Sunday Swimmin'

I had mentioned a month or so ago that I was starting to swim again. Well, my first swim in 5 years was Sunday where I swam the swim portion of a team triathlon. I woke up bright and early Sunday morning to make the drive up to Lima to meet Randy and his wife Deniese, my teammates for the triathlon. Randy is a Product Line Manager I used to work with at Federal Mogul with a sweet spirit and a love for biking. We had been talking many months ago and I had mentioned that I used to swim competitively and that the triathlon sounded like fun. They needed a swimmer, and I, well I just wanted to swim. So we teamed up. And it turns out we are a pretty darn good team. We ended up taking 1st place in the coed team division of the triathlon and couldn't have been more excited! I had a ton of fun swimming for Randy and Deniese and hope I get to do it again next year.

Some Pictures:
Ben and I after the race....it was nice to have someone cheering for me AND taking pictures!

Me, Randy, and Deniese with our 1st place trophies!

I'm out there somewhere :-)

As you can tell, the water was FREEZING. And so was the air!

It felt good to be swimming again. After so many years of swimming I didn't realize that quitting would make me feel like something was missing in my life. But now, after training and competing again, I've realized that swimming has a place in my life that nothing else will ever fill. It's something made up of countless hours in the pool, self competition and motivation, and a measure of hard work that I may never know again. It is something made sweeter by happy memories, lifelong friendships, and many heartfelt stories of beating out the rival team or bettering myself along the way. It's the way chlorine becomes a sort of perfume you can never get rid of. Or the thrill of a close race. Or the solitude of swimming lap after lap lost in your own thoughts or humming your favorite song. It's the way you compete against yourself yet rely on your team. Or cheering on your closest friends. Swimming is all about the moments-the small, short, seemingly insignificant moments-that we swimmers know have the power change everything.

It felt good to be swimming again. And winning, well, winning didn't feel so bad either :-)