When the thunder woke me during the night, I thought there was no way I could get a morning swim in. When I awoke and saw the clock blinking 4:23, I promptly called Time & Weather to learn it wasn't yet 6:00. Out of bed, check the weather, and to the pool.
I swam what I need to swim for the triathlon, and then some. Whenever I started picturing myself being slow and left behind, I concentrated on my arms slicing through the water, still strong. I thought about rolling my shoulders and about exhaling through my mouth (I'm not going to drink lake water again on Sunday!). I swam, I felt like an athlete, and I felt good.
When I was content with how much I swam, I was all set to head to the lane with the ladder and climb out. I can't remember how long it's been since I've climbed out of the pool at the side, but I do remember it being an awkward job. However, someone was not only using the lane with the ladder in it, but was resting by the ladder, so I waited. And waited. And waited. Finally I decided to see whether I could hoist myself out of the water.
Holy cow – it was effortless!
When did that happen? When did my arms and shoulders become that strong? Believe you me, there's a lot here to hoist. Grinning like a fool, absurdly proud of doing what my kids do on a regular basis (I'm even teaching my 3-year-old how to do it), I toweled off and headed for the locker room. After a while, the woman who'd been by the ladder came by and said how impressed she was at me just jumping out of the water like that. She said she couldn't do it, and that's why she takes a ladder lane.
How about that! A little accomplishment I was ready to poo-poo away turned out to be impressive to someone other than me.
And as I headed across the parking lot, with the sun coming up in the east and the wind turbine spinning lazily in the south, I thought once again of how much I love these morning swims.
~Karin
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