But I killed myself! I worked so hard and now all my effort is gone? I dont understand! My chest was heaving and water dripped from my wet body. My coach just replied, You tried hard, and you are in for some great swimming this weekend. It took some time to understand but finally, after all my anger had been squeezed out of me like juice, I realized something that I will always remember. I had already swam the race! And I knew that I could do it again. It was mentally much easier to have dove into the adventure and gotten disqualified, than not to have taken the risk, and not even earned that time. Adventure can pull people to greatness in many ways, but one of the most important ones is being patient, as that race helped me race better

Gabriel Giacoppo English Period 7 October 30, 2013 Adventure Story (Final Draft) a few months later. Two weeks ago I swam the 200 IM again in the same pool and earned the Junior Olympic time. It felt even sweeter that it did last summer.