Swimming and the Attitude

So you probably heard that micheal phelps got "sidelined" by USA swimming for drinking and driving... maybe not but what you might not have heard of was how he made his come back. To sum it all up he essentially had a eye opening experience at a alcohol rehabilitation centre. The first time anyone saw him since the day he got arrested was at a big meet that happened not to long ago. He showed up in a full beard (kind of protesting that he didn't need to train for this meet... he won by the way). He was really an amazing person and definitely showed he could be a great guy.

Photo Courtesy of wtaq.com

This is a story that most swimmers could go though. We are not the nicest breed (might be the chlorine, I don't know) but we have a lot of heart. We have the heart to not just stop when we've won but to keep going because we know we haven't really won yet. Nobody has, and nobody ever win because life is to short to win everything. If someone not helps us get to a place of peace ( not just telling us how but showing us) we can be really nice people. We can do that for one another in our swimming community because almost all of us have the same sarcastic personality. We know one another, not personally, but just by being and competing at a swim meet really shows who you are. "Show you hot you drive and I will show you who you are." Thats a great quote from my favorite movie, Fast 5. It not only shows that people can know each other from being together but by being around one another.

My Inaugural Meet of the season

My day usually starts out with a long shower and a protein smoothie, and then the real work gets done. I get mentally ready for another extremely long 6:30 am swim meet. Our warmup is about 30 minutes long but for me, at that time of the morning, I am still pretty much asleep. My first race in the 200 Freestyle, and it will be the hardest one of the day. There are over 400 swimmers at the pool and everyone is hyped and ready to go with zero races behind them and needing to win. My luck doesn't seem to be with me because I get stuck in the lane that the sun just happens to be shinning and I'm not wearing my tinted goggles. My race didn't go very well as you might imagine. Thankfully my first race is behind me and the fun really begins, there are so many people at this meet I have hours between my races and my friends are stuck with me the entire time.

The last two races of my day go pretty well. Not exactly what I would have asked for but its early in the season and I am still getting there.  We have about a 4-5 hour break so that every one can go home and sleep and then bright and early at 5:00 in the morning we get up again and do the same thing, just different races. This is probably my absolute favorite thing to do. This is what trains us so that we can reach the achievements that we dream about. Sure the sleep deprivation is hard, but I sure have fun with my friends in and out of the water.