Ten thousand and just one lap
was left to complete.
Meanwhile our Oleg Beskudnikov
became presumptuous.

"I am sick, I have no medicare,"
he would say then.
So then our coach strictly said to me,
"You’ll run, kid!"

"Oh, I’ll never take the long distance.
I’ve no strength, you know
Maybe after completing just one lap,
I will perish."

But the coach said strictly,
"You have to, Fedya,
The main thing is to have
a will to win."

Will is nothing if one has no strength,
but I got carried away.
I jerked at ten thousand like at five hundred;
I got fried.

My breathing let me down, I warned the coach
about that.
I only ran about two laps and then fell.
What a pity!

And our coach, the former policeman and ex-runner
up champ,
He didn’t permit me to go to the stadium
for good.

Only last night we drank with him
from sadness,
And today he yells to me, "Change the skates
for sled!"

I feel sorry for my coach, he ain’t bad,
but hell with him!
Now I’m studying both boxing
and wrestling.

No longer do I have doubts in myself,
it’s true now.
All of a sudden everyone’s polite with me,
including the coach.