After 13 years of poolside cheering, we are learning how to applaud in the woods and on the track. Familiar with the essentials of swimming, we know all the cheers. “Kick,” “Send her,” and “Get a good turn” are part of our competition vocabulary. Now we are on the fast track to learning land race lingo.
Gwen discovered swimming in second grade and immediately fell in love. Her devotion to water was all consuming. Season to season, she went from outdoor pool to indoor lanes. In third grade, she spent her days learning cursive and her evenings studying starting-block form. In high school, she was in the pool year round, six days a week, twice a day. I suggested she spend more time having fun, enjoying high school’s social opportunities. She told me she was doing just that – in the pool. There was nothing she would rather do than pull water in the same 25-yard lane, over and over.