Saturday January 20th, 2018, I had my last home swim meet ever. I will be honest as I was going through the meet it just felt like another meet, the only special thing that happened was a short senior recognition at the beginning of the meet. I only swam three races, the 400 medley relay on which I swam the butterfly leg, the 100 freestyle, and the 400 freestyle relay. My first 2 events went by like normal I didn't feel anything different about them. However, when I got up on the block for my last swim I realized that it was the last time I would be diving in to my home pool to race. It was a bit surreal, I wasn't sad or very emotional about it, however it was more of a realization that this sport that I had dedicated so much time and energy to throughout my college career was coming to a close.
After endless morning practices and two-a-days, all the time that I had spent in the water or in the weight room, and all the time spent preparing to race was going to finished in just a few short weeks.
I started swimming competitively my freshman year of high school. I came in as a fairly strong swimmer as up until that point in my life triathlons were my main sport. I was actually more of a runner throughout high school and up until my junior year if you had asked me what sport I was going to do in college it was probably going to be running. However, my junior year of high school at the beginning of cross country season in the fall I developed a stress fracture in my femur and I did not get it diagnosed until I could hardly walk. That put an end to that cross country season and I never truly got back to the running form that I was in before I got the stress fracture. I had a lot of fun my freshman year of swimming and even made the varsity team. My sophomore year I tied the last spot in the 100 yard butterfly to qualify for state however I was not able to compete because the person that I had tied with was a junior at the time so they took him instead. I still swam on the 200 medley relay at state that year. During the fall of my junior year at the time that I would have been in cross country I started going to the pool and pulling (swimming without kicking) in order to keep me in shape and to help stop me from going crazy because I couldn't do anything.
My junior year of swimming I had one of my best years ever in terms of improvement. I qualified for state in the 100 butterfly and swam on all three relays at state. My following track season when I could finally start to run was okay but I was not hitting the times that I had previously run. With my running career seeming to be falling off a bit and the building focus on deciding where I wanted to go to college I made the decision that I wanted to swim in college. If you would have asked anyone of my friends or family if I would be swimming in college they probably would have laughed because I had other sports that I had always been more focused on. But, because of my high school swimming career and the fun that I had doing it I fell in love with the sport and couldn't give it up.
Now that I am about to finishing up my competitive swimming career I am extremely thankful for all the things in life that lead me to get to wear I am today. Although I may no longer be competitively swimming after this year, swimming will always be a part of my life and hold a very special place in my heart. In fact, after I graduate I am doing an Ironman, so I am still going to have to keep on swimming.
Hi Duggan. I'm sorry to hear that because of the injury you had to give up running for a while. I can't imagine how hard that must have been for you. Luckily, it sounds like you aren't having too much of a hard time getting into competitive swimming. It's pretty amazing how well you've done so far. You've got a lot of great accomplishments. You should really be proud of yourself.
ReplyDeleteI can't relate to the feeling of your last home swim meet as I've never been on a swim team, but I can understand the surreal feeling you were describing. I had that same feeling during my high school graduation. I knew that was the last time I'd be at the high school and I'd be moving on from it, but I didn't have very many other feelings about the situation.
It seems like you were on a wild ride to get where you are now, but it seems like this is a well-suited route for you. I hope the Ironman will be a breezy and easy challenge for you.