Swimming
Now that I'm not a competitive swimmer, the pool looks like an adventure.
The pool was a regimented place. Rules and regulations. When the gun goes, we spend 3/4s of a second on the block reacting, another quarter of a second suspended, and then we hit the surface of the water and it begins. We glide til the momentum is lost, and we're at the deepest, and then we begin the dolphin kicks to regain the momentum and gather energy for the first launch to break water. Ideally this is between 10 to 15 meters - too close to 10 and we are not efficient, too close to 15 and we might have lost too much time gliding. This underwater phase is about 5 seconds long, and if all goes well it takes me another 10 butterfly strokes, that's 23 seconds, to hit the end of the lap. It is 200 meters, and I need to conserve my energy for the other 3 laps. After that, it's approximately 15, 18 and 20 butterfly strokes per lap, hopefully with the time of 35 seconds, 40 and 45 seconds.
Now...
I see the suspension of the breathless waves, and the light as it hits the surface of the water. The light glides, turning, roiling over itself, and the pool vibrates with an energy that doesn't quite release. It is a captured body of water, after all. I see the shadow of my hand as it hits the water - first it's blurred - then it takes form as it does the s-pull. Then the other hand. And the droplets of water that sprinkle on the surface arrive with little ringlets of circular shadows that expand outwards there, there, and there. And there. My bubbles travel upwards, as they should, a continuous stream, growing bigger and bigger until they connect with the surface and break free. Some stay just beneath the surface, waiting a little longer. And when all my air is out, and my lungs are empty, and I feel the all-too-familiar pressure under my ribcage, I stay at the bottom of the pool, and watch the last remaining air bubbles escaping out of the little air sacs in my nose. One.. and another.. as it floats gently, searching, buffeted by the water waves and reflecting the light from the surface.
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