So I went swimming today.  And like I do to psych myself up to go in there, I looked to see how many people were in the pool before I went in the locker room.  I saw two black people in the pool, maybe three.  I wondered if I knew who they were.

When I got to the pool, I saw that the man was my friend Stephani’s husband, and, one lane over, I saw Stephani!  And she had just competed in her first triathlon.  Which I was supposed to go and cheer her on, but I hadn’t put it in my calendar, and therefor, I forgot–until the moment I saw her in the pool.

“Hey!  How’d it go?” I asked her.  She told me that she was disappointed in how she’d placed.  She was surprised at how competitive she was.  I empathized, agreeing how hard it is to swim next to someone without racing them.  We stopped talking, and she finished her set.  I started mine, and even though I tried not to, I couldn’t help racing her.  Even after we had talked about it.

She climbed out, and I got to work.  It was Wednesday, so I expected the Y swim team to join us and kick me out of my lane.  They were later than I had expected, but they did indeed come, politely asking me to move down a couple lanes.  I was in the middle of my third 100 set.

That race in my warmup set my pace.  I timed my first IM at 2.44.00.  That is the fastest I have swum it.  I didn’t want to erase that time.  I didn’t want to jinx it, so the next IM I swam, I not only didn’t time it, but I also intentionally swam it slow and sloppy.  My left shoulder was still bothering me from my last swim, so I didn’t push myself more than 1000 again.  I hope to swim again on Friday, increasing my yardage.