At my daughter’s first crew meet, I stood at the starting line. Well, as close as I could get. Here is the line-up for her first heat:
My daughter is in the… er… far middle boat of four.
If you can see all four boats, you win a (non-existent) prize! Certainly, I had time to look for them. The announcer took longer to line up all the boats correctly (“UC San Diego, put your left oars in the water one half pull, again, now a quarter turn… good, now Cal State Fresno, straighten your right oars and…”) than the race took. And it wasn’t a quick race. At last they were off!
(cont.)
Required Writing 
I know what you mean! First cross-country running with my son; then crew with my daughter . . . lots of standing around in the rain wondering what’s going to happen, and ultimately missing it. But what spirit! What excitement! A challenge for crew and onlookers alike. Thanks for sharing your story. I love how you used the prompt and the page-turning to good effect.
LikeLike
Thanks and I’m glad to hear I’m not the only one!
LikeLike