Winning

I won a race today.
Every year, CHOICE holds a boat race. This year, as an eighth grader, I got to build a boat and race against the other classes with the eight graders in my class.
Our boat was a piece of plywood on top of six empty water jugs. Then we put some PVC piping on the front and back, so that we could hold on and swim. We used a lot of duct tape and caulk to keep it together.
Unfortunately, the boat broke almost immediately. After most of the people had rotated on and off, one of the front PVC pipes fell off. As I was getting on, the back PVC also came loose. The rules stated that the entire boat had to come back to the beach, so I held the PVC pipes on the boat.
By this time, we were halfway to the halfway point and in fifth place. We swam over to and around the marker, telling ourselves that second place was within our grasp. We steadily made our way to fourth, then third.
Then a little something happened.
Alex, the relatively small (still bigger than me) boy who never stops talking about video games, started kicking furiously. we sped forward and came to the beach, in the full glory of second place.
First place went to Mr. Brown's class, who somehow found a way to make a wooden boat. They were finished ages before anyone else. Still, it was fun.
And therefore I win.