Thursday's swim was one of the strangest experiences of my life, in a good way! The strangeness began even before I left work. I had had a very quiet day and more than ready to go home around 4.30. But the swimming pool doesn't open until 5.15 and something told me that I just had to go swimming that day. As I walked from my office to the pool, I became aware of a feeling in my belly. It was 5 o'clock in the evening, I was tired, I was hungry and I expected to feel that I wanted to go home. But instead, when I analysed the feeling I realised I was....excited. Now let's be clear, swimming does not often induce excitement in me, so this was very odd indeed.
I changed into my costume and I'd remembered both my locker money and my goggles this time. I also had a brand new, shiny silver, silicon swimming hat which I managed to get onto my head in a slightly comedy manner. I was set.
From the moment I got into the pool, I realised that this was something different to my previous swimming. For a start, wearing goggles and being able to see makes an incredible difference. I swam 4 lengths of breaststroke to warm up and then it was time to try out my front crawl again. I'd been checking out some advice and videos that I'd found looking around the internet and had a bit more of an idea of what I was trying to do. I wasn't expecting much, after my last session, but hoped to do a little better.
I pushed off for my first length and tried to remember all the things I'd read and watched, while remembering to breathe at the same time. Like the goggles, the hat made a big difference, as I was able to turn my head to breathe without hair flopping all over my face. At the end of the length I found I wasn't exhausted or dizzy and I was able to set off straight away for my next length. Already progress. And then, a miracle occurred.
Like learning to ride a bike, I suddenly "Got it". I was suddenly swimming front crawl, I was moving through the water, concentrating on my technique, breathing steadily, and I GOT IT. Something clicked and I was loving it! It felt AMAZING! And it got better and better!
In the end I swam a full 900 m of front crawl, plus the 150 m breaststroke to warm up and cool down. This is more crawl than I've swum in my life - and I don't mean in one go, I mean in total. And it felt fantastic. I don't know how I looked, but I certainly didn't feel self conscious, or like the lifeguard might come and offer to rescue me (which was how I felt on Tuesday). For the first time since I was a kid, I understood why people actually like swimming.
Is it a coincidence that this apparent miracle happened the day after I finally committed heart and soul to the triathlon? I don't really believe in coincidences. This is the power of intention, the power of following your heart and making things happen. Later in the evening, I logged into the electronic sign up page, paid my money and pressed "Submit". I officially entered the triathlon. It's time!
