When it started getting hot, I quit running.

When I quit running, I felt like a bum.

Then my friend Shannon invited me to her daughter’s pool party!

I wasn’t planning on swimming, but I wore my swim suit anyways. At this pool, which happens to be 2 minutes from my house, there are two lap lanes for adults only, which is really nice. When the lap lanes were empty, I decided to swim a few laps. I think I swam 6 and felt like I was gonna die.

But I wasn’t hot, I wasn’t sweaty, there were children happily playing in the background, and I suddenly decided that I liked swimming!

So I have been back to the pool several times to swim in the lap lanes, and I really enjoy it! And, just like running, I started to improve really quickly. Today I swam laps for 30 minutes straight (way more than 6 laps), then rested for 30 minutes, and then swam for 20 more minutes!

You can’t do that when you are running. You just have to keep going or you will be stuck in some random neighborhood 2 miles from home gasping for breath.

That was what always got me when I was running. I would think, “Well, I’m doing okay now, but if I run another mile away from home, that is ANOTHER mile I have to run BACK to home,” so I would turn around sooner than I really should have because I didn’t like the idea of there being no escape.

But with swimming, I am able to push myself “just one more lap” but then I finish that lap, and I think, “just one more,” and then again, and again, etc… I like that there is the opportunity for escape. It is easier to push myself that way.

So hooray for swimming! I will relish it while I am in College Station this summer, and will miss it terribly once the pools close and the running recommences.

PS: I wish more stores that are cheaper than Academy sold athletic one-piece swimsuits. The end.