Water Woosies

Today has been a less than stellar day...regardless I want to write about something positive, but hopefully not boastful. I need to go ahead and change my blog title to reflect something about running or being active. Several of my posts are about my attempts to become an athlete at age 28. Notice I said, “attempts." Who would read the running blog of a wannabe runner? I'm sure other poser runner people would understand.

In the past 2 weeks I have had 2 people ask me if I was a runner. My first reaction is to laugh...really hard... but somehow I manage to choke back and just smile and say, "Well...I try." Then there's this magical moment of me wondering what about me made them think I was a runner??? Dang do I look in shape?? Neh....

The first lady was a nurse at the allergist. She took my pulse and it was a whopping 46 beats per minute at 9am. She did a double take and quickly asked me if I was a runner. I told her I ran some and she seemed to relax. Apparently people that run are calmer and have lower pulse rates. It's likely because I only drank one cup of coffee that morning and I was technically still asleep. Or I was holding my breath in anticipation of all the needles I was about to be stuck with. Either way.

The second time was this morning when I went for a swim. My blog is my confessional...so here you go people... I am afraid of the water. Not so much of drowning or getting it in my ears or up my nose, but the fact that I struggle as a swimmer and I cannot take failure. I've been working on my swimming since the first triathlon in June. I went ahead and signed up for the second one in August despite my water woosies. Today I was swimming next to this beast of a lady who easily swam like 4 miles and made it look effortless. When I came up for air I just gawked at how easy she made it through the water. I did 35 minutes in the pool and then on my way out she stopped me. "You're a runner aren't you?" My jaw dropped. This crazy athletic woman recognized that I run...OMG!!!! My gold star for the day!! Then she politely informed me that most people that run point their toes down when they swim...big "no no" according to my swim instructor. Dayum.... Come to find out this lady is a certified triathlon coach, has done 3 Ironmans, and is on her way to doing a fourth. That's like 140 miles of swimming, biking, and running people. She confessed to me that her workouts were getting boring but her race was getting closer. She complemented my stroke and breathing...big surprise there... but the biggest thing that struck me was that she held no reservations in telling me that she was 36 when she started training. She also told me she had only been swimming for 8 years. For some odd reason...this gave me hope. I'd really appreciate some prayers over the next week for a strong finish...mainly that I just come out of the water.