Summer 2015: Day 47

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The crush of busy that is preceding my work trip to Las Vegas in two days is becoming a little more pronounced. My boss is bringing everyone to Vegas for an annual conference/gathering – just one day of work and two days of fun – and inviting the spouses, so Lori is going too. We have a sitter watching the boys, and though we love them immensely and will be on vacation with them a week later, we are so looking forward to this trip without them. But we still have much to complete before we go.

The wrench we encountered today was a rare Thursday swim meet. This was a relays-only event, meaning it was different than the normal meet. And Lori and I were part of the meet as well, not volunteering as timers (though Lori helped with that), but actually swimming in a family relay with the boys. I opened with a 25 backstroke, Lori swam a 25 back and a 25 breaststroke, the boys swam the breast and butterfly, and I followed up Ben’s 25 freestyle with a 25 free of my own.

We were predictably slow – well, at least Lori and I were slow. I thought I swam my backstroke well, but miscalculated how many strokes I needed to make before touching the wall and lost several seconds (I swear, I was at least near the lead for the first 20 meters – about halfway through I was kicking so hard that I was wondering when it would end). When it was my turn for the last leg of the relay, the lane next to me had a 4-year-old boy swimming. He started before me, but Ben had stormed back on his 25 free, leaving me with the prospect of passing this kid on my last leg. I looked up at about 15 meters to see I had pulled even with the boy, who was working so hard, so I stopped and encouraged him along. We finished at the same time. The meet official joked with me afterward that she had to DQ me because I started walking. She didn’t know that I was so tired at 15 meters that I might have done that even if I wasn’t trying to pass the kid next to me.

The boys swam well the rest of the meet, and I actually got some work done when I wasn’t cheering them on. Lori and I were happy to set an example for the boys – we aren’t great swimmers but we gave it a try knowing it was going to be difficult. (and she’s talking about going back to swim workout again, something I’m never going to do: I’m a runner at heart). We went through the Wendy’s drive-thru on the way home, and I got a Baconator. I felt I deserved it …

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