Armin shrugs, clearly unbothered. "It's just a race."

Honestly, if he had known that this meant so much to Jean, he would actually have tried harder. He probably would still have stopped for that poor, dumb pokemon, but he would've raced in earnest the rest of the way. But alas, he had not picked up on said subtext, so he had gone into the race caring very little about actually winning. Or even trying his very hardest.

"They can't always get their heads out. Especially when they are panicking. Remember when Connie got his head stuck during training that one time?"