So I competed at the YMCA's Summer Olympics this past two weeks. There were eight events in all, and I did three.
Last Monday was the mile. I jogged along nicely until midway through lap 3, when a pain in my calf seized up and gave me the "what up!" The good news is I improved on my River Bank Run time by over a minute, coming in at 14:02. I was the only female Y member to compete (employee/trainers did the event seperately), so by default... I won?!
The bad news is, this event enforced the fact that I still hate running. The only joy I got out of it was being done and knowing I completed it.
Monday was the 100 yard swim. I have had no swim training outside of getting tossed in the drink as a kid and instructed to move as fast as I could to keep from drowning. I know I would love to learn to swim without getting water up my nose without a nose plug. Michael, who was handling the timing, had no advice for me, since he was no swimmer either. He hit the button and I was off.
I went as fast as I could, using a butterfly backstroke, as best I can describe it. I felt fantastic, having been in the pool warming up for about 30 minutes. My time? 2:43, also known as take the world record, and add two minutes. Oh well, I'm 41 and competing in swimming for the first time ever. The event is still going on (it's individualy timed for the convenience of members), so I'm still waiting to see how I finished.
After I was done, I felt exhilirated. It was a great workout, and felt like I cleared some cobwebs out of my head, and even felt some joy in the melodic rhythm of my body fluttering in the water.
Cheered on by my activity, I was encouraged to enter one more event for the hell of it, so I agreed to the 10K bike race on Tuesday. All I had to do was ride a stationary bike for 10K, or 6.2 miles. and of course the only bike open was one with a broken TV. Good thing too, I was completely focused and posted a pretty competitive time of 25:20.
What was amazing was how I felt. I felt powerful, energized, FIERCE. Doing the mile, I just did what I cold to get through it. The swim was a loopy, casual what-the-hell. The bike, if I had someone next to me, would have been blasted off the track. I was racing to WIN.
And as far as I know, I was the only competitor in this event as well. A win is a win is a win.
So I still hate running, but think I could cross train for skating with swimming and biking. And it felt GOOD to be good at something other than skating, just to say I did it.
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