My first 500 meter pool swim took me 22 minutes and I almost quit right there

Tbh three years ago I couldn't even run a block without wheezing. Last month I dragged myself to the YMCA in Portland and tried to swim 500 meters. It took 22 painful minutes and I swallowed half the pool. But last Saturday I finished my first sprint tri in 1 hour 48 minutes and I just wanted to ask who else started out barely able to do one lap?

2 comments

2 Comments

mila_sullivan4d ago

Gotta love that moment when you realize you're officially slower than a beached whale in a kiddie pool. I remember my first 500 meters, I thought my lungs were filing a formal complaint with my brain. Now I'm out here doing open water swims and still wondering if I'm secretly being chased by a shark or just really bad at pacing. But hey, at least we're moving, right?

quinnm904d ago

Ha! Yeah, I'm right there with you on the whole "my lungs are staging a walkout" thing. But here's what I gotta ask you since you've been doing this for a while now - does that paranoid shark feeling ever actually go away, or do you just learn to make peace with the fact that you might get eaten mid-stroke? Because I'm still at the point where every ripple in the water makes me panic.