PBnJ!!

Today is the big day. I wake up at 8:00 in the morning, jump in the shower and get dressed. I throw on some my plain blue basketball shorts and my yellow Homer Musgrove t-shirt on. I put on my old black running shoes on and head downstairs for my manly breakfast, Cocoa Pebbles. After i am done with my 3rd bowl i am ready to tackle whatever comes my way.

I strike a look at time again and it reads 8:25. It's time for me to get going to the race. I hop into my mom's minivan as she drops me off at Thomas Park. I look around for my fellow teammates and I spot Nathan Blackburn. Then i spot Patrick Petrosky pulling up in his green minivan with our 7 foot long beast of a boat in the back of his van. We immediately go to the back and open up the trunk as me, Patrick and Branden release the monster and set it on the tarp that Nathan just laid out. As we look around and scope out the competition, we see boats that look like possible contenders but we have confidence in our boat. Most of the other teams went with the fancy route and decided that looks will win them this race. With our boat, we focused on stability and construction.

We see Mrs. Gatz as she is walking around checking for boats that do not follow the rules. She reaches our boat as we greet her with a unanimous "HAPPY BIRTHDAY", because of course, it’s her birthday today. As she realizes that our boat is decked out with birthday decorations just for her, a huge smile comes across her face and that is when we realized we are one step closer to sucking up and getting that A! After that, we put our party hats on and we put on beads and pull out some noise makers. We are in heat one so we hurriedly take our boat to the start line as we check for last minute problems.

Then, at a moment’s notice, we hear Mrs. Gatz voice over a megaphone that projects over the pond and says "ON YOUR MARKS, GET SET, GO!" As we hear this we rush to the water and Branden and Nathan get in and Patrick and I stand and push the boat into the foot and a half deep of a pond. They take off with good start and are neck and neck with the Swamp People team. Me and Patrick sprint to the finish line and start our cheering and using our noise makers.

We unfortunately got caught up in the mud as Swamp People beat us by 7 seconds and we take 2nd in the first heat. The other 3 heats go by and we hold our 2nd place time with some close races. This is good for automatic 45/50 points so we take this with honor. Our team, Patrick, Branden, Nathan and Jando, otherwise known as team PBnJ now truly believe in the statement, "first the worst, second the best!"