I'm a Swimming Fool!

It feels wonderful to be back swimming laps the last few weeks. I’ve been doing pool exercises for months, with a few laps each day, but now I’m full out swimming laps. It’s wonderful. I‘m a swimming fool. I play a little game to help motivate me. I choose a “victim”, a fellow lap swimmer, and race them. They have no idea we’re racing. It’s my little secret. The other day I checked out the competition and chose a guy a couple of lanes over. He was 25ish, muscular, wearing a red speedo, had a shaved head. You know the type. Lots of muscles; swimming laps is one of the things he does in his cross training. The race was on. My goal: to get down and back before he got down and back and down and back. Mark, get set, GO! Lap after stinkin lap, I lost. I just couldn’t do it. I left the pool feeling quite discouraged. I decided I had two choices: 1) Shave my head and get a red speedo, or 2) choose a girl next time. You’ll be happy to hear, I went with the latter. Friday, I got in the pool at the exact same time as a girl: 27-30ish. Now I’ve been in with lots of amazing swimmer girls. You know the type: they wear swim caps, goggles, turn their heads to breathe as they do a muscular American Crawl, do an amazing flip when the reach the edges. That wasn’t this girl. She was, well, she looked a little like me. She had no idea how to flip at the wall (just like me) and she did the breast stroke- not the “free-style”. Ah! A true competition. The race was on. Lap for lap we swam. Sometimes she was ahead, sometimes I was. On and on we swam. You’re goin down, girl! I got behind when I succumbed to the temptation to swim a lap on my back- big mistake. Now I had a lot of making up to do. I swam and pushed. “Think like a water skipper” – just skim the water. “Use you legs, Kay! Kick!” “Push hard off the wall.” I pushed, I swam. At the exactly 30 minute mark, she stopped to take a drink from her water bottle- Sissy!- This was my chance. I pushed off the wall and swam with all my might. She sensed danger and pushed off to catch me. Again, at 45 minutes, she stopped to drink. Again, I gained a lead, but she closed it within a few short laps. At about 55 minutes, I was exhausted and needing to go to the bathroom . I didn’t care. I would swim til midnight if I had to; I was not going to give in first. I started to imagine the management coming at 12 midnight, asking us to please leave as they were closing. She pushed and I pushed. At exactly the 60 minute mark, she gained on me and surpassed me- barely. She touched the wall. I turned and pushed and kicked, only to realize she had stopped. The race was over. . . .and I had won!!!! Victory!!!!! I swam my last two laps while she got out of the pool, dried off and watched me finish. She had no idea she had just had her fanny kicked . . .or did she? How can you swim side by side with someone for a solid hour, neck and neck the whole way and not know you were racing???? I think she knew. As she left, I was so tempted to invite her, “Same time, same lanes tomorrow,” but I didn’t have the courage. I paid the price. My leg muscles ached, my back hurt, my hip hurt. But, oh was it worth it. Victory is sweet! I’m a swimming fool. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . and all of these years you’ve assumed Kristen got her competitive nature in sports only from her father! Ha!