Never a Swammer

Once a swimmer, always a swimmer.

From the time I was born, something was very apparent to my parents- I LOVED the water.  One time when I was a baby, I had an ear infection while we were traveling on a plane, so my mom brought me to the bathroom to play with the water in the sink.  It was the only thing that would make me stop crying!  

My love affair with water continued as I took learn to swim lessons at a young age (although a bit apprehensive about entering the water when I would ask the instructor if the water was COLD…and I knew it would be COLD!). When I was five, my dad told someone that I was going to be a swimmer-because my personality was very "swimmer-like" (it takes a certain personality to stare at a black line for hours every day haha!).  And he was right! My parents never mentioned competitive swimming, but at the age of nine, I would ask to join the summer swim team. 

During summer swim team, I spent all day at the pool.  Mom would drop me off for morning summer swim team practice.  I was the only one to wear a watch to practice and everyone in my lane would ask me what time it was…even at a young age we were counting down the minutes haha!  When practice ended, my friends and I would have the rest of the day to stay at the pool and play together.  And believe me, we came up with some pretty craaazzzy  games-including “swim cap bowling”  in which we used shampoo bottles as pins and filled swim caps with water as the ball.  Sometimes we’d have a little too much fun and parents would send in lifeguards to find us.

In junior high I began swimming on a local club team.  It was a lot more intense than summer swimming, and I struggled to get through practice.  I went to high school swimming not even knowing what an “interval” was-because in club I never made them.  I just kept swimming and getting lapped and would stop when everyone stopped.  I remember 2 practices in these 2 years that I did not get lapped, and I was THRILLED! Obviously I was SHOOTING FOR THE STARS haha!

Oh, high school swimming.  You were my “golden years.”  By this time I had a solid group of swimmer friends and started to understand what the sport and being a part of a team was all about.  It’s crazy how close and how much fun a group of 85 girls could be!  These girls were the only ones who understood what we were all going through and how hard it was.  Yes, being in a lane with 13 people definitely didn’t help my stroke lengthen out, but it made me appreciate lanes with 3-4 people in college.  I did 3 events every meet-50 FR in the medley, 50 FR in the individual, and 50 FR in the FR relay.  Yes, the 50 FR was my clearly my event!

The college years of swimming are a bit tough to write about to be honest-they did not go the “way I thought they were supposed to.”  The wounds are still fresh-even 2 years later.  Being a girl who swam three 50 FRs in high school to swimming the 1650 was a HARD transition my first year.  But what I learned from being on a team with 85 people, IT IS NOT ABOUT YOU…IT’S ABOUT THE TEAM, and that’s where the team needed me to be.  I did well my first year, but after that my body struggled like never before (which is a WHOLE other story that would need a post of its own).  I would lie awake at night feeling my muscles “eating” themselves-the pain was so deep.  But even though my college swimming years were not “successful” in terms of performance, God used this to completely break me and my identity and forced me to find my identity in something so much bigger than MYSELF and MY abilities: JESUS.  For this reason I thank him for the failure, and I thank him for the pain.  It does NOT define me. My athletic accomplishments do not enhance or weaken my confidence if my hope is found in the ONE that has already overcome. 

When I swam my last event in college, I cried tears of relief to know the pain was finally over.  No part of me wanted to return to the sport that I had loved but had come to betray me in its final years.  I was physically done and emotionally spent.  It was time to throw in the towel…or so I thought. 

Sure I took a break.  I planned to continue the sport of triathlon after college-eh maybe a little marathon thrown in there (jury’s still out if that one is going to continue haha!).  Swimming is obviously a part of triathlon, so I found myself in the pool a few times a week (about 6,000 yds a week-basically 1 day of what practice used to be).  I swam with a Master’s (USMS) team while tri training the past few years and a few weeks ago, I did something I didn’t think I would ever do again.  

I SIGNED up for a USMS swim meet!!!

My expectations were low-I mean, I swim 6,000 yds a WEEK (basically nothing for a former competitive swimmer), and I’m training pretty hard right now for triathlon (I mean, a 15 mile run 2 days before a meet probably isn’t your best move if you want your legs to show up during the 100 FR). 

But you know what? I don’t care if I’m not the swimmer I used to be.  I don’t care if I’m not “fast.”  That’s NOT why I became a swimmer and that’s NOT why I stuck it out my final year in college.  I swim because it’s what I LOVE to do.  I swim because I enjoy being on a team and building relationships with others.  I swim because when I race, I choose to use the body that God has gifted me with to the best of my abilities and live the life He gave me to the fullest. It is really a celebration of HIM.

So this past weekend, I swam in my first LCM meet on the master’s swim team!  Was I “fast?” NO!  (BUT they were all automatic PR’s since I’ve never swam long course meters before…AND club records because the record board is blank for my age group haha!)  I had fun and it was definitely a different experience compared to all the swim meets I have been to in the past.  For one thing, you CHOOSE your events…Which means you can CHOOSE which ones you “accidently” miss haha!  And, you know how awesome it is to have a 71 year old come up to you after your race and tell you good job?!  Pretty cool!  I’m not the most competitive person you’ll ever meet, but it was fun to just dive off the block with zero pressure to JUST RACE.  It brings me back to the time when I just loved being in the water. Whether or not I swim more meets in the future, something about staring at that black line at the bottom will always be therapeutic.  If I get in the water every day or rarely, it will always feel like I'm "home." 

And that's why I will ALWAYS be a swimmer.  

  And now I leave you with some advice. If swimming is what you love, then it's really very simple: