We had the swim-a-thon today. It works by people pledging money for each lap we swim. Each lap is there and back. 50 yards.
It's a fund raiser, see.
The maximum we can swim is 100 laps, or 5000 yards. About 3 1/2 miles.
Quite a ways.

I have mixed reactions about how I did. I did the 5000 in 1 hour, 15 minutes. I was 2nd, behind Blake. So I beat Nolan, and Carl, and other guys at LEAST 4 years older than me.
But, I think I could have gone faster. I wasn't dead at the end. And I needed to be REALLY REALLY tired. I don't think I was.

I can't really describe what it's like. I'm swimming, but not really paying attention to it. I don't even notice after a while. I completely zone out. I'm not really thinking, because right then I don't have much to think about. But I'm not really bored either.
I don't even notice my body after a while, or my mind. I'm gone, somewhere else. Some part of my mind is paying attention to who I'm passing and who's passing me. But I'm not there. There was a "we" mentality the whole time. There were actually two people. Me and my body. And I hated that body.

1st lap: Well, we're at the start of an adventure. Just one lap. And our goggles are already fogged up. Maybe we should go faster or something.

10th lap: One 10th in. This is the first of the 10 multiples of 10 we'll be doing.

50th lap: Well, I think we should push a little harder. We're not that tired. We're already 40 minutes in. Mr Hoot said so.

90th lap: 1/10th to go. I forget, how long was the first 10th? Oh, that's right. You never talk. Well, this is the second to last multiple of 9 we're swimming.

99th lap: 99. What an interesting number. It's our last multiple of 9. And of 11. I always love multiples of 11. But wait. 99 is also the last lap. Maybe we should go a little faster. Not fast enough. SPRINT! GO CHAD GO!

Finish. 2nd.
WE get out and change.
WE go into the weight room and do some special dryland excercises with Lee and Blake.
WE remember being flattered that we were second to Blake.
WE love having a private dryland with the 2 people on the swim team we respect the most.
WE finish dryland and go out and feast on oranges.
WE make a joke. Something about cookies.
Oh.
That's right.

WE work in the student store. We get a bag of three cookies for our services. When we grab that bag of cookies, usually while hurrying out and stuffing them in our coat pocket, we think "one for me, one for Lee, one for mom. And none for the little boy who lives down the lane."

WE merge back together again as one, after my body and my mind resynch.

I really do like Blake. He's a good guy, and I respect the hell out of him. He had a 1:20 on his 100 free going into high school.
That's slow.
I have a 1:01.
But then he really started trying. Then he actually went for it.
Now he has PNS times, Sectionals times, and Zones times.
He's going for Junior Nationals.

He's also the only person I've known throughout my entire time on the swim team. I came into lessons, taught by the swimmers.
Hannah up and left a few weeks after I joined.
Darren screwed Patty over, and she made him leave.
Erin left just last summer to go to college in New York.

Blake is the only teacher I had that has stayed the whole time.
Except Patty, I guess.
Even Christi and Lee, the new coaches, have been here a shorter time than me.
Patty's been here for 9 years though. WAY longer than me. Not a whole lot longer than Blake though...

Anyway, I'll be really sad when he leaves. I don't know what we'll do without him.

Well, anyway. Today was fun :D