I\u2019m always up for a new challenge, so why had I not tried triathlons already?\u00a0 I\u2019ll tell you why not.\u00a0 Swimming.\u00a0 It\u2019s scary.\u00a0 You actually have to put your face under the water, where you can\u2019t get oxygen, which is necessary for breathing, while exerting extensive amounts of energy at the same time.\u00a0 That\u2019s just dumb.\u00a0 But ya know what\u2019s even more scary?\u00a0 Admitting that I\u2019m going to try to do something that I really, really suck at.\u00a0 I\u2019m exposing my weaknesses.\u00a0 I\u2019m declaring to everyone that sees me, this is something that doesn\u2019t make me feel strong, in fact, it makes me feel incredibly vulnerable and insecure.<\/p>\n
Walking in to the pool that first day, I felt like a first class loser.\u00a0 I felt like everyone was going to be looking at me\u00a0wondering \u201cWhat in the world is she doing?\u201d\u00a0 And I\u2019m not just talking about my swimming technique, or lack thereof. \u00a0I\u2019m also talking about the fact that I know nothing of pool etiquette.\u00a0 I am going from the realm of running, where I feel like I can hold my own; to\u00a0the realm of the great unknown.\u00a0 How is it that my best friend was a college swimmer, and I know absolutely nothing about the sport? Nothing other than the name Michael Phelps, that is.<\/p>\n
As human beings, we have this tendency to shy away from things we aren\u2019t good at.\u00a0 But here\u2019s the thing\u2026if we haven\u2019t ever done it before, we\u2019re not supposed to be good at it.\u00a0 Everything takes practice.\u00a0 Everyone has to start somewhere, whether that\u2019s swimming or running or what have you. \u00a0I\u2019ve taken almost a full hour off of my marathon time from my first to my best.\u00a0 That didn\u2019t happen overnight.\u00a0 That happened over the course of 7 YEARS. Granted I had 3 children during those years, but still, it took a while. \u00a0And none of my children came into the world knowing how to walk, or talk, or feed themselves.\u00a0 It was a learning process.\u00a0 A long, messy, some scraped knees,\u00a0lots of tears and frustration, process.<\/p>\n
The good news is, in just a few weeks, I\u2019ve come a long way with swimming.\u00a0 I feel 100 times more confident in the water.\u00a0 And I can already tell my stroke is way more efficient than the spaztic splashing I called swimming not that long ago.\u00a0 I actually believe that when I get to Racine for that 1.2 mile swim in July, I\u2019m not going to feel like the complete disaster that I was in Lake St. Louis. I\u2019ve actually made progress, because I tried.\u00a0 I still won\u2019t be the fastest or the best one out there, but who cares?!\u00a0 There\u2019s always going to be someone better than me at most stuff.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s my point\u2026when we face the things we\u2019re afraid of, or the things we just don\u2019t know how to do, we find out that they really aren\u2019t that scary after all. We just have to take a deep breath, get out there and try. The scarier part is exposing ourselves as less than capable at something, less than perfect.\u00a0 Well, I\u2019m calling it out.\u00a0 I am WAY less than perfect. \u00a0(Imperfect People Unite!) There are lots of things I don\u2019t know how to do.\u00a0 But I\u2019m not going to let any<\/b> kind of fear stand in my way of trying!<\/p>\n
Something Coach Andy says to me is, \u201cBreathe as often as you need to.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0That\u2019s a good thing to always remember.\u00a0 Because sometimes life is just a series of deep breaths\u2026<\/p>\n
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