Research says that life on earth may have begun in water. Sometimes I feel as if I were born in the water. I don’t remember a time that I did not know how to swim, although I probably did not start learning until the summer I was two. Water, wherever it is, pulls me like a magnet. I love to swim! I know there are others like me in their enthusiasm for swimming because I have met them. No matter how much I enjoy swimming there are some people who are even more passionate in their pursuit of this sport than me. Are you one of those people?
THE LAKE
Although I swim in pools most of the year, I have typically had one constant place to swim in the summer which is a lake. Growing up and even now, I swim in a lake in Ontario, Canada. The lake, in a regional municipality called Muskoka, was carved in prehistoric times by retreating glaciers. I feel lost when I cannot spend at least a little time each year swimming here; this place renews my spirit.
When I was young I took lessons at a club in Muskoka; then, in my teenage years, I taught swimming at the very same place.
There have only been three summers in my life where I could not swim through the cool waters in Muskoka: the first was when I had just given birth to my oldest child; the second when I was pregnant with my middle child; and the third when COVID locked down the world.
The summer after my middle child was born, I realized that swimming back and forth from the dock to the raft just wasn’t giving me the kind of swim I wanted. I had a bad habit of swimming extremely crooked, thus going off course. I bought what I call a “swim cord” and have been using one ever since. The swim cord is essentially a resistance cord with a loop at one end and on the other end there is an area for a water belt. The loop is attached to the ring on the dock, the belt goes around my waist, then into the water I go for a great workout!
During COVID, I felt like a fish out of water. Everything was closed. As the summer drew near, it became apparent that we would not get to Canada. I spent time pondering where I could easily swim. I thought perhaps I could swim in the little pool of water, created by a creek, about half a mile walk through the woods from our house. I looked at the trees to see if I could attach my swim cord and swim in place. Unfortunately there were two problems. The first was that I had left my long swim cords at our cottage in Canada. The second was the creek ran along a sewer line…in the end the idea was squashed.
SWIMMING POOLS
This past Christmas my husband gave me a license plate frame that says ” I love the smell of chlorine in the morning”; this was the perfect gift for me because for at least ten months out of the year I swim in chlorinated water…
In the winter, when I was little, I swam at a club named for the season. Not only did I swim there, but I learned to ice skate. I suppose if we had lived in Winnipeg long enough I may have also learned how to curl.
From the time I was six until just before I turned fifteen, I spent hours in a pool that was on a Naval base in central Pennsylvania; this is where I swam competitively. I have no idea how my parents found this place for me to swim or the team for me to compete on. Neither of my parents were in the military. I was a good swimmer, winning many races over the years. The smell of chlorine permeated my skin and hair. My blond hair always had a greenish tint. One day, in 4th grade, a boy walked past me in the library…the next thing I heard, was him whispering “Sarah smells like pee”. I knew the smell was the scent of chlorine; I was mortified! From that day on, I took a thorough shower which only lightened the smell. I stopped swimming competitively when I had back surgery at the age of fifteen.
Since my years at the navy base, I have spent time swimming in other pools: the old, not quite 25 yard, one at my college; YMCA’s in Pennsylvania, Washington state, and Massachusetts; then sometimes hotels where I attach my travel swim cord to the handrail of the stairs….
My “second home”
The pool I have belonged to the longest, is a fifteen minute drive from my house; it is part of an athletic club. By this June I will have been a member of this pool for 25 years. When I moved to the area In 1997, I was training for my first triathlon. At the time, there was only one place that had somewhere to swim year-round. When I joined this club, the pools were outdoors: two were 25 yards, one was for instruction and play, there was a baby area and hot tub. I was fascinated to find out that when the weather grew cool, all but one of these pools had a dome that went over top. Typically, the dome going up or coming down takes approximately a week.
I met my first friend at the pool when I was heavily pregnant with my second child. All the lanes were full. A tall, lean woman called to me and said “swim with me, you will be safe. I swim straight and will not kick your belly”. Over a period of months we became “swim friends”. I have made many swimming friends over the years. Occasionally, we take time away from the water to do something else.
When COVID hit, like everything else, my club closed. Luckily, the pool was the first part of the club to reopen. The swimmers were welcomed back before anyone else. Only the downstairs locker rooms that led to the outdoor pool entrances were open and only to use the toilet. The hours and procedures for swimming had changed. We had to reserve a lane for certain hour and there was a limited amount of time we were allowed to swim. We checked in outside, had our temperatures taken and headed to the pool. I was extremely impressed with how organized the managers made the “soft reopening”. Over the next several months the rest of the club reopened. I stuck to the water, my yoga friends were no longer at the club and I decided being near the chlorine was safest. I did not enter the gym until the beginning of last month (March 2022). At my club COVID changed things in a way I can’t quite describe. A place that I had spent hours at with my kids, by myself, and with friends, felt united in a way it had not before. Perhaps it was because there were fewer people or maybe COVID made people slow down and get to know each other.
When the dome went up last season, the pool was closed for awhile. I got a three day pass to another club. I dipped my toe in a different pool. There were many things I liked about this other place, but it felt strange. I missed my “home”, my friends, and was glad when my pool reopened.
I have been a swimmer forever! The sound the liquid makes when my ears are under the water is something I have always enjoyed. I like the feeling when I am moving through waves or a placid body of water. Life may have changed the speed at which I swim, but it hasn’t changed the way I feel about the sport. I hope to be able swim until the day I die…I love the smell of chlorine in the morning, but hate the scent that lingers in the afternoon!
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