2015-05-21

【Aiden in English】

        Olympic Day can’t be an Olympic Day without races. For us, Montgomery has its ever famous 50-yard dash. Everyone loves this time of day, except when you lose about every single race.

        Right off the bat, the Mountaineers seemed like the only worthy team for last place. Race after race we lasted, grabbing a few 2^nd and 3^rds, but those weren’t enough either. Whoever chose the teams, boy, someone must’ve put all the slow runners on the Mountaineers. I’m telling you, not a single race was going our way. Every kid on my team was hoping the 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd graders that were playing the eight games at the moment were faring better than us. Every time I saw a quick runner on my team, it seemed as though the runner always slipped at the start, tripped white running, or pulled muscle. Although the grass was slippery from the morning showers, I swore that people were trying to mess up. Meanwhile, the Rangers were slowly stacking up points, winning race after race. For some reason they weren’t always losing a shoe or not tying their show laces.

        An addition to the 50-yard dash was a tug of war competition. Here again, the Mountaineers couldn’t grab a victory. The competition worked in a tournament form by grade. Two games were played, and then the losers and winners played. And as always, we fell in the 2^nd, but this time it was the Trailblazers winning absolutely everything. Their 4^th and 6^th grade groups went undefeated. Yeah, we were in big doo-doo. Yet when the moment of truth came, and silence fell across the field (except for the sucking of popsicles). It was the Trailblazers behind the scouts in 4^th and 3^rd. For the last two, the difference was only five points. So if we lost, I could’ve blamed it on anyone’s shoe that fell off (which was a lot of people).

        Lucky for the shoeless people, we won. I guess the 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd graders did better than I thought. This win meant something much more important than a win to me. This was my first time and last time ever, wining Montgomery’s Olympic Day, because coming away being 1-5, and winning on the final year, fells even sweeter than being 6-0.

【紅霞譯文】

        奧林匹克節不可能沒有賽跑比賽，而對我們每位參賽者來說，蒙哥馬利小學素以50碼短跑衝刺著稱，人人翹首期待，除非你比不過人家。

        發令槍一響，登山者隊似乎難以遮掩其致命弱點，幾輪下來，我們撐死跑個第二或第三，而且這樣的成績也是寥寥無幾。不知誰幹得好事，天哪，成心把所有挪不動步伐的夥計全部集中在登山者隊，說實話，我們無奈命運捉弄處處失利，隊友們只好把希望寄托在一、二、三年級難弟難妹身上，他們在八項競技比賽中反倒比我們更加出色。我發覺每當速度快的隊友上場，不是跌滑在起跑線上，就是絆倒於跑道中，或者乾脆拉傷肌肉，儘管上午下過雨後草地變滑，但我敢說大家趁機小題大做。與此同時，護林員隊頻頻告捷，蔫不出溜得了不少分，不知咋整的，他們難得跑丟鞋子，用不着總繫鞋帶。

        50碼短跑衝刺之後剩下的就是拔河比賽，在這個項目上，登山者隊毫無優勢可言。比賽按年級採用淘汰制，先進行兩次較量，然後輸的隊跟贏的隊交鋒。我們無冷門可爆，跟老末有緣，尖兵隊異軍突起搶奪了冠軍席位，他們四、六兩年級分隊戰無不勝，而我們整體水平臭不可聞。每當成績出來，大家無言以對（只能呆在原地默默地獨吃冰棍）。最後童子軍隊名列第三，尖兵隊第四，這兩個隊只相差五分。如果我們輸掉今天的比賽，我肯定要怪罪運動鞋（鞋子拉了本隊很多人的後腿）。

        運氣眷顧赤腳俠客，我們贏了。一、二、三年級小不點們出乎意料，其表現讓我跌破眼鏡。本次勝利對我意義很大，絕非僅僅局限於比賽結果，這是我第一次也是最後一次在蒙哥馬利奧林匹克節上榮膺殊榮，以輸掉前五年換取最後一年的勝利要比從未失敗過的戰績更令我感覺甜美。