Swimming

 It is 8:00 p.m. I am worn out and ready for bed.  And not because I cleaned house or spent too much time with the kids.  Its because I went swimming--lap swimming you could say.  It is tiring.  This is the first time I have gone swimming for two days in a row.  And I played a 3-game volleyball match last night.  I think that may be way over my exercise limit for 24 hours.

One of my best friends in high school was a swimmer.  She was on the high school swim team.  We met because she was also on the volleyball team (of course).  I never thought much about swimming except it was a sport and she did it.  And I thought she was amazing for getting up so early in the mornings for swim practice before school.  I went to the state meet with her parents and watched her once. She swam with the Masters program in college and then her 2nd or 3rd year joined the university team.

I could swim well enough to pass the swim test at the pool in order to go off the diving board.  I loved to play in the water but didn't swim really, just played around.

Then in college I took a swimming class.  Wow.  I learned that swimming is hard.  I mean hard work.  It wears you out.  But I loved the class.  I learned how to swim the right way, with my face in the water, dive in without holding my nose, and do a few other strokes.  It was from that class that I gained appreciation for my friend's sport.  It is not for wimps.

Now over 20 years later (but who is counting really) I recently began going to the pool with my cousin for lap swimming.  We go with the seniors--as in senior citizens.  (The water is warmer at that pool than the more popular big pool in town and they haven't said we can't come).  I am so so amazed by these old women that swim lap after lap either freestyle, or backstroke or however.  And I don't mean disrespect by calling them old women because they are old!  And I am totally respecting them.  I can only freestyle like about 4 or 5 lengths of the pool (not in succession of course!) the duration we are there. I do some side stroke, or some sort of back float or whatever but mostly my cousin and I just amble up and down the pool so we are exercising but technically not "swimming."

It is good exercise and fun to "mingle" with the older ladies in the locker room and see their friendship and hear their conversations.  And to admire these aged bodies, some needing walkers, that are still wanting to get out and move.