Work, Work, and More Work

          “Do I have to go today?” I ask my mom. “Yes, now hurry up or you will be late,” she said. “Alright, alright, I am coming,” I find myself grumble. Sighing, I unenthusiastically shuffle my feet toward the car.  It was my first day transitioning to age group level swimming at the North Coast Aquatics Swim Team and I had heard horror stories on how hard they work you and how long some of my other friends had taken to fully transition to this higher-level group.  As we started driving I guess I must have looked a bit nervous because because mom asked, “What’s the matter? You look a little nervous.” “Nothing, it’s just, you know, my first day…” I replied hoping she wouldn’t dig the matter deeper. Thankfully she just shrugged and said “Oh, you’ll be fine, I mean how much different could it be?”  She made it sound easy and somehow I felt compelled to give her the gory details and started with a sarcastic tone  “Not much! Just an outdoor pool so it will be colder by 10 or 20 degrees, and the pool length is twenty-five meters instead of fifteen yards and…” She cut me short and said  “Oh stop that! You’ll be fine I promise.”  I knew she was in no mood for my sarcasm and nothing good would come out of this conversation so I settled back saying “We’ll see”.  We sat in silence for the rest of the car ride.

I arrived at the pool well ahead of time with sufficient time to spare. I sat in seclusion on the bench in the corner, fumbling with my cap and goggles absent-mindedly. Instead of just getting ready for the task at hand, I sat there thinking about what torture was in store for me.  I looked around me to find anything that would cheer me up on that sunny Thursday afternoon, when the clock struck 4:00 PM. Quickly pulling on my cap and goggles, I ran to get ready to jump into the pool. “I’m hopeless" I thought, "even the coach’s jokes won’t lighten my spirits.” As that thought ran through my mind I jumped in the pool.

         The cold hit me like a baseball bat. My instant reaction was shock! “Do they even heat the water?”  I wondered really outraged.  I had no time to ponder that thought because a barrage of bubbles suddenly struck me. When I was looking up to see what it was, a pair of feet had missed my head by inches as the next person dove into the water. Still submerged under water, I quickly pushed off the bottom of the pool in hot pursuit of the person in front of me. After the first couple lengths I said to myself, “It is not as bad as I thought it would be.” Boy, was I wrong.

After the first five or ten minutes or so, the pain started to creep up like moss creeping up the side of a house, slow but steady. My body was not doing so well, and the cold water didn’t really help. After another ten, hard, long minutes, my body was done.  I couldn’t feel my legs and the water seemed heavier and it was like swimming in caramel. I pondered talking a “bathroom break” and coming back rested. I decided to man up, and keep swimming. The worst part for me was that the clock seemed to be moving in slow motion as my body started to stop cooperating.  About halfway through our main set, I was so done and dying to get out, but to my dismay we still had twenty-five minutes left.

Finally when I was at the brink of fainting, the clock struck 5:00PM and I crawled out of the pool. It took every ounce of strength in my body to support my weight on my Jell-O legs.  I was so physically and mentally exhausted that I don’t recall anything other than focusing on trying not to collapse with exhaustion.   My coach yelled out my name and was saying something but it just was lost in the air.  I nodded my head, gave him a brave smile and rushed to meet my mom who was eagerly waiting outside. 

What seems like the most challenging day worked out great in the end.  Turns out my coach was impressed with how well I handled myself and had decided to transition me into age group team full time. I was shell-shocked when I heard the news!  Most of my friends had taken over 6 months to transition and my first day was nothing I can look back on with pride.  Not that I did not favor his decision, but to date I still don’t get the basis for his decision to move me up full time.  I mean, I did as bad as all the other transition kids if not worse and they didn’t get a free pass. Could he have mistaken me for another swimmer?

What ever it was my first day at age group taught me a few good lessons. Number one, don’t take really long bathroom breaks even if you really do have to go because the coach or teacher will think that you aren’t strong enough mentally and physically to even finish one practice or class. Second, get to places early, this shows that you care enough. Finally, don’t think about the outcome, just do your best. As Lance Armstrong said, "Pain is temporary but giving lasts forever!"