I stepped up on the starting blocks, a young girl ready to take the plunge against other girls my age. Be it free style, breaststroke, or butterfly, I was always nervous. I suppose we all were. Many times a body or two would land in the water before the gun actually went off. A false start. We all would regroup and wait again for the timing to be right. “Timers and judges ready, swimmers take your marks…”
I had my own false start this week. It was a plunge of sorts, but not into the pool. My false start was not in swimming, but rather in the sport of running. I found myself having to regroup today when the ‘mill just didn’t feel right. Cindy calls it a “niggle” – whatever it was the “tug” or “pull” or “owie” in my foot just didn’t feel right.
I did some time on the recumbent bike, but was unhappy for the entire time. Later tonight I found my way to the pool at the not-so-close to home YMCA. The gun went off in my head. It was time to swim. So I did. The first many laps of swimming felt tiring. I could tell that it had been a long time since I did any serious time in the pool.
I shared the lane with two other swimmers, but the match up wasn’t quite right. After a bit, one of the swimmers dropped off, leaving just two of us struggling to get the timing right. The other swimmer let me pass him at the wall just as the first guy was stopping. A couple of laps later and he was gone too. I found my groove and settled into it.
It was feeling pretty good. Forty laps done, and thirty-two to go. Suddenly I was sharing my lane with four kids. *sigh* It was time for the swim team to practice. My swim was re-routed to the indoor pool where I finished off the mile that I set out to do.
I must say that even though my running had a false start, I finally felt like I actually had a workout worth mentioning – ffor the first time in months.