("I Think She's Got It!")

Does "the rain in Spain stay mainly on the plain?" Don't know, haven't been there. And there hasn't been much precipitation this spring. But I can tell you that today I feel like Eliza Doolittle. Tonight, I finally "got it"—open water swimming, that is. With some help from team-mates at last week's swim practice, I figured out why swimming seemed so difficult. (1) I was swimming toooooo (you will never in a million years guess this) fast. Yes, so fast that I was running out of energy. Why, someone asked, are you swimming at such a breakneck speed? My honest answer: Because I want to get it over with! The secret, I discovered, is to swim slooooow ... at a steady pace ... like a sea turtle. (2) Adjust the wetsuit so that it is roomy in the places you need it (for me, that's a lot of places). Seriously, it is hard to swim comfortably when you feel constricted in the chest and arms. Don't wear a too-tight garment (such as a Spandex sports top) underneath, either. (3) Relax, have fun, and don't worry. "Just keep swimming," calls Coach from the shore. He is so right. If you keep moving, you make progress. Otherwise, you're just treading water and getting nowhere.

Kind of like life, eh?

Anyway, all of this info kind of "clicked" tonight. Whereas last Thursday, I made it only 1/3 the distance required of us, tonight I made 3/4 of it ... and if it had not begun to get dark, I was convinced I would have been able to complete the entire course. Tonight, I could have been a contender!

But that's another movie.