First race!

'The dreaded day arrives.' Michael thought to himself, as he started to get out of bed.

The race will be held at 10AM, and looking at the time, it was currently 6AM.

Michael made himself a solid breakfast consisting of some meats and lots of carbs and fats, as he wanted sufficient energy and nutrients for his body to last during the endurance race.

Michael had nothing to do for the next hour, so he decided to save every bit of energy and lay in his bed while doing something very interesting and exciting... Staring at a ceiling.

*RING RING*

Michael turned off the alarm that he had set for 8AM. It takes about an hour to get to the swim stadium, and Michael likes to warm-up a little less than an hour before the race starts.

After making sure everything was in order, Michael headed out with his backpack, and took a public transport buss.

Arriving at the swimming stadium, Michael started to feel nervous and excited at the same time. He finally had a real chance of achieving his life's dreams.

He undressed into his swimsuit and jumped into the water to start warming up.

He did 400m freestyle, 200m IM, 2x50m legs only, 4x25 drills, 4x50 freestyle, 4x50 build-up. (build-up is where you start slow, and build up speed, by the end you are sprinting as fast as possible)

Michael felt amazing after the warm-up, he felt his body was super strong and the warm-up was perfect.

He sat down on a chair nearby and rested his body.

'I need to plan my 400m.' Michael thought to himself.

After thinking for about 10 minutes, Michael finally decided on the best plan for himself. For him to guarantee himself a medal, he has to get about 4 minutes and 5 seconds or below.

Michael's plan was to swim the first 100m in 59 seconds, the second and third 100m he would swim in 1 minute and 2 seconds, and finally the the fourth 100m he would swim as fast as possible, but he would prefer to get about one minute exactly.

About 5 minutes later after finalizing his plan, Michael heard his heat being called out.

"Swimmers in heat 14, please go to the starting blocks. If you are not there in 5 minutes you will be counted as absent."

Swimmers are separated into heats, each heat is a group of 10 swimmers, It is organized in descending time. So the worst swimmers would be in heat 1, and the best swimmers in the last heat. Michael is in heat 14 out of 34, his heat is predicted to get a time of about 4 minutes and 25 seconds, but Michael is planning on destroying that time.

Arriving in-front of the starting blocks, Michael was assigned lane 1. He started to take off his clothes that he had worn to keep his body warm. He also did some light stretches and a few jumps to get his blood flowing.

"Get set!"

Hearing the judge shout, Michael stepped up on the block and got into position.

"On your mark!"

Michael tensed his muscles to prepare for the jump, he could feel the adrenaline start to rush through his body.

*BEEP*

As soon as the beep went off, all the swimmers including Michael jumped into the water, and the timer on the huge screen behind them started to count.

Doing a long and strong steam-line, Michael off the bat got a head start from everyone else beside him. But Michael paid no attention to the people beside him, they weren't even close to his goals.

Michael finished the first 100m, and felt good. He had practiced a lot so he knew exactly how fast to go.

The second 100m was also on track, but as soon as Michael started the third 100m, he started to panic.

'Why am I getting tired?! I'm out of breathe already.' Michael decided to ignore his lack of breathe and continue swimming, but his muscles started to get tired, his stroke started to get weaker and less precise.

'Sh*t, this isn't looking good.' Because he was tired, Michael couldn't exactly tell what time he had gotten in the third 100m, but he knew it wasn't good. He tried to go all out in the last 100 meters, but his body was refusing to budge.

While he sped up a bit in the last 50 meters, it wasn't enough to make up for the lost time.

He touched the wall and looked at the screen to see his time, it read 4 minutes, 9 seconds and 97 milliseconds.

'No no no no, what did I wrong?! How did I get tired so fast? While I beat my personal best by 18 seconds, it's useless. What use will a personal best bring if I'm dead?!'

'Calm down, breathe slowly, In through the nose, out through the mouth.' Michael was starting to panic and hyperventilate, so he forcefully calmed himself down.

'Getting sad about it wont help, I just need to focus on what's ahead of me. Currently, I need to focus on the 800m'

Somehow getting himself to calm down, Michael felt as if everything was sped up. Without noticing it, he had already finished showering and changing clothes. As he was leaving through the entrance,

"Michael! Good job bro, you did amazing out there. You improved by like what? 20 seconds! that is a huge improvement."

"F*ck off, just leave me alone for now." Michael, not being in a steady state of mind, lashed out at his friend Kai even though he was only congratulating him.

Kai frowned in response to the sudden hostility. "What's wrong man? I'm just trying to congratulate you."

"You can do it at a later date." Michael responded coldly and quickly left the stadium to go home.