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.

【红霞译文】

        奥林匹克节不可能没有赛跑比赛，而对我们每位参赛者来说，蒙哥马利小学素以50码短跑冲刺著称，人人翘首期待，除非你比不过人家。

        发令枪一响，登山者队似乎难以遮掩其致命弱点，几轮下来，我们撑死跑个第二或第三，而且这样的成绩也是寥寥无几。不知谁干得好事，天哪，成心把所有挪不动步伐的伙计全部集中在登山者队，说实话，我们无奈命运捉弄处处失利，队友们只好把希望寄托在一、二、三年级难弟难妹身上，他们在八项竞技比赛中反倒比我们更加出色。我发觉每当速度快的队友上场，不是跌滑在起跑线上，就是绊倒于跑道中，或者干脆拉伤肌肉，尽管上午下过雨后草地变滑，但我敢说大家趁机小题大做。与此同时，护林员队频频告捷，蔫不出溜得了不少分，不知咋整的，他们难得跑丢鞋子，用不着总系鞋带。

        50码短跑冲刺之后剩下的就是拔河比赛，在这个项目上，登山者队毫无优势可言。比赛按年级采用淘汰制，先进行两次较量，然后输的队跟赢的队交锋。我们无冷门可爆，跟老末有缘，尖兵队异军突起抢夺了冠军席位，他们四、六两年级分队战无不胜，而我们整体水平臭不可闻。每当成绩出来，大家无言以对（只能呆在原地默默地独吃冰棍）。最后童子军队名列第三，尖兵队第四，这两个队只相差五分。如果我们输掉今天的比赛，我肯定要怪罪运动鞋（鞋子拉了本队很多人的后腿）。

        运气眷顾赤脚侠客，我们赢了。一、二、三年级小不点们出乎意料，其表现让我跌破眼镜。本次胜利对我意义很大，绝非仅仅局限于比赛结果，这是我第一次也是最后一次在蒙哥马利奥林匹克节上荣膺殊荣，以输掉前五年换取最后一年的胜利要比从未失败过的战绩更令我感觉甜美。