Capítulo 57: Lap 1
"GO!"
The referee's screaming officially starts the national swimming middle school tournament's first event, the 100 meter freestyle.
The I and the other 9 competitors jump into the water before the referee can finish his go, which was just on the cusp of the rules. It was barely legal.
Luckily, I was a bit earlier than my peers and was able to hit the water faster, meaning that I could go further while they were just getting their momentum in the water up.
Since this is a semi-professional competition, nobody's goggles slip off or swimming caps fall off. We are way past that noob behavior.
Under the water, I start dolphin kicking as hard as possible while trying to keep my legs together to use a giant flipper. It's a bit stupid, but trust me, it looks cool.
It's kind of like dancing. When you do it, you might feel embarrassed or nervous that people are making fun of you, but they are actually praising you.
Well, unless you are really bad at it. In that case, practice more.
The permitted amount of dolphin kicks in this competition is 5.
It may not seem like much, but a really good swimmer can get very far with just 5 powerful dolphin kicks underwater with good momentum.
I'm a perfect example of a swimmer who can get the most out of those 5 dolphin kicks underwater. I squeeze my thighs together like I'm a dominatrix doing my job.
While squeezing my thighs, I stretch my feet out to cover as much surface area as possible while kicking and now, it's paid off.
When I surfaced from underwater, I wasn't miles ahead of the field, but it was fair to say that I was comfortable with my lead.
The second closest person was Seung Jae-ho I believe and he was right by my stomach at most. He was fairly close and so I was able to determine who he was.
Obviously, I wasn't focusing on how close they were. All I needed to do was preform in this swim today and I'll be golden.
I started pulling and kicking like my life depended on it and actually, I believed that. If I didn't win this, I'd be losing out on a potential boatload of coins and a capacity breaker.
Same thing with the 200 meter freestyle tomorrow. If I don't win this, then my chances at improving are extremely halted.
This is the downside of the system that I noticed. When massive quests are presented to me, yes, it gives coins and maybe some charm, kicking power, etc.
However, it has a hidden reward. That hidden reward was breaking past my previous limits. To not complete this quest is the same as not breaking past my limits.
Again, I'm by no means the perfect swimmer built for swimming. It's not possible for someone with longer legs like me to have a perfect swimming body.
It's good, but not the best. This is the purpose of the system.
I start remembering the quest that Feelie gave me and honestly, it's such a great motivation.
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Win gold in the 100 meter freestyle at the U-16 nationals! ┃ Hardcore ┃
Reward: ₲10,000 ┃ Kicking Power x7.5% ┃ Charm x10% ┃ Social Skills x5%
Win gold in the 200 meter freestyle at the U-16 nationals! ┃ Hardcore ┃
Reward: ₲10,000 ┃ Kicking Power x7.5% ┃ Charm x10% ┃ Social Skills x5%
Win gold in the 400 meter freestyle at the U-16 nationals! ┃ Hardcore ┃
FAILED!
Win gold in the 400 meter medley at the U-16 nationals ┃ Hardcore ┃
FAILED!
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I have no idea how much a single one of these quests improves my status capacity, but any improvement is something I greatly appreciate.
With ₲10,000 on the line and the chance of improving further, I start kicking even faster and faster until I'm basically a boat engine.
It's so weird because from even under the water, I can see the other competitors falling behind me until the only way I could have seen them was turn my head fully to look back.
The weird part wasn't that. It was that I wasn't feeling the pain or the stress of kicking as fast as I was. I realize that this is probably due to the adrenaline and pseudo-shock from the sudden burst of energy and power.
My thighs start tensing, my calves are flexing and getting as hard as possible while having my feet flat to the water so I could kick as much as possible.
My back was stretching my arms out as far as possible and finally, after what seemed like only a couple of seconds, I reached the wall.
It was unexpected so I hes instantes for a bit before flipping and pushing off with my legs. Because of that hesitation, another swimmer caught up to me.
I had no time to see or guess who it was béquese it was simply not important. All that person was to me right now was someone trying to stop my growth.
Even if we had a good relationship outside of this stadium, that went out the window once we went into this tournament.
Friends are for losers, second place is the first loser, competition is meant for competitive people and yadda yadda.
The same old things that your old P.E teacher would tell you when you were playing your middle school volleyball or basketball game.
So, I started the little mini-competition to catch up to that swimmer in front. With some hard kicking, I started slowly but surely catching them.
However, the flip really messed me up since it slightly wore off my adrenaline and I was starting to feel the effects of my little push back then.
My hip was killing me and it wasn't because of my previous injury. It just does that sometimes when you are over exerting yourself.
It was also due to my long legs. Since my legs were a bit longer than my torso, my torso had a harder time fixing my hips whenever I kicked.
This was the unfortunate side of having very attractive, model-like legs as a swimmer: your torso will exert more force and energy just correcting your posture when swimming.
You may not feel it when walking, but in a pool where water is surrounding you, it's different. Your body needs more work to correct itself so you don't break some bone or whatever.
After pushing and pushing, I finally caught up to the unknown swimmer by the time we finished the first of the two laps.
When I pushed off, this time I didn't hesitant to overtake this man. And by overtake, I meant completely pull away.
I never truly realized how useful these long legs. When I pushed off, I was basically a human spring and I pushed a couple meters off.
Now, it was time for the daunting second laps. With my hip hurting and some swimmers pushing and giving it their all, it should be very difficult.
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(A.N) yo! Another chapter for you beautiful and handsome readers! I hope you enjoyed this chapter today and that you had an amazing day and that tomorrow will be even better!
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