After months of swimming indoors and sharing one lane with 10 other swimmers, I find it glorious to swim in the open air on this typically tropical Singapore evening, surrounded by palm trees and towering residential blocks. The 16 club swimmers share 4 lanes in the spacious 50-meter pool.
When I arrive the coach, David, asks me about my swim level. Since I really have no idea about my pace, I mutter something about being OK in longer-distance freestyle, but lacking speed, and completely unable to do other strokes. So David assigns me to lane two, which is one of the slower lanes, and he has us do numerous sets of 200 freestyle. When it is my turn to lead the 200s, I swim them in around 3:45 and find myself over 30 seconds ahead of even the group in the faster lane 3 (though I am quite a distance behind the 3 guys in the faster lane 4 who are doing a different workout).
Then David informs us that tonight is a relay night and I find myself the anchorman for one of the 4 teams. This is the first race I have done in a swimming pool in my life, unless you count some informal childhood competitions dog-paddling against friends across a small neighborhood pool. I am the slowest of the 4 anchormen, and our team is crushed in the 4 x100. But then amazingly I manage to hold onto the lead and we win the 4 x 50. And then, even more amazingly I find myself doing the butterfly leg in the medley relay.
Now, I really cannot do the butterfly stroke, but I frequently do a "butterfly drill" for 20-30 meters as part of my training. The other three members of the team were adamant that they could not even do a single stroke of the butterfly, so being the team player I am I agreed to give it a shot. When the gun went off I gamely powered halfway down the length of the pool, windmilling my arms underneath me, and at this point, yet another amazing thing - I am actually ahead of the other 3 swimmers. Unfortunately I have not mastered my "butterfly" technique well enough to thrust my head fully up out of the water and get much air (I suppose this is one of the reasons I am ahead at halfway). Naturally I find myself gasping, sputtering, and reflexively holding onto the side of pool to get air. For the remaining 20 meters I am forced to revert to doing a hybrid dog-paddle, butterfly like flail. Somehow I make it to the hand-off, and my teammates seem pleased with my effort (or just happy that they did not have to do the butterfly). This being an informal affair we are not disqualified for the numerous infractions I would have incurred. My first pool competition of my life is great fun, though I probably should remain focused on open water competition.
Then David informs us that tonight is a relay night and I find myself the anchorman for one of the 4 teams. This is the first race I have done in a swimming pool in my life, unless you count some informal childhood competitions dog-paddling against friends across a small neighborhood pool. I am the slowest of the 4 anchormen, and our team is crushed in the 4 x100. But then amazingly I manage to hold onto the lead and we win the 4 x 50. And then, even more amazingly I find myself doing the butterfly leg in the medley relay.
Now, I really cannot do the butterfly stroke, but I frequently do a "butterfly drill" for 20-30 meters as part of my training. The other three members of the team were adamant that they could not even do a single stroke of the butterfly, so being the team player I am I agreed to give it a shot. When the gun went off I gamely powered halfway down the length of the pool, windmilling my arms underneath me, and at this point, yet another amazing thing - I am actually ahead of the other 3 swimmers. Unfortunately I have not mastered my "butterfly" technique well enough to thrust my head fully up out of the water and get much air (I suppose this is one of the reasons I am ahead at halfway). Naturally I find myself gasping, sputtering, and reflexively holding onto the side of pool to get air. For the remaining 20 meters I am forced to revert to doing a hybrid dog-paddle, butterfly like flail. Somehow I make it to the hand-off, and my teammates seem pleased with my effort (or just happy that they did not have to do the butterfly). This being an informal affair we are not disqualified for the numerous infractions I would have incurred. My first pool competition of my life is great fun, though I probably should remain focused on open water competition.
1 comment:
This is hilarious Jay. I should have watched your butterfly leg! Glad you enjoyed Yellowfish. I will tell David he should put you in lane 4 next time. He already knows it by now though. Mika K
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