I swam competitively with the Dearborn Barracudas in the summers from when I was 5 or 6 to when I was 13. My young family were swimmers. We swam at Fordson high school.
The starting blocks have changed in the past almost 25 years since I swam but I found a picture today to illustrate my point
That picture shows how far from the edge of the pool the water level is. All I know is that by the end of practice, at about noon, my brothers and I were completely waterlogged! I have written before about my coaches Mr. Bill and Mr. Sykes. My brothers and I talked about this not too long ago and we figured out that we swam close to or just above 1000 laps in that pool a day.
Today, I had a memory that I hadn’t thought about in years. We ended every practice with sprints. I remember that there was an analog stopwatch on the wall and Mr. Bill would put his whistle into his mouth and tell us that we were to do, “25s on the :30.”
The pool was 25 yards in length. We were to swim 25 yards or the length of the pool in 30 seconds. Often times, he would add the caveat that at the end lof their lap, we were to, “Get out of the pool.” Getting out of the pool was not an easy thing to do! I am short, 5 feet tall and I was only about 10or 11 years old and doing this so I was pretty short back then.
I remembered Mr. Bill putting his whistle in the corner of his mouth and telling us to start on his whistle. I vaguely remember that we would do three sets of 20 with a one minute rest between sets. It was brutal!
What I thought about today was the fact that I used to be able to do that. It was difficult, very difficult at times, but I could do it. I thought about that and the fact that I cannot do it at all now and I began to cry. I am crying is a write this post. My Mom hugged me and let me have my cry-out for a little while.
After I was dressed and ready for the day and sitting in my wheelchair, I continued to cry. I immediately could tell that it was another, “One of Dem days!”
Well, it WAS a good idea today because it goes well with an entire sleeve of Thin Mints! And yes, I ate them all! DON’T JUDGE ME!!!